Spectator Sports
Though watching, discussing and betting on sport is as much of a pastime in Belfast as anywhere else, you'll find very few locals expressing especially passionate opinions about the city's teams and players, with the notable exception of boxing. Indeed, when people watch sport here, it's usually the televised variety and attendances for most events are relatively small, an indifference which applies equally to the North's national teams. Nevertheless, if you're interested in attending a match of whatever kind, there are plenty of opportunities and the Belfast Telegraph usually has the details. The Northern Ireland football (soccer) team has not seen anything approaching glory since its astonishing performance at the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain when it defeated the home country 1-0 in Valencia. Sadly, the superb George Best, the "Belfast Boy", who was the toast of Manchester United in the 1970s, never graced such a stage. Internationals are played at Windsor Park (the home ground of the Linfield club) near the Lisburn Rd (bus #58 and #59 to Lower Windsor Avenue). The biggest club sides in Belfast - paradoxically enough - are Glasgow's Celtic and Rangers, supported respectively by Catholics and Protestants, as well as Liverpool and Manchester United; the city's pubs are packed out for major televised games. If you'd like to see the local teams in action, bear in mind that Irish League football is a major sectarian bastion. The last regularly successful Catholic side, Belfast Celtic, resigned from the league in the late 1940s after players were assaulted on the pitch, the result of one fulfilled threat too many. More recently, the police refused to allow local amateur side Donegal Celtic to play a cup match against Linfield (whose supporters are known as the Billy Boys) on their own ground for fear of sectarian violence. Other Belfast league clubs and their grounds are Crusaders (Seaview, off Shore Rd; bus #7-#11), Glentoran (The Oval Redcliffe Parade; bus #16, #20-#22, #24 down the Newtownards Road to Dee Street) and the surprising 1998 champions, the Catholic-supported Cliftonville (Solitude, Cliftonville Road; bus #35). Since football is the Belfast sport, success at both hurling and gaelic football has been lacking and County Antrim has never won either All-Ireland Senior Final, although hurling is undergoing something of a revival. You can see both sports most weekends at Roger Casement Park, on Andersonstown Road (bus #14, #15 and #90), where the Ulster Hurling Final is held in July. Belfast's rugby hero was Mike Gibson, Ireland's most-capped player, and top-class games are played by the Malone club at the park named after him off Woodstock Road (bus #33 and #34) and by Collegians at Deramore Park, Malone Road (bus #70 and #71). Major athletics meetings take place at the Mary Peters Track and in early May the streets are cleared for the Belfast Marathon . For many, Belfast's boxing success will always evoke 1980s' memories of Barry McGuigan (actually born in Monaghan); big fights take place at the King's Hall, Upper Lisburn Road.
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