Religious & Political Tensions in Fandoms – Tommy Oneto – Final Project

I chose for my topic to focus on soccer fans from the countries of Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. For this project I wanted to showcase how the tensions between fans in these nations give a look into the political and religious hostilities in the region. For Scotland, I primarily focused on Sectarianism that is shown in how fans of teams interact, primarily between the Irish-Catholic descendent fans of Celtic FC, and the Protestant fans of Rangers FC. For Ireland, and Northern Ireland, I also focused on Catholic and Protestant tensions, but with the addition of Irish Republicanism and British Loyalism.

Using the tool, Omeka, I was able to create a website that people can look at on their own time that makes the argument that Football fandoms can showcase historical political tensions between groups of people. I hope that it was able to convey that argument to the best of my ability.

Overall, this project has made me view fanbases, not just in soccer, but in all sports, completely differently. I wasn’t aware of how much politics can be seen in sports, especially in rivalries of local teams, and it has made me view fandom in a new lens that I quite frankly wasn’t look through before.

Here is the link to the website: https://onetotj.omeka.net