Not that I care but he seems to consider himself British so I’ll go with that.

British when he’s winning and Irish when his doing bad I bet

Who cares, he’s a golfer.

No option for Northern Irish no….as the man said himself – he is from Northern Irish! At the end of the day….who gives a damn….he just won the US Open at 22 years of age, has a long and victorious career ahead of him, and to top it all of….is a sound and down to earth guy….

He’s northern Irish. So he British obviously. It doesn’t matter what people consider him to be, that’s just a fact.

He considers himself British and surly, it’s no one else’s business but his own.

He has said before, he has a British passport and is from Northern Ireland and will be representing his country in the Olympics as part of team GB in 2016.

i thought the journal would be above all this national identity drivel …

Well, I guess it all depends on whether he is a Catholic or a Protestant, doesn’t it?!

What a ridiculous poll. Seriously, what does the poll aim to achieve, Hugh?

He’s both. He is from Ireland, not Great Britian. However he is from the UK part of Ireland meaning his nationality is British. Remember even Ian Paisley will claim to be Irish – but a Irishman who is British, just like a Scottish person is both Scottish and British.

Anyways, well done Rory! A great day for Northern Ireland. No one will begrudge the North a day in the sun.

Is the Olympic team not called The united kingdom of great Britain and northern Ireland? So that obviously includes McIlroy. But He’s Irish, but northern Irish.. just as everyone from republic is Southern Irish and Olympians represent team Republic of Ireland.

Doesn’t really matter at the end of the day, he’s a top golfer who played out of his skin, who proved to himself he could do it after the debacle in Augusta. He made us all proud whether Irish or British.

No question, he’s Irish.
Amateur Golf in Ireland run by the GUI which is an all-island organisation. McIllroy played for his club, hiw provance Ulster and also Ireland throughout his stellar amateur career.
Now as a pro whilst correctly playing and representing Northern Ireland it was from an all island grass roots system from whence he came.

Depends on what’s written on his passport.

Did anyone see last night, some bloke threw a tri-colour to Rory last night as he walked up from the 18th having just won. What a ridiculous thing to do-What did he expect Rory to do?!

He’s from Northern Ireland = he is British. His father carried the northern Ireland flag not the tri-colour.
Simple lads. Well done to him a great achievement. It’s funny to see our media trying to claim him as Irish.

He’s an Irish golfer. The GUI covers the island of Ireland.

He’s Northern Irish, hence British.

Some in the golfing world would regard him European which is also through.

Bizarre!! How can Rory McIlroy be British ??? He wasn’t born in Britain !
He is a citizen of the United Kingdom, but unless he was born on the neighbouring island its impossible for him to be British.
The qiestion does not make sense.

Don’t ask Joan Weatherstone she thinks he’s English lmao!!

Once again the media try and Warp what is a fantastic day for Northern Ireland, to have 2 US open champions represent their area is superb. G Mac was gracious in defeat and how better to remove your title than to give it to one of your best buddies… Irish or British, no matter, a great day for golf. :-)

I now Rory is top news right now but who cares about his nationality? Must be a slow Monday!!!!

He is from Co.Down in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, not Great Britain. Technically this poll is wrong because being British refers to being from Britain(England, Scotland and Wales)

Congratulations to Rory! He did the British Isles proud

http://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/76572291/Getty-Images-Sport

Seems pretty clear to me………

I don’t know who else noticed someone threw a Tricolour at Rory as he was walking in and I thought this was in bad taste as he has always been above the politics and always says he form Northern Ireland and given the treatment Eddie Irvine was given but the narrow minded tugs when he won a GP Rory is right to stick with the NI flag. I just hate when people make an issue out of where he’s from or which side is he on.

It doesn’t matter whether we consider him British, Irish, French, Polynesian or whatever – his national identity is up to him and him alone and it would seem that he refers to himself as Northern Irish. What a pointless poll.

I say he’s a human. A denizen of Planet Earth. And well done, lad!

Well, after seen him throwing the Irish flag away when a fan gave it to him last night kind of made my mind up!

He has chosen his citizenship as British as he has a british passport and Northern Ireland is part of the UK. BIt funny listening to people saying he was representing his country-by this they mean Northern Ireland but the country ,the island and his ethnicity is Ireland or Irish as there are no no Northern Irish embassies around the world .
The Golfing union represents all of Ireland and thats where he started not over in Scotland Wales or England.
Well Done to Him as an Irishman from the Island of Ireland

This is McIlroy and McDowell – playing for Ireland, under the Irish Flag, at the World Cup in China in 2009. As report by a British paper. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/europeantour/6645597/Rory-McIlroy-excited-about-World-Cup-challenge-despite-losing-Race-to-Dubai.html

and I quote: ‘…The 20 year-old said: “Obviously we are playing for our country, which is a huge honour. It’s my first taste of the World Cup and I don’t think there should be any reason why I shouldn’t be motivated… There are a lot of good teams this week, but we know we are one of the favourites. It would mean a lot to win. We play a lot of individual golf, but getting a chance to play with a partner and representing your country and some of the great champions that have won this tournament, it would be a special feeling….’

Tempted to stop reading thejournal.ie – this poll is absolutely ridiculous. It’s childish tabloid journalism, the sole reason for which is to elicit an immediate knee-jerk reaction. It’s such a pity because most of the articles on this site are excellent. Just because people are talking about something doesn’t mean it deserves credence or column inches.

He’s Irish in the sense that he’s a native of the island of Ireland, he’s British in the sense that he’s a citizen of the United Kingdom. He could claim citizenship of the State of Ireland, but he hasn’t done so. “We” have no claim over him.

I had the first comment on this article, where is it gone?

Ooh, contentious Journal! This always happens with NI sports people.
It goes back to the issue of categorising people as this or that; English / Irish, Black / White, Muslim / Jew / whatever!
Differentiating people in any way is what divides people, causes wars, genocide, xenophobia.
We are all people and it is clearly more beneficial to focus on our similarities rather than our differences. :-)

My tuppence worth for a crappy non-story poll on a slow news day. I consider him Northern Irish. What he considers himself is up to him. Legally (as per his passport), he is a UK citizen. He’s not from England, Scotland or Wales so he’s not really British. FWIW, when I was at school I got a student identity card. I put Anglo-Irish as my nationality – they weren’t impressed but couldn’t find a reason to bar it. So… you are what you say you are. Unless, of course, he starts losing. Watch the ‘British’ media call him Irish!

Rory McIlroy. 99

Poll. -25

Pleasantly surprised to see the third option is in the lead! Fair play to the lad!

Its interesting but not surprising how many freestaters forget that people from Fermanagh, Antrim, Derry, Armagh, Down and Tyrone have the option of electing for either Irish, British or both Irish and British citizenship. Under the Good Friday agreement this right is guaranteed. I have many friends from Derry City, Co. Tyrone, South Fermanagh, West Belfast, South Armagh, South Down and north Antrim who would be highly offended to be categorised as British. They all have Irish passports and are extremely proud to be Irish. What is even more interesting is that these people are a lot more Irish than many of the freestaters posting messages on this website.

A person born on the island of Ireland on or after 1 January 2005:[3]
is automatically an Irish citizen if he or she is not entitled to the citizenship of any other country;[4] or
is entitled to be an Irish citizen if at least one of his or her parents is:
an Irish citizen (or someone entitled to be an Irish citizen);[5]
a British citizen;[6]
a resident of the island of Ireland who is entitled to reside in either the Republic or in Northern Ireland without any time limit on that residence;[7] or
a legal resident of the island of Ireland for three out of the 4 years preceding the child’s birth (although time spent as a student or as an asylum seeker does not count for this purpose).[8]

He is not an Irish Citizen, he is an Irish person though.
Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_nationality_law#At_birth

BORN IN ENGLAND English. BORN IN WALES Welsh. Born in Scotland Scottish. Born on the ISLE OF MAN Manxs. Born on the island of Ireland Irish !!!! And while I’m at it ,fair play to Sky T.V . in their news coverage last night they said Irishman Rory Mc Ilroy has just won the U.S. open.

@hugh, i dont think it’s the question on everyones mind weather or not the chap is irish or british, i think whats on everyones mind is a sportsman acheving greatness in his profession. I think Most people Would like to congratulate him & his staff for his professionalism & effort. first and foremost he his a human being with feelings. I find the journal.ie a great news medium but i must admit that imo you ran the wrong debate today.

According to Sky Sports – he was labelled ‘Brit Rory McIlroy’

As he holds a british passport He Is British. But well done Rory

alex higgins, dennis taylor, george best, eddie irvine, rory mcollroy . all great sportsmen from northern ireland , hard enough trying to be the best in your carreer without having to worry about nationality or politics.

I’m just disappointed that the Journal seems to be willing to compromise journalistic integrity for the sake of site hits.

Looking at the comments here and on Facebook it seems clear to me that your readers don’t want a tabloid.

Paddy Barnes from Belfast, remember him? A proud Irish man like many others from the northern 6 counties. Paddy won gold for Ireland at the European Boxing Championships in Moscow in 2010.

The real question is what nationality andy Murray is and what nationality he’ll be when he gets knocked out of Wimbledon?

I think there are 2 things that clearly identify a person’s nationality – the passport they hold and the flag they identify with. Rory is clearly British on both levels. However, I would agree with numerous other comments that this is poor fare from journal.ie, who I fear are becoming increasingly tabloid and sensationalist.

Seeing as the English can claim Bono, Terry Wogan, Bob Geldof, etc, etc as one of their own, let’s claim him as Irish!

Who cares, he’s from (both) our sides of the pond and on our Ryder Cup Team and the best golfer to come from ANYWHERE in a long, long time…..

Where’s the Northern Irish option, why does the poll have to be so black and white?

Why bother humoring this pathetic argument? It doesn’t matter what nationality he is. Rory McIlroy is a good golfer and a nice guy who obviously worked very hard on his game following his capitulation at Augusta. That is why I was happy to see him reign supreme at the US Open.

The identity crisis which people on this island always get entangled in has led to violence in the past and only serves to drive the two different nationalities in the poll above further apart. If you need a nationality or someone’s beliefs to correlate to yours in order to gain satisfaction from their success, then you are pretty pathetic.

Who cares, he’s a winner!

Once again, The Journal outdoes itself in another tabloid-esque, controversy-stoking, and embarrassingly lame attempt to drive traffic to its site. I, for one, am beginning to tire of this drivel.

He is also an Ulsterman!

Dear Journal,
The next poll should be a poll about polls. Question, should we put a. interesting polls on a weekly basis based on the top or most contraversial event of that week, b. daily pointless polls of little interest, c polls for the sake of having polls, d no polls at all?

Everytime I meet a person from Northern Ireland or the North, or Ulster or the 6 Counties I don’t feel the urge to clarify their political and cultural allegiance. I take the person for who he or she is. I thought that we had grown up in recent years and learned to respect both traditions on the island. If Rory is happy to be British, then so what, we would be wrong to force a nationality on him. That’s what the Brits did to us for a few hundred years.

Ridiculous poll. Why ask the question – do people feel they should celebrate more if he’s considered Irish? Pathetic.

This is such a pointless debate. If McIlroy delared himself to be from the UK would people stop supporting him or have less regard for his achievments?
It’s disappointing that the Journal would resort to such a lowest common denominator journalism

Talk about unnecessary stirring of the proverbial.

taxi for hugh o’connell

:)

I would call him north western Irish lol
If people wish to identify with being northern Irish than I could identify with being called eastern Irish which is quite amusing.
On a more serious note I would be interested in being considered Leinster Irish. I am from Dublin so from now on I consider myself to be Leinster Irish. The province of Leinster has the largest number of counties numbering 12 in total.
when you here someone talking about ‘the province’ you would think they are talking about Leinster but that is not always the case. In fact when you hear people talking about ulster they may in fact only be talking about part of ulster something that needs clarifying. If Rory wishes to be considered British that is up to him.
It would be better for his pocket to run with British.
It would be better for his community if he called himself ulster Irish. And let’s face it it would be cooler if he identified with being Irish in a global sense. But I believe his agents and pocket will be the deciding factor.
But it’s none of my business it’s totally up to Rory.
I believe myself that a lot of british passport holders consider themselves to be Irish. Just look at the huge numbers in England Scotland and Wales that tell you they are in fact Irish.
I am a western European lol
A Kerry man will tell you proudly he is from the kingdom and is a munster man now that’s pride at it’s best.
Che Guevara the Argentine Marxist revolutionary I am told was an irish man how cool is that. Think of all those tee shirts and living up to his rebellious tradition it must be in the blood. In fact it’s very hard to imagine how Rory could ever be anything but Irish considering that unlike El Che he was in fact born in Ireland. But in the end I’m sure that at least half of northern irelands people will be thrilled with the results. Whatever happens I wish him well. The Russians after all love Russia.

Just heard today that Padraig Harrington missed Mass last weekend and left before communion the previous week – surely that casts a big shadow on his 3 majors?

Hugh – just because this gets some responses doesn’t mean a whole lot – the Sun is the biggest selling paper in the UK so that tells you all you need to know. Personally I think you should take this whole thread down as it makes the Journal look pathetic. A guy practices day in day out for 18 years to get to this point and you guys are concerned with his religion?

Born on Irish soil he is Irish

He supports the Irish rugby team, so that’s enough for me!

sorry only read half the comments above but he is not Irish nor British but northern Irish, I’m sick to my back teeth of peopl stating that the six countries are Irish or British. its northern Ireland,

I wonder is it only us lads that get uptight enough to comment on these matters! It seems the girls have better things to do!

He’s Northern Irish. He was born in the country of Northern Ireland, which is on the Island of Ireland, therefore he could be seen as Irish, he was also born in the United Kingdom, which also could also classify him as British, but he chooses to be regarded as Northern Irish, as do many who come from Northern Ireland.

I find this poll deeply troubling; what business is it of ours? He can be whichever he decides, or both, or just “Northern Irish” and that is his decision to make.

let us celebrate the fact that a man who is living on the Island of IRELAND has just won the U.S Open. !! Congratulations Rory and here’s to a future full of many more majors, winnings and happiness.

Who cares!!!! The young man did brilliantly,he won the US Open and sports should have nothing to do with politics,he is a credit to his parents who worked so hard to fund his ambition,and he just won the US Open Golf,
Nationality wise you can call him what you like but in his mind and in mine he is a Golfer on the International Circuit,Well done Rory.May you have many a great Tournament.

Such a trite and moot discussion. Do the prolies here seriously think that a young man who has just netted $1.44m actually gives a monkeys about a debate on his nationality? I don’t think so either.

Hugh, your a clown.!!

Well why don’t RTE and other outlets give northern Irish athletes in similar positions the same coverage like Wendy Houvenaghel or Jenna McCorkell to name two off the top of my head. Houvenaghel is a pretty successful cyclist and gets zero media attention south of the border.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is from the Queens own peoples Republic of the British Isles and Rockall, subset Ireland sub-subset Northern-Ulster-Ireland thingy!!!

That makes him a Brit-Paddy-SUFTUM-Ulsterian-Mick-NorIron’er

Pretty disgusted readership in general here Hugh. I suggest the editorial team has some lessons to learn as to the standards of journalism expected. Naughty step for two minutes please!

He’s British by choice, as he and his family have stated… and thats grand…. Why the hell has he played for Ireland in the world cup of golf, under the tricolour that he discarded lastnight, under the GUI…. It matters little or nothing, but I’m curious as to why??

I am delighted for the guy, regardless of where he’s from.. he handled himself with great maturity

I think there should be a poll “Should Hugh be allowed make the polls anymore” And the options are 1- Irish, 2- British, 3- the journal is wasting its journalistic talent with rubbish polls.

I honestly used to come here to avoid this kind of journalism. It’s shite Hugh and you probably know that yourself. Not coming back here.

He’s a free man and is not anyone’s to claim ownership of- like a son who won the school sports day

The brit six county flag which rory Mcilroy’s father held last night is illegal under the terms of the good friday agreement because the brit crown is on that flag- we voted for equality- the crown does not allow catholics- follow the law-

These comments about the journal’s journalistic integrity and snipes at Hugh are silly. Previous articles about Rory had comments from readers debating his nationality & how it would be represented or claimed. That detracted from the articles being about Rory’s great achievement. The journal has provided a poll which allows people to have that debate here and leave the other Rory articles free for other types of comment and praise for Rory etc. It is very obvious from the title what this post is about – if you don’t want to read it, don’t. The same goes for any other article. To say you won’t read the journal again because you chose to read an article you knew you wouldn’t like seems daft to me.

Who cares who his stance in life is, the very best of luck to Roary and his family, what a magnificent win for him. All I can say is, he’s made us all proud whether your an Ulster person, English or South of Ireland. i for one am from the South of Ireland and my great grand uncle was the great Harry Bradshaw… We all wish Roary the very best of luck in his future golf career!

“Pass. I’m Northern Irish, I hold a British passport, so there you go.”

anyone else feel thejournal.ie is turning into after-hours (boards.ie) ?

Who cares !!!!!
Irishman Rory Mc Ilroy has just won the U.S. open.

Who cares what passport he holds, born on the island of Ireland. Well done Rory.
Irishman Rory Mc Ilroy has just won the U.S. open.

Irishman Rory Mc Ilroy has just won the U.S. open. I rest my case.

He is British. Can’t believe how many think he is Irish.
Bit sad really.

He’s both! Same way people born in Scotland are Scottish and British, … There are two countries on this island how do people not see that?! He was born in Britain on the island of Ireland… He’s both…

Why is one of the options not both Irish and British?

And the answer is ……..

-16

“But at the end of the day, I’m Irish. I mean, I’ve got a British passport, but if you’re from Ireland, north or south, you’re Irish. And ‘British’ is. . . such a nondescript thing, isn’t it?”

Eddie Irvine, 1995

the way.i.look at it he could have chose to represent the republic in the 2016 Olympics but he did not, i know a few Londoners who are born to Irish parents want to represent the republic in the Olympics in 2016! so for me i consider him British

What a petty poll. What relevance does this nonsense have to sport? He’s Northern Irish, leave it at that. Ridiculous. “Everyone’s mind”…not mine, thanks.

Did McElroy not say in the article that he has a British passport?! Did McElroy not say that he would play for team GB over our great nation?! There you go, the kid answered our question himself. If he doesn’t want to be Irish, feck him. We got pádraig harrington!

I would say he falls between two stools, he represented the GUI when playing amateur golf, he probably feels he is British though because of his upbringing, but so what he has represented both very well, we as a country speak the English language, support English football teams with huge passion, sometimes we can be as bullish about been Irish as the English are about been English.

Sad to see that Irish people have become so cowed or diffident that they can’t even publicly identify themselves as Irish. But , I guess if he did that it would make him a terrorist.