Notre Dame Fighting Irish sorry for advising fans travelling to Belfast not to wear Irish symbols

A US ice hockey team has apologised after deleting a tweet which advised fans travelling to Belfast for a game “NOT to wear” Irish symbols on their jerseys in case they caused offence.

And the move came after the University of Notre Dame, whose sports teams are nicknamed the Fighting Irish, had released a special ‘Irish’ jersey ahead of their vist to the city.

The squad are due to take part in a four-team tournament in Belfast with three other US university teams at the end of November. The ice hockey team posted on X, that the guidelines “were not properly reviewed and should not have been posted”.

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In the original post on the Notre Dame Hockey account on X, the team offered guidelines and “a reminder to avoid our Irish symbolism, that may be deemed offensive to some, while out around town”.

In an accompanying graphic, the team advised fans not to wear green clothes or anything with shamrocks, leprechauns or the Irish flag. It also said fans should not wear any clothes with the terms ‘Fighting Irish’ or ‘Irish’.

Notre Dame merchandise commonly features those terms, as well as a leprechaun, which is a mascot of their sports teams. Later on Tuesday, the BBC reports, the X account said it had issued the guidelines “out of an abundance of caution”.

“Our game in Belfast is meant to bring people together and build bridges through sport, we apologize to fans and to the people of Northern Ireland for any confusion or offense.”

Notre Dame is one of the United States’ best known universities and has a long association with Ireland. The Catholic institution was founded by French-born priest Edward Sorin, who arrived on the site of the future university with eight other priests, some of whom were from Ireland.

Notre Dame teams have often travelled to play games on the island. Its American football team took on Navy in front of more than 50,000 people in Dublin last year.

Their ice hockey team will face Boston University, Harvard and Merrimack College in the Friendship Four tournament in Belfast next week.

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