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Celtic Tiger McIlroy poster boy for peace in Northern Ireland

Golfing prodigy grew up Catholic in Protestant suburb


Published Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 5:53 PM
Updated Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 12:01 PM

 

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Irish golfer Rory McIlroy
Irish golfer Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy, the 19-year-old golfing sensation who played in the U.S. Masters this week, represents the best of post-conflict Northern Ireland.

Raised as a Catholic, he grew up in a mainly Protestant Belfast suburb called Holywood, and attended a non-denominational school.

Non-denominational schools are the exception in Northern Ireland as schools are still highly segregated, even since the 1996 Good Friday peace agreement.

This segregation extends to sports which are often played along sectarian and class lines. To simplify greatly: Catholics follow the Irish sports of hurling and Gaelic football and support the Irish Republic’s soccer team. Working-class Protestants support the Northern Ireland soccer team while middle-class Protestants play rugby and cricket.

But McIlroy, one of the hottest golfers in the world, has achieved that rare feat: everyone in Northern Ireland, both Protestant and Catholic, wants him to succeed.

The young Belfast man has never showed much interest in religion – he once complained how religious studies in school bored him – and even less in politics.

McIlroy, who won his first major tournament in Florida at the age of nine, has always been driven by a passion for golf.

And his parents, who recognized that their son was a golfing prodigy, supported their only child every step of the way.

The story goes that as a youngster, McIlroy used to practice his golf shots by chipping the ball into their washing machine.

At one stage, his Dad Gerry worked three jobs to support his son, including tending bar at the local golf club. Gerry's 90-hour weeks helped pay for a 1,200sq ft floodlit putting green in the back garden . His Mum Rosie worked nights in a factory job and the family didn’t take a proper holiday for seven years to keep Rory’s golfing career on course.

It wasn’t just his parents who saw his potential. His former school principal at Sullivan Upper, John Stevenson, gave McIlroy permission to leave school before he turned 16 even though he was a good student. Stevenson told Sports Illustrated, "It was clear that golf was his path." 

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Posted by jimmyanderson on Nov 07, 2011, 08:16 PM EST
Rory, All the very best in the world to you. and it not what you are..it is who you are.
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Posted by quixotic on Jul 03, 2011, 11:46 AM EDT
Good story.
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Posted by Realist on Jun 26, 2011, 02:07 AM EDT
murfinNY: "no self respecting catholic from N.I. would consider themselves Northern Irish"? What a truly offensive and ignorant remark. Please explain - if you can.
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Posted by murfinNY on Jun 22, 2011, 07:59 PM EDT
no self respecting catholic from N.I. would consider themselves Northern Irish,we are proud to be Irish.
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Posted by Aughavey on Jun 21, 2011, 06:16 PM EDT
murfinNY - it`s not for you to decide who and what people are. They clearly consider themselves Northern Irish. Any it`s the Northern Ireland flag - the 9 County Ulster flag has a yellow background.
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Posted by murfinNY on Jun 21, 2011, 01:09 PM EDT
It made me sick to see Rory's father a northern catholic draped in an ulster flag.He must have brought it over with him as i have never seen one in america.I know he was raised in a protestant area but please Rory stop the N.Ireland nonsense and admit it you are Irish.
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Posted by Kilsally on Jun 21, 2011, 06:53 AM EDT
The schooling system in Northern Ireland is exactly the same as in England, Scotland & Wales where ordinary state funded high schools are open to all ...and then you have state funded Catholic schools run by the Catholic church. If there is segregated schooling then it is because of the Catholic school system since the Protestant denominations like the rest of the UK handed over their schools to the State when the government introduced free schooling for all in the early 1900`s.
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Posted by Aughavey on Jun 21, 2011, 03:55 AM EDT
Sloppy journalism to say the least " and attended a non-denominational school. Non-denominational schools are the exception in Northern Ireland". You have State non denominational schools open to one and all which are attended largely by Protestants plus ethnic minorities as Roman Catholics send their kids largely to state funded Catholic schools which are run by the Catholic Church. The Protestant schools gave their denominational schools over to the State at the same time it all happened in England, Scotland & Wales in the 1920`s. Leaving aside the Catholic schools there are perhaps half a dozen denominational schools in the whole of Northern Ireland nowadays that attached to evangelical Christians with only a few hundred pupils in total. The other school sectors are Irish language schools (largely attended by Catholics / Nationalists), integrated schools which are mixednon denominationals (well meaning but if Catholic kids were sent along to the other schools with everyone else the whole system would be integrated) and then the Grammar schools where kids have to pass a test to get in(Catholics ones and non denominational ones). Rory went to a non denominational Grammar school.
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Posted by roibaird on Jun 20, 2011, 05:21 PM EDT
to all you "would be" know alls..............get this-----------the fact that Gerry,Rory's dad, was shrouded in the Northern Ireland flag upon Rory's win says it all!!!!! Rory is a true blue Ulsterman !
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Posted by joemac57 on Jun 19, 2011, 09:01 PM EDT
well hello to all here-an american by birth-Irish by choice- I am and happy as all getout for Rory,a better spokesman for the game and Ireland I havnt seen-I've never had the priviledge of visiting Ireland and definately wouldnt care to comment on the woes or cheers of ant country I dont live in and there are sure enough plenty of points of discussion here where I live but on this day Im proud as all to have the Heritage i have from the Old Country and wish Rory and you all the best. Celebrate the Man he sure has earned it!!!
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Posted by Liamkeyes on Jun 19, 2011, 11:10 AM EDT
I am among the first to congratulate Rory McIlroy. However, I do not understand how The Headmaster allowed him to leave school early. An education for education's sake. It would be a pity if golf is the only thing that he can discuss.I am aware that he will make loads of money and all that but there's something to be said for having an education. Maybe after he makes his First 100 Million Quid, he made return to school f or a few semesters.
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Posted by seamusmoore on Apr 28, 2011, 08:50 AM EDT
!@ranger1640 CORRECTION laddie: you follow SOCCER, not football, as we call it in America. To quote WFAN (SportsTalk Radio 660AM in NYC): When the history of mankind is written, the British Navy must be taken to task for two heinous crimes against humanity, spreading syphilis (that would be from your sheep-shagging lowland Scot planter ancestors)and soccer to the rest of the world. Perhaps you don't understand the "special" relationship between the USA and the UK, we tell you to JUMP, and you respond HOW HIGH! That would be because the US saved your asses when The Crown's "kraut cousins" tried to do a hostile takeover of merry Old England in the early 1940's. We were happy to help you lads a favor and exhibit some degree of loyalty.out and, unlike the frogs, ye know how to return a favor. No charge lads, cheerio!
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Posted by hancock on Apr 10, 2011, 11:09 PM EDT
All the crybabies are Irish or Brittish.
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Posted by nicgearailt on Apr 08, 2011, 09:32 PM EDT
leave this fellow alone...he is a talented golfer,whose parents made huge sacrifices ,so he could work on his golf...he is 21 years old....is clearly talented...just sit back and enjoy the results.... a rare talent,who works hard at making the most of his gifts....he's to be appreciated..
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Posted by ranger1640 on Oct 10, 2010, 02:22 PM EDT
"Non-denominational schools are the exception in Northern Ireland as schools are still highly segregated, even since the 1996 Good Friday peace agreement"! “Working-class Protestants support the Northern Ireland soccer team while middle-class Protestants play rugby and cricket”. Where did these statements come from? Rory went to Sullivan Upper a grammar school, a school open to any religion or non so long as you passed the entrance exam!!! Segregated schools!!!! There are 4 types of school in Northern Ireland. State schools open to everyone, then there are integrated schools open to everyone, then there are grammar schools open to everyone who passes the entrance exam. Then we have the catholic maintained sector, were as the name suggests they are only open to roman catholic’s as with the gaelic sports. So the only segregation in education and sport in is in the biased roman catholic education sector. The only sector resisting that schools become non denominational, and therefore integration of children in education is the roman catholic sector. Surprise surprise???? Most of this article is a lode of tosh; I came from a working class protestant background and attended a state secondary school, where I played rugby, cricket and football. Now I follow rugby, cricket and football.
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Posted by citizen69 on Jul 17, 2010, 05:53 AM EDT
Why does it always seem that the most narrow-minded people who comment on the Irish troubles on this site are Americans? They obviously have a very blinkered view of the whole situation.
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Posted by wizardofoz on Jul 16, 2010, 08:33 PM EDT
Oh boy….What bitter wee creeps you two auld Anglophobes truly are! Get a life!
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Posted by Bushothehill on Jun 20, 2010, 07:12 AM EDT
I believe this talented golfer has sold out his national and religious background to accomodate his thirst for greatness. If memory serves me correctly, he recently made a statement: I would like to play for England!!!
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Posted by GeorgeDillon on Jun 19, 2010, 07:52 AM EDT
This guy sounds like a real bore--all he's interested in in the whole world is beating a small ball around the place. Not much in that head, I'd say!
 


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