Fans celebrate the Republic of Ireland's win over Portugal at the Aviva Stadium in November. Why does the Government deem it proper for RTÉ to boycott the Eurovision but not for the FAI to boycott its Nations League matches against Israel? Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA
Captain Boycott is not the skipper of a football team. He is not a golfer. He has not been invited to Washington for St Patrick’s Day. He neither sings nor skis down snowy slopes at breakneck speed. Yet his name is plastered all over the billboards for soccer’s Nations League, golf’s Irish Open, the White House shamrock ceremony, the Eurovision and the Olympics.
As the country that coined the verb “to boycott”, Ireland has an especial attachment to it but the ubiquity of the word is threatening to dilute its potency. To boycott is to ostracise; a message devised and transmitted by people power.
So much warrants boycotting these days that the catchcry has become a catch-all for eschewing everything from avocados and shampoo to Tesl
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