is characterised to some extent by a similar, yet also distinctive, pattern of social relations, and thus social identities in these societies are multifaceted and constructed from a relatively specific combination of ethnic, religious and political attributes (Jarman, 1997). In order to demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between football and social identity in these countries, this paper will firstly provide an exposition of theories of social identity and an analysis of the construction of 'established-outsider' relations and notions of the 'self' and the 'other'. The remainder of the paper will then show how social identities are specifically constructed and articulated within the societies under focus and how supporters of specific football clubs in these nations operate as 'imagined communities' (Anderson, 1991) through their collective social, political and religious identifications. By focusing on the antagonisms between Protestant and Catholic clubs in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the paper will also highlight how the social, religious and political identities of the followers of these respective clubs are both underpinned by and, in turn also influence, the wider pattern of relations between the two groups in these nations. 2. Social identity and the construction of imagined communities 2.1       The most substantial contributions to the study of identity have grown out developments of Social Identity Theory , which was pioneered by Henri Tajfel and John Turner in the 1970s (Abrams & Hogg, 1990). Tajfel defines social identity as "the individual's knowledge that he/she belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to