a discriminatory policy. Notwithstanding this, Sugden and Bairner (1994) argue that it would still be difficult for Linfield to sign a Catholic from a nationalist area, due to the problems this would cause for the player. 4.8       Bairner and Shirlow (1999) highlight the role that football grounds play as venues for processes of identity formation and cultural resistance, in that for young Loyalists, the imagined community of Ulster as a Protestant place becomes more real through expressing their affiliation to a Protestant club. According to Bell (in Bairner & Shirlow, 1999, p.162) in doing so, they struggle "to resolve at the level of the imaginary, the real contradictions confronting the Protestant working-class in contemporary Northern Ireland". Bairner and Shirlow (1999, p.162) posit that by supporting a Protestant team these individuals attempt to defend their home territory and "this reactive defensiveness is part of a more general 'siege mentality' which afflicts the unionist population and which derives from a sense that everything around them is undergoing fundamental and irrevocable change". 5. Conclusion 5.1       This paper has highlighted the extent to which particular clubs in Scotland and Northern Ireland have been and continue to be used by various social groups for the expression of certain elements of their identities. It is evident that football provides an arena for these processes at regional, national and international level, yet in this instance the emphasis has been on relatively specific local political, religious and ethnic antagonisms. The clubs which today exhibit the strongest politico-religious traditions