They designed it to provoke but to be honest guys throwing rocks and "getting the boys" is, I think far more than they expected. They did try to explain it was a joke, and to be honest the really funny thing would have been if nothing happened.

Which might well have been what they were expecting.

As to the whole football thing. We have a saying.

"Don't talk about religion, politics, or football."

I think though that if you went to Cornwall with a St. George's Cross Flag and a slogan saying, "All Cornish are pointy-heads" you'd be ignored.

The Catholic-Protestant thing is a bad comparison, considering we've only recently wound up a religious war.