That equally means absolutely nothing does it? I'm sure he was proud of him playing for Ireland why wouldn't he be?
Still...he played for Ireland at every level and now he's binned them to play for England. Which tells you basically everything you need to know, still i'm sure his Dad will keep that jersey, maybe he'll hang his first England jersey next to it...
Maybe he will but unlikely for the same reason. From what I've heard, my understanding of the situation is that his dad is Irish and was extremely proud of his son representing Ireland. It was telling that whenever Rice discussed his conversations with the international managers it was "My dad, my brother and I spoke with Mick/Martin" and "I spoke with Gareth Southgate".
I don't know the family at all but if true, I can completely identify. I am Irish, my kids weren't born there but I would be extremely proud if any of them ever represented Ireland in anything. But, if it was at the expense of being as successful as possible in their chosen career, I would advise against it.
What grates me about all of this is those that oversimplify with "it's obvious now he never wanted to play for Ireland". It is not obvious at all. "He's born in England so he should play for England" is very easy to say when you have a strong economy that doesn't force people abroad to make a better life for their family.
Fact is, at this moment, the Ireland team is absolute dogshit and England have a genuinely fantastic generation of players coming through. It made it an extremely easy choice. A few years ago, it wouldn't have been even nearly as straight forward.