Wondering what I might write about today I clicked on the Irish Times, hoping to find an upbeat story somewhere.
Anything at all, except the banks, the recession, the revolting civil servants.
There’s a picture of the Glorious Leader on the Irish Times website. Walking in front of a tram, head down, hands stuffed in his pockets, shoulders slouched.
Even his body language is getting the country down.
Further down the page, a headline caught my eye. Under ‘Popular Stories’, the first link is to ‘Ambition and belief, it’s all back.’
Probably yet another article about that speech, I thought, but I clicked anyway.
Instead, the link led to an article about the Ireland France game.
In summary, while the match promises a good run in the Six Nations over the next month, it’s a case of A Lot Done, More To Do.
Meanwhile, the soccer internationals are readying themselves for Wednesday’s game against Georgia.
Somehow, I can’t work up the same enthusiasm.
The Irish team may win or lose, but I can’t shake the feeling that either way, they will do so without passion.
Because what mattered wasn’t that Ireland won on Saturday, but how they won.
It was pretty brilliant (and how I envy you your place at Croker!). Italy, eh: slow start, but the expected result. First 6N our youngest has had the patience to really follow. Roll on the 28th, it’s high time he learns a bit of reflexive anglophobia.
On the day Ireland shut down France’s every strength, Georgia effortlessly gutted the German XV in what people are apparently now pleased to call “6 Nations B”. No surprise there, of course; but by the time the youngest and his cohort are in their 20s, I’m confident Germany will be able to hold its own against the Georgias and Romanias of Europe, if not against the more senior sides. And I’m hopeful the youngest will be wearing Germany’s no. 15 shirt (if Ireland Exiles are too shortsighted to have picked him up…)