This post has very little to do with rugby (there is some connection), but I lost the plot after reading about David Frost’s ‘speech’ on Tuesday, in which he repudiated the world-beating, superfantabulistic deal that he and Spaffer Johnson negotiated and signed with the EU less than a year ago.
These morons have no understanding at all of Northern Ireland, and nor do they care to understand. They seem to be only listening to the DUP, who are in serious decline, and whose worldview is anathema to most of the population – a population who you will remember voted against Brexit.
Why do people vote for them, you ask? It’s not because they like them or agree with their politics or religious fetishes, but because they are (were!) afraid of ‘Them-uns’ getting in instead.
It’s true that the Republic of Ireland was rather priest-ridden in my youth, but those days are long gone after the Magdalene Laundries scandal and other events; meanwhile, you will still find signs on the roadsides in NI proclaiming things like FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH, and other lovely, inspirational messages, while abortion remains next to impossible and same-sex marriage has only recently been forcibly imposed by Westminster. Many people in NI who might previously have supported unionism are reconsidering on the basis of these changes and non-changes.
The Belfast / Good Friday Agreement has effected an amazing alteration in the physical and political landscape. Gone are the metal detectors and the tanks of my youth; in their place is a vibrant (yes, an overused word, but it fits here) downtown Belfast, with plenty of two-way cross-border traffic, a great food / café / arts culture, and a general air of tolerance and co-operation. People in East Belfast are learning Irish and playing GAA sports.
Northern Ireland has seen some empty supermarket shelves, but primarily in those retailers who are English-based. Other businesses have adjusted, and are buying in from the Republic and the wider EU. There haven’t been any petrol shortages.
(As for ‘sausage wars’, no honest Irishperson buys the clearly inferior English sausages. Irish sausages are gorgeous, and almost certainly have a lower sawdust percentage [citation needed].)
So along comes David Frost, with the DUP cooing in his ear, to assert that the Northern Ireland Protocol – which, remember, he negotiated and signed and proclaimed to be the greatest deal ever – is not fit for purpose, mostly because it exposes that NI, which remains in the Single Market, is prospering much better than the rest of the UK. And he wants to scrap the whole thing, putting the entire peace process into question.
So in other words, the DUP would prefer to have the Northern Irish people suffer the same privations as those on the island of Britain, because that would make them more British.
It seems that most Northern Irish, of whatever persuasion, don’t agree. They seem to prefer the all-island approach that is clearly advantageous.
And here’s where rugby comes in. Rugby has been an all-island sport since partition, and has seen a massive benefit from that: not just in trophies and matches won, but as a unifying factor. (Football has been divided, with little success for either country.) Ulster has its nine counties, with Tommy Bowe, for example, from County Monaghan. We have punched above our weight for such a tiny country in which rugby isn’t even the second or third sport. We have, in good GFA tradition, fudged the ceremonials by doing two anthems. It might not be ideal, it may irritate others (sorry!), but it’s the best we can do for now, and it works.
The likes of Frost and Johnson are careless of this carefully-built cooperation, and willing to destroy it all on the altar of their own egos. They are willing to send us back to bombs and threats and check-points and feel-ups and knee-cappings and murders. They are willing to divide an island – yet again – that their predecessors have ravaged and pillaged and planted and starved. They are the greatest argument for a united Ireland in my lifetime, and I expect now to live to see it happen.
Onna telly this week
Friday 15th October
| Ulster v Lions | 19:35 | BBC2 NI / RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Dragons v Stormers | 19:35 | BBC2 Wales / Premier Sports 2 |
| Sale v Harlequins | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 16th October
| Zebre v Glasgow | 13:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Brive v La Rochelle | 14:00 | FreeSports |
| Wasps v Exeter | 15:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Ospreys | 15:00 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Montpellier v Clermont | 16:00 | FreeSports |
| Leinster v Scarlets | 17:15 | S4C / TG4 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Edinburgh v Bulls | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Munster v Connacht | 19:35 | RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Cardiff v Sharks | 19:35 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Toulon v Racing 92 | 20:00 | FreeSports |
Sunday 17th October
| Bath v Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 | ||
| Lyon v Toulouse | 20:00 | FreeSports |
Ovally Balls 
Good on you, Thaum!
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Whew, I thought everyone was hiding behind the sofa!
Now come on the boys!
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I should add that I wrote this before the murder of David Amess, and I hope that it’s clear that I don’t advocate violence against anyone.
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TRY Timoney!
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Doak falls victim to commentator’s curse and misses the conversion (just).
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Thaum – what did you make of Ian Paisley Jnr’s attack on Johnson’s relationship with trust and truth?
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Well, first I was distracted that he doesn’t have his old man’s Ballymena accent. Then I was disgusted by his apparent approval of outright lying to Parliament and the country to win an election. He talked some other bollocks as well – let me have a look and see what it was.
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golly – weekend already!
“Your” Exeter side to face Wasps in cultural appropriation showdown:
Hogg, Nowell, Slade, Hendrickson, Cordero
Skinner, Maunder
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oops, cont’d:
Hepburn, LC-D, Williams
McCauley, Hill
Ewers, Capstick, Simmonds
Yeandle, Keast, Nixon, Witty, Armand, Sam H-Clyne, Simmonds, O’Flaherty
A rare sighting of Nowell to look forward to. Should be a good game.
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Well, I’ll watch the video again if I remember once the match is over – press reports don’t mention whatever I was thinking of!
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Lions get s a try while I was distracted by dinner.
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Slade – is Jonny G still injured?
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TRY Hume!
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Doak makes no mistake with the conversion this time, from almost the same place. 12-7.
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Huh. Lions must have got a penalty while I was feeding the dog. 12-10 at HT.
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EW Viljoen whacked it over from near halfway, thaum. Only caught the Doak conversion and on. Lions doing ok keeping the ball but not much else. Seems as if Manny Rass is off. One of my favourite players.
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I’d just like to say that that is the best atl we’ve had in our many incarnations
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Ticht! That is very kind, but … not even close.
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And props to the RTE commentator who’s learned how to pronounce the Lions players’ names pretty well.
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Addison’s just sustained another bad injury.
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Thaum, I really like Deebee’s travelogues and the rugby ones, but there is a time and a place to stand up and be counted, this is one such time.
Kudos
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17 – 14 to Sale v Quins, two tries apiece, Sale a little fortunate to be in that position I think
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TRY Rea!
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Switched to Drags v Stormers on the laptop. 10-9 at the start of the 2nd half.
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@Borderboy
J Gray, Street and Vermeulen are still recovering from operations.
Nowell just back for a probable brief sighting; Sam Skinner nearing match fitness.
Townsend now out until next year, Devoto and Kirsten injured – other being rotated -all good for the young/fringe players of the future.
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These Lions are a bit of a pain in the arse.
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Taine Basham having a great game. Just ripped the ball off Evan Roos and ran away. Ref was in the way so he handed him off. Whistled back for a scrum for the Dragons.
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thaum, Deebee is entirely representative of the Lions organisation and its fans.
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Basham got MotM last week, I think.
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TomP, Deebee probably lunches with them regularly.
And I was amused by a forward being called Basham.
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Signs not looking good for the Dragons. Defending well, but they’ve hardly got anything going in the second half and any Stormers scrum is going to be a penalty.
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There’s an English one called Josh Basham, also a flanker.
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Or now maybe a try as they’ve called a scrum from a penalty close to the line.
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BP TRY for Timoney!
I was wondering who Ulster’s replacement hooker was, and immediately decided he was never Irish, despite being fair-haired (and what hair) and blue-eyed. It is Roberts, and he’s a Saffer. He’s not doing badly, mind.
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I mean, he’d look totally comfortable as a Toto band member.
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Finally, the Stormers get over. Basham bashed Roos again with a superb tackle. Warrick Gelant puts in a delicate grubber and Leolin Zas scores.
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Drags ultimately manage to defend the scrums (there were about five with a couple of penalties though they were maybe unlucky not to get a penalty themselves off the first one). It does them no good as they knock on when they finally turn it over and the Stormers but a little kick through and score. This looks like it’s only going one way.
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The contrast between TomP’s and CMW’s posts about the Stormers’ try is why I love youse all. :-)
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The 50-22 thing is maybe encouraging the kicking of the ball a long way. It might just be what South Africans and Sam Davies would be doing anyway though.
Marginal calls all going against the Dragons this half.
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Mannie Libbok puts a penalty over. 17-10 to the Stormers.
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Shanahan nearly fucks it up at the end, but Ulster manage to keep it to 26-10.
We are top of the tables and missing a good many players, including most of our major ball-carriers. Team of kids, who have done well. Plenty of mistakes, but results are are results. Proud of ’em.
We may come very unstuck when we face other competition.
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Dragons play to the corner. Line-out 11 metres out, 3 mins left.
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Sam Davies battered in a tackle. Scrum to the Dragons.
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Oh, the Dragons. Not good at a scrum and Leolin Zas punts the ball downfield and a mess up by Josh Lewis and Zas picks up and scores his second.
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“Sam Davies battered in a tackle. Scrum to the Dragons.”
The two weren’t related as it was obviously a knock-on. Even a Dragons scrum in the Stormers 22 turns out to be a Stormers advantage as it goes loose, they kick ahead and score a scrappy try at the other end.
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24-10 to the Capetonians. A good end to their visit to Europe.
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Looks like we’ll probably have four of the bottom six or seven teams. Shame with it being back on proper telly, didn’t really matter that much the last couple of years.
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CMW, at least Wales do more than okay, you don’t have to go through your club sides getting humped and your national side getting battered too
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Sale/Quins was a belter of a match. Sale just squeaked it, right at the death.
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Sale won 28-22 btw,
I knid of lost interest and tried to superglue middle daughter’s favourite mug which I shattered into a dozen pieces earlier.
I should have waited until the wine wore off, I made a right pig’s ear of it
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