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 
That video clip is one of the more moronic things I’ve seen
LikeLiked by 1 person
Which video clip?
We really need Boa here to confirm whether concrete can be grown.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That from an Edinburgh and Scotland Rugby fan.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, limestone can be replenished naturally, but the timescales are considerably longer than may be considered useful, altho I expect some dickwad will come up with a method of making “carbon free” concrete using nuclear power and recycled plastics, if they haven’t already.
LikeLike
SBT, I was in Congo-B a few years ago and were visiting the port at Pointe Noire to see what kind of handling capacity it had. They were loading huge numbers of logs onto a ship and the government twerp was beaming about how logging was renewable and sustainable because they replant trees for every one they cut down to replenish the stock. The guy I was with said to me later “so is diamond extraction, if you’re prepared to wait long enough.” I thought it was a good point. Oh, and this mob are talking about carbon negative concrete:
https://carbicrete.com/
Cement-free, carbon negative concrete! Uses steel slag instead!
LikeLike
LikeLike
So Rassie on the carpet for ‘videogate’ next week. Interesting piece below, that the video was apparently first publicly aired in Australia (suggesting Erasmus didn’t put it out). So did Nic Berry release the video? Or send it to someone in Australia who leaked it? Nigel Owens adds to the debate by saying that a coach once sent him a video with 48 complaints about his decisions! So sending a ref a video is nothing new, apparently. Also, World Rugby actually agreed with 23 of his 26 complaints in any case.
One thing that is indisputable (in my opinion) is the water boy antics – I would rather have World Rugby explicitly ban that, than carry on with this charade 3 months after the fact. And all the physios and other support staff patrolling the perimeter shouting instructions to the players or arguing with the referees. That’s cheap shit.
LikeLike
Would be more interesting if I provided the ‘interesting link below’ I suppose!
https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2021-10-24-gavin-rich-world-rugby-old-guard-to-try-save-face-in-erasmus-hearing/
LikeLike
World Rugby move slowly, DeeBee, it was well over a month after the fact that they fined and reprimanded Mark Dodson of the SRU over the scheduling fiasco at the Japan world cup, and the main sticking point was the wording of the statement, the SRU wanted some kind of recognition of a mistake on the part of World Rugby – not a feckin chance of that happening of course.
LikeLiked by 1 person
England looking ominously good in the tournament so far. Blew away the Windies and now strolling to victory against Bangladesh. The Proteas will need to beat England to have any chance of making the knockouts. Which they won’t. Probably a small mercy, given de Kock-gate. I simply can’t understand why he won’t take the knee.
LikeLike
Scotland getting stuffed early doors by Ireland-slaying Namibia. They’re 6/3 after 3 overs.
LikeLike
That’s not too bad a team. Apart from the second row. Eek.
LikeLike
Excited to see what McLean can bring
LikeLike
A flashing smile?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Chrissakes Deebee
LikeLike
Just realised Darcy is at FB. This should be an interesting game.
LikeLike
Namibia thrashed Scotland at the cricket. Should be a comfortable win for the Tartans inna rugby this weekend. Pity Wales don’t have a sacrificial side to boost the rugby team.
LikeLike
Cricket doesn’t exist in my world.
LikeLike
T20 isn’t cricket , Thaum.
LikeLike
I’ll take your word for it.
In fact, you can expect a new ATL on sports-that-aren’t-rugby-union later this week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLike
I like T20.
LikeLike
One of the greats of Scottish and B&I Lions rugby died yesterday.
Sandy Carmichael RIP.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Probably the first Scottish player I can recall…. usually announced by Bill McLaren as “Alexander” Carmichael when teams were read out…..
LikeLike
Thaum – hahahahaaaaa. Not in the same way as trees. What an eejit.
LikeLike
NSFW
LikeLike
Using that idiot’s logic, cement grows too! You take limestone, partially crush it, cook it, add gypsum and other chemicals, then cook it again, crush it, maybe add flyash as an extender and yay! you’ve grown cement! Or more accurately, you’ve baked a lovely bag of cement. Also cars grow! Take all the components and add them together and hey presto, a freshly grown car!
LikeLike
Need 23 more comments to deliver us from that pic of Joe Marler. 22 after this one. Come on folks, GROW THE COMMENTS!
LikeLike
It’s the shamelessness and fragility of these types that gets me. He could just have acknowledged that he miss spoke, but no, can’t admit he’s speaking donkeybaws, he’s got to try and come out on top and it’s some kind if conspiracy.
LikeLike
Anyhoo, off to grow some input to a project onna computer I grew from a seed using power grown from one of those electricity growing places.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wales Online is, respectfully, breaking wind with that side – Ken Owens has withdrawn with Ryan Elias into the starting XV and Cardiff hooker Kirby Myhill on the bench.
LikeLike
” Kirby Myhill”
Sounds like a village in the Cotswolds…. close to Nempnett Thrubwell
LikeLike
Near here, we have Bishop’s Itchington and Long Itchington. My mother went into hysterics when she saw the road signs and said, ‘Tell the bishop that if it wasn’t so long it wouldn’t itch so much.’
LikeLiked by 4 people
refit: that Wales team is brave. Brave is not what you want when you play the blackness. I would prefer words like competent or competitive, but those words ( and team) are not available. Probably a supply chain issue.
LikeLike
Pffft. A team stuffed full of lionz. They’ll stuff the overrated ball sacks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
or this: “Pffft. A team stuffed full of lionz. They’ll stuff the overrated ball sacks.” It’s probably this isn’t it.
LikeLike
“Sounds like a village in the Cotswolds”
Not convinced. Reasonably confident that most British Kirbys (which will generally be Kirkbys) are to be found from the North Midlands upwards particularly Yorkshire and Cumbria.
LikeLike
It’s the team we’ve got and will have to do.
LikeLike
Not particularly convinced that Kirby Myhill will do well against the ABs either, but good luck to him.
LikeLike
@CMW – yeah agreed. Long ago, I played a fairly rough round of golf in Kirkby something (probably Stephen) – greens were rectangular and had thorny wire to keep the sheep off…
Presume Kirkby indicates the farmland around a church….. ?
LikeLike
It’s the team we’ve got and will have to do.
Brave.
LikeLike
This will end well….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/59068709
Times like these I wish the Cat and Sag were still here. They would have had a field day with this.
LikeLike
BB – oh dog. How I wish we had their, erm, opinions on this.
LikeLike
I’ve shared it with Cat on Twitter. I shall report back if he has any comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
50 shades post?
LikeLike
Speaking of 50 Shades, there was a woman in Norn Iron who wrote a (short) parody of the book in Belfast dialect. Quite amusing. Apparently she started it on Facebook after reading the monstrosity that was the original, and was egged on to continue.
Here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/15755227-50-shades-of-red-white-and-blue-a-parody
And in my research to find that link, I discovered that that they did a play based on it! The horror.
LikeLike
@Thaum – the original genesis of AoD. Cat’s Haskell diaries.
LikeLike