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 
It’s almost good, but any slight offset is compounded with each piece you glue back, so it looks good apart from the last piece which looks like it came from a different mug now
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You might have to wait until they employ you at the Repair Shop.
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” you don’t have to go through your club sides getting humped and your national side getting battered too”
Looks at Wales’ upcoming fixture list…
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I managed to replace the pump in my washing machine this time last week when the Ospreys got stuffed. Not going to do anything like that just now as it’s my birthday.
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To add insult to injury the Stormers’ coach thought his team were playing the Ospreys tonight and said so twice when he was interviewed during the second half. Probably why they won.
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And no, it wasn’t my stuffed osprey that was blocking up the washing machine because I haven’t got one. Which isn’t to say that I wouldn’t want one, just that nobody’s thought to get me one. Looks like the wait goes on another year…
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Clyde’s birthday present….
For next year
https://uk.livingnatureworld.com/products/osprey
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And Happy Birthday Clyde!
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Well why wouldn’t anyone want one of those, looks absolutely perfect. Thought I might have to go to Loch Garten to get one, but I guess the internet’s a wonderful thing…
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Thanks BB. And thanks for the ‘here’s what you could have won’ picture. They actually got me a rucksack and a water bottle. Not sure how well my ‘just what I wanted for my birthday, an empty bottle’ comment went down…
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Happy Birthday, CMW. May all your bottles be empty!
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It’s your birthday CMW?
Many Happy Returns of the Day
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There was talk this week that the South African teams would have to play their home games in Italy. They still might but for the moment in November and December the games are to be held in RSA.
Feel very sorry for Zebre who have a 1 o’clock kick-off in Durban in December. That could be very very warm. The Indian Ocean will be lovely, mind.
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My lad was at a birthday party today in a nearby park. I had a couple of library books that I wanted to return so nipped off to the library down there. It’s a pleasant building – and the great Frank O’Connor was the first librarian there – and stands next to the RDS. I got childishly excited to see some of the Scarlets back room staff leaving the RDS grounds and going back to their hotel.
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“May all your bottles be empty!”
All my whisky bottles are empty (most of the ones still in the house have been turned into lamps). Having to settle for a G&T.
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“I had a couple of library books”
Lucky you. Discovered today that The Little One won’t be getting any reading books (the sort of first reading books you get when doing phonics) from school during Reception and we will only get them online. The school library also remains closed as it has been since the start of the pandemic. Not impressed and I think Mrs CMW and I are going to take this further.
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“All my whisky bottles are empty”
Now that is cause for lament.
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Tam, to be honest of the teams who might be troubled by a hot Durban climate, Zebre will the the last of those, their travails will not be heat-based.
Likewise Edinburgh when we get there.
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As you would expect being migratory birds that winter in Africa it’s not the climate the Ospreys struggle with. It’s the dangerous wild animals.
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Well, you’re right about that. They aren’t a strong side from what I saw last week. But it’s really hot and really humid. It won’t be fun.
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@Ticht – I was in Morrisons earlier and there wasn’t anything I wanted at a decent price. Still would have bought something, but there is an opportunity to go to Waitrose tomorrow as it’s just round the corner from where The Little One and then The Eldest have their dancing lessons.
The mother-in-law would have sent me a bottle of Springbank in the past, but she’s struggling to get about these days.
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CMW, in the Czech system they don’t much bother with reading until kids go to school at 6 – Year 2 in England – and neither did we, although we read to him quite a lot. He’s on the phonics books now (he’s just turned 7 a couple of weeks back) and can’t say I’m impressed with them.
As for your daughter’s school, it sounds like a pisser.
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btw, Paddy Moloney RIP
The Chieftains were one of the pioneers, I read someone say that they dug the track, put down the hardcore and tarred the road for Irish musicians to make their living in the USA, Europe and elsewhere.
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@CMW, I bought a bottle of Aldi Islay, seventeen quid, I reckon is a young Caol Ila, though of course I might be wrong.
For the price I thought it was really good, and if you don’t like it, it makes a great mixer with coke.
I’m going to try their Speyside tomorrow
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@TomP – It wouldn’t be our choice for school to start so young, but we are where we are. It’s hard not to feel that phonics at least to some extent is a pile of sh-i-t though I get that it ultimately works, just not that it should be seen as the only thing.
I can’t be having to read all the puff crap from the school about instilling a love of books and reading if they send the child home to read from a screen and deny them books. They didn’t for the other two. We’re awaiting an explanation from the Reception teacher (the LSA handed The Little One over today to Mrs CMW who expressed her displeasure on reading the stuff about the ebooks that was in her schoolbag) and we’ll see where we go with it from there. If we have to we’ll buy the books ourselves rather than work with the online versions, but if we get to that point we’ll be making some unpleasant smells. If it turns out to be down to money then the governors will be getting asked some questions about how much was paid to the previous head teacher while she was on gardening leave while under accusations of corruption and what her settlement was when she left. I suspect the former came from the school’s budget and the council paid for the latter, but of course it’s all shrouded in mystery even though it should be a local scandal (there was another headteacher she worked for previously that was also got rid of at the same time but also almost certainly paid off). Any non-corporate fool could see she was a complete and utter charlatan the moment they set eyes on her, barely had to even wait for her to open her mouth.
The school are a bit wary of Mrs CMW, they seem to struggle with the combination of forthrightness and Scottish accent. I get the impression they think I’m nice. One of these things might be about to change.
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With primary school kids, and secondary for that matter, make sure they can do the reading riting and rithmetic, then make sure they are having fun, but not necessarily in that order.
School politics suck, as do inter-parental politics at primary especially.
The most important thing, in my retrospect, is to keep your kids happy and fun-loving
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@Ticht – I agree entirely and hope that that’s what we’ve done so far. The Little One is learning to read though and we want her to see that (at least to start with) as something you do through books rather than computers. If the school want to make an argument for the opposite then I’m happy to hear it out, but I’ll be surprised if it aligns with anything else they have to say.
I have nothing whatsoever to do with inter-parental politics and will have nothing to do with the PTA etc other than spending money at the events I end up having to go to. I do do quite a lot of school runs these days so talk to other parents while waiting outside, but if anyone’s scoring points etc then it’s lost on me. Mrs CMW does get bogged down in them though.
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I quite liked the face-painting and the stall holding at the fetes, more so the after party where you’d get a bit pissed, oh and our primary had a great thing going with the annual schools parade, that went on for weeks in terms of the costume stuff, but again the afters in the pub were great.
Re the learning, stuff the school, screens will never capture the magic of books, I’d say just keep reading the books at home
There was one book I used to try and read at bedtime, I think it was called Nudie Dudie, I could never get beyond a description of a haircut in the first part of the book, I was supposed to be reading them to sleep but I lost it every time I read that part, like holding on to my aching abdomen laughing, really.
It’s not a great method for sending your children off to sleep
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Happy birthday, CMW!
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Happy Belated Birthday, CNW!
Thauma, that was a very powerful, superbly written ATL. It deserves a much wider audience than lur wee parish.
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*our
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*CMW glasses and finger trouble.
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@Deebee – That’s all right. I don’t mind you calling me ‘Niller’, but really I’d prefer it if you’d wait until I’ve got my stuffed osprey so I can wave it when you do.
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This might seem like a non-sequitur, and I suppose it is, but I came across this article whilst looking for something else by historian Prof Tom Devine,
The strange death of Labour Scotland
The long, inexorable decline of the party of Keir Hardie and Gordon Brown.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/03/the-strange-death-of-labour-scotland
Labour have to win in England, on their own, they are a long way from winning back Scotland, I don’t know what is happening in Wales and Norn Irn is, well, Norn Irn
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Aw, thanks, Deebs! When you said ‘lur’ I thought you were just putting on a Belfast accent.
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Clyde – you might be able to use this scheme as your wife is Scottish*….
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading-and-stories/bookbug/about-bookbug
(Disclaimer – I have no idea if that’s correct or not)
Don’t know if your local community libraries will do something similar?
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@BB – We’ve found a parent whose kid was in Reception last year when they started doing this. She bought all the books and will let us have them so problem solved for us. We would have just bought them ourselves otherwise. Will still be taking it up with the school though. And depending on how other parents feel about it will be sharing and/or contributing if more copies are needed. There does seem to be some variety of opinion within educational circles, will be interesting to see where it goes.
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Holding their own in Wales, ticht. From what I understand, they’re little more than managers and don’t offer much but that’s enough. The real power base is in South Wales, but that’s where most of the people live and is the best bit. You get more Plaidy and Toryish elsewhere but with a fair Labour vote.
Scotland is a write-off for them for some time. The Tories are more appealing to staunch Unionists.
I have a nagging feeling that Cameron might have been an accidental genius by unleashing so much shit thanks to the Ind Ref and Brexit votes, but shit that locks in the Tories at a high level of support.
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CMW, you could print off the books if you have them only in pdf format.
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@TomP – We could potentially (don’t know if there is anything blocking you from doing that though I imagine there may well be), but I suspect that is going to be a disappointing thing to be presented with for most four or five year olds.
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The lad got some books that way last year. He didn’t really mind. I guess colour-printed would be best.
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Big day for Aimee Theron-Barrett today as she refs her first game in the URC.
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Berrett-Theron.
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Barrett-Theron
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Aimee.
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Weird looking at an electoral map of Wales without any yellow on it. Liberals used to do well in the rural areas (links between Non-conformist religion, the Welsh language and the Liberal Party going back a long time), but they’ve been beaten off by Tories and Nats in recent years. And I’m sticking with that phrase as I like the image, being a Welsh pervert* as I am.
South Wales not completely innocent on the voting for Tories front though admittedly not the worst offenders.
*Not a proper one. An Anglo-nonWelshspeaking-churchratherthanchapel-Welsh pervert, but still.
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They did ok in percentage terms in 2010 but then somehow fucked it for themselves for ever.
On the map it always looked as though they were a biggish party cos of those massive Mid-Wales constituncies.
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Sad day today as it’s five years since Anthony Foley died.
https://www.the42.ie/anthony-foley-shannon-5575489-Oct2021/
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“On the map it always looked as though they were a biggish party cos of those massive Mid-Wales constituencies.”
Of course, but I think it was the case that they did quite a bit better than they generally do in England in rural seats. I remember it being a two way fight with the Tories in the Mid-Wales seats in the east back when I was growing up (and I would imagine it had been that way for a long time). Ceredigion was different though with Labour having been their main opposition followed by Tories for a bit when some of Pembrokeshire was chucked in and then eventually Plaid although Cynog Dafis stood under some sort of Plaid/Green ticket when he first got in by finally beating the long-standing Liberal who I think had always had a big personal vote as well as history on his side. I realise everywhere’s unique in its own way, but I would venture that Ceredigion demographics are towards the top end of special in terms of UK politics.
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*Waves cuddly osprey folornly*
7-0 and a man down (for the time being).
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