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 
didn’t do them any good in the long run did it?
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They were around for a pretty long time though
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Don’t think the Romans* are much use for this as they might always start their meal again after going off for a quick spew.
*The ones of popular imagination at least which would be the ones you’d want.
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Don’t think Sri Lanka have got any Saffers and they’re stuffing Namibia who have got loads so it doesn’t always work.
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Also the romans liked loads of likely lead-laced syrup with their food & drink. This may have had a distinctly negative affect in the long run.
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Chimpie – that and the general debauchery.
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Did they put it on their nuts or was it consumed earlier in the meal?
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Does debauchery have a negative effect in the long run? How disappointing.
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‘Did they put it on their nuts or was it consumed earlier in the meal?’
On the subject of debauchery…..
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Craigs is teetering on the edge of a very old-fashioned explanation.
I think the debauchery was pretty much a fixture from fairly early on so we may have to look elsewhere.
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Ben Youngs is never going to be dropped is he.
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Chimpie – ok, maybe a combination of debauchery and visigoths will do it in the long run.
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Cmw – hey! I’m not the one asking about food on nuts here.
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CMW, must be one of SL’s coaches who’s South African.
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Not sure that Likely Syryp (TM) was marketed exclusively as food as such.
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Noticed that the Eng squad contains more barf than sazz players.
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Ben Youngs is never going to be dropped is he.
Alphaville even wrote a song about him. Forever Youngs, from memory.
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@cmw
Oooh, so Craigs just has to introduce “from soup to soup” at his next meeting and report back on what happens.
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EJ never fails to ‘entertain’:
– remarkable lack of Sarries players plus Ewells etc from Bath
– no Lynagh – after all the fuss
– that foolish 15 from Saints
his inconsistency is remarkably consistent.
Now, is he going to pursue the same tactics this autumn or change the script around the strengths of the new call-ups?
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Sladey, I am remarkably underwhelmed and unenthusiastic about the autumn internationals. The start of the English premiership as been great, lots of sensible refereeing and players adapting, some really tight and well fought battles and some great running rugby too. Have a horrible feeling that Eddie will continue to kick for territory with LFB and Baby Faz, and I will end up feeling flat and depressed at the waste of talent after every game, win or lose. Feel a bit sorry for Firby, but Steward does look the business, he is probably the one to watch out of the whole new pile.
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Sbt – I went to see Ted Simon’s bike a few weeks back. It was amazeballs.
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Stupid Ted Simon killing the blog.
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Ted Simon? Not THE Ted Simon? The one who was at school with me before being pinched by a Scottish rugby franchise with promises of unlimited riches?
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Deebs – no the actual The Ted Simon who motorcycles around the world in the 1970s and early 2000s and wrote one of my all time fave books about the former, and bang average book about the latter.
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It’s the fame and the weather they come for deebee
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Chimpie – and the food.
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I think it’s definitely Chimpie and the food.
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Perhaps debauchery too. Although if there’s some of that going on I’d like to know where it is
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It’s to lick lead syrup off each others’ nuts. That and the presbyterianism.
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Also to play cricket in the T20 World Cup. It’s all stuff they could do back home if there wasn’t too much competition.
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It’s to lick lead syrup off each others’ nuts. That and the presbyterianism.
Same thing innit?
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@Deebee – Some presbyterians disapprove of the syrup thing on account of its links to Rome.
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Chimpie – don’t be coy. All the debauchery in Scotland is happening right now in your Melbury and you know it.
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Debauchery now in the Melbury? Typical, I’m in the office today.
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Don’t know how many Saffers PNG have got, what the prevailing form of Christianity is there or what they like to do with their nuts. They’ve got a couple of early Scotland wickets though. One of them was Kyle Coetzer, but he’s actually from Aberdeen so not too much expected from him. The other one seems to be an English golfer.
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Kyle’s dad’s from Graaf-Reinet so he’s 2nd gen.
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Berrington has top-scored anyway and is born in Pretoria though grew up in Scotland. Good contribution from Cross who like Coetzer is from Aberdeen. Not much opportunity for Greaves this time.
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Shouldn’t really be mentioning all these South African lads playing for Scotland, CMW.
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Aberdeen seems to be a hotbed of Scottish cricket, second only to South Africa.
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I’m not in the least bit surprised that some of the teams from the non-test-playing countries have people playing for them whose roots are in the main cricketing countries. Just finding it funny that all the Scotland ones are Saffers. Quite surprised there are no Scottish Asians in the side, think there usually have been a few historically though.
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A lot of the clubs hire a South African lad as a pro or a kid out of school as an amateur. I knew a guy who went to play for Stirling County for the summer. He was a university student back in Pretoria.
Had a chat with a guy who’s from North County Dublin the other day and he was saying that cricket’s the main sport there. Paul Rouse and other historians of sport have claimed that cricket was the number 1 game in 19th Century Ireland.
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Scotland win by 17 runs. Good effort from PNG to get so close. Quite likely that Scotland will need to win their last game in the group against Oman to go through as Oman stuffed PNG and Bangladesh will have the opportunity to do the same so the Scots are vulnerable on net run-rate in a three way tie. On the plus side Scotland will go through this afternoon if Oman can beat Bangladesh. GOman!!
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Hey Craigs, well done on house. ha, Ted Simon on a Triumph. Jupiters travels excellent book, coming home, (?) the follow up, he came across as a bit up himself. Not read the 2000s one. Start planning your trip here:-
https://advrider.com/f/
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Sbt – cheers mate. I was in awe of the bike tbh. I spent a good 30mins just looking at it. For those who don’t know it’s in Coventry Transport museum which sounds a bit…. shit. So I asked if they could take me straight to the bike (I would happily pay the entrance fee for that alone) and they said the rest of the stuff was well worth a visit. Mrs Craigs said we may as well have a look and I’m glad I did. Not every day you see those land speed record cars.
I think the second book was High Times which I haven’t read. I loved Jupiter’s Travels for the introspection and the amazing journey. The last one in the 2000s had lots of moaning about the world being worse than he remembered. Which was a bit of a shame really.
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A shame about the world or the moaning?
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Yes, I’ve heard this before.
Here in Killarney, there is still a stretch of land down by the River Flesk that’s called the “Cricket Field” – floods in winter, so I’d guess if it was still used it would be a batsman’s paradise – low bounce (like Worcester)
There’s no much evidence for cricket anymore in these parts – though I think Tralee has a team.
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Deebs – moaning. I don’t think he’s right tbh.
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I mean, it was still worth the read. But it had none of the lone motorcyclist romance of the first book.
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‘lots of moaning about the world being worse than he remembered’
Weren’t the same as when I were young
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