The All-Ireland Open Anyone?

As a 7 year old my father took me to the Irish Open at Druids Glen. It was one of my first experiences of live sport and I was fortunate enough to see Seve Ballesteros play in the flesh. Since then, I've probably been twice because to attend the event generally involves a lengthy drive. Being a Donegal based golf fan is usually not a bad thing. We're blessed with a multitude of championship golf courses on our doorstep. The Discover Ireland ads regularly show golf courses on the West and North-West course. Why then is the Irish Open a purely Southern based event?

 

I don't wish to take anything away from Killarney. As a town they've done a fine job promoting themselves and Kerry has many excellent golf courses as too do Leinster. However unlike other sports Donegal can actually mix it with having the best facilities in the country. A brief tenure in Baltray aside when has the Irish Open ever actually came North of the capital? The Irish Open is, like most other facets of Irish life, not interested in bringing golfers to where they'll be most challenged but rather to where they'll collect the most votes for the party in power.

Hence we have the bizarre situation whereby the Irish Open has not been been staged in the North since the 1940's despite the plethora of courses available and the fact the GUI operates on a 32 county basis. The recent successes of Northern Irish golfers has pushed the agenda sufficiently that it might actually happen. The Irish Open has struggled in recent times to find a sponsor. Yet the NI Executive are prepared to pay money so the event can happen in Portrush. Surely everybody is happy? Both Martin McGuinness and Arlene Foster have backed the proposal so both sides of the divide are supportive. McGuinness can never support the British Open coming as that would be to accept that the North is part of Britain. Similarly Foster can never support the Irish Open coming as this may damper her claims that the North is a completely separate entity to the Republic. Thus we'll probably be left with some PC name like the Irish/Northern Irish Open which garnishes about as much pride as singing Ireland's Call does.

 

At a time when Northern Irish golf is at its highest ebb and the Irish Open is potentially at its lowest ebb this move makes sense. However, for an event organized by people who have so far have shown that they believe the country most northerly point is Swords, it may take some persuasion. I won’t hold my breath on the Irish Open ever coming to Donegal but the North Antrim coast is at least a little closer. 

Embracing the rainbow nation

This article paraphrases or plagiarises, whatever your opinion, an article by Sarah Mockford, entitled England’s Double Standards, which appeared in Rugby World.

http://www.rugbyworld.com/blogs/englands-double-standards/

Ms Mockford claims that the English rugby selection policy is severely hypocritical – foreign based English players will not be selected after the world cup – however the national side will still be free to cap foreigners, who qualify for England under the three year residency rule.

This system demands that English born players are not lured, by higher wages, to foreign leagues, but at the same time offers foreigner players a better wage than they can earn at home, with the sinister aim of bolstering the national team.

Hence the side will be comprised of players born in England, who ply their trade in the domestic league and foreign players, who have been lured to the Guinness Premiership. It is a policy of selecting loyal Englishmen and disloyal foreigners.

The reason I chose to comment on this article is because of its relevance to the Irish national side and because of the simplicity of her argument – never once does she discount the impact of ‘foreign’ players or their potential in an England shirt.

Their Own Worst Enemy 2: The English media

One of the traditions which Britons rightly pride themselves on is the free press. Britain boasts arguably the world's most vibrant print media, with high-brow broadsheets on sale alongside downmarket tabloids. The tradition of absolute media freedom is only limited by libel and incitement to hatred laws, anything else is printable.

This tradition, however, is not without its drawbacks. Britain's privacy laws are among the world's weakest, and in any case the phone-hacking scandal has demonstrated that the media aren't too worried about the legalities of a situation. Tabloids, desperate for easy material, make celebrities of anyone they can, and those in the public eye are hounded relentlessly by the paparazzi.

In the case of professional footballers, the media are particularly intrusive. Sporting prowess is easy celebrity, and given how competitive England's tabloid press is (The Sun, The Mirror, The Daily Express and The Daily Mail all compete for roughly similar audiences. In Germany, by contrast, there is only one mass-market tabloid), anything that can be used as media fodder gets printed. Britain's celebrity pantheon encompasses hundreds of people, and footballers are not an exception.

An Indian Summer

The world championship of ping pong that was on sky sports 3 recently had nothing on the exploits taking place in my cousin’s back garden on Saturday last. The sun was splitting the rocks and it didn’t take much to break into a sweat in the breezeless back garden. Such was the desire to build up an appetite ahead of the massive BBQ, there was a line of relatives ready to do battle with the paddles so it was decided that doubles would be the best way to accommodate the masses. However, this led to inevitable debates about the actual rules of doubles (is it every 2^nd shot?  Must one serve corner to corner etc.?), which left people waiting even longer than under the old ‘winner stays on system’ and led to a few of the older members of the clan to reach for the cooler box more often than is sensible at family occasions. However, quite unexpectedly, it was the spectators who fared worst by the close of play with both Nana and Grandad being among the last to leave and both begrudgingly so. Perfect BBQ conditions are generally not great for the armchair fan and last weekend was no exception. Beer and burgers took precedence and it was ceefax and aertel keeping this blogger up to speed on the weekend’s sporting fare.

                                                            However, this blogger was lucky enough to watch a few hours of an enthralling test match between the world no. 1 (India) and would be no. 1 (England) on Sunday last. Thanks to the aforementioned ceefax, I knew that thanks to a Kevin Pietersen double century, England were in a strong position having declared for 474-8 in their first innings.

FOOTBALLS BACK!!

Everyone is looking forward to the return of football after the summer breaks and with the Scottish Season starting this weekend many football fans gather to fill that football gap in our lives. Let’s hope this season is less about death threats, referees and politics, with more talk about teams challenging Rangers and Celtic. Ally McCoist starts his first season in charge of Rangers and has a lot to live up to as they look for a fourth title in a row. Celtic’s boss Neill Lennon however possibly has more pressure on his shoulders, knowing that Celtic have not lost four titles in a row since the 1990’s. If they don’t win it this year he will most likely have to leave the club. Its set to be another close race between the two, but the league as a whole seems to be annoyingly predictable and struggles to compete for the attention of football fans once the English Season starts.