Ourselves and England have, to put it mildly, a lot of history together. There's a certain segment among each society that looks upon the other as, depending on one's point of view, an oppressive overlord who thought nothing wrong with starving a quarter of their colony's population to death, or a group of ingrates who try and blow up innocent civilians. Let's be realistic, if the laws of geology allowed, Ireland would long ago have moved elsewhere. The weather's all wrong, and we've spent the past millennium arguing with the neighbours.
And yet, like the bickering couple that can't divorce because of the mortgage, Ireland and Britain (We only use England to try and form a common cause with the Welsh and Scots, after all) are deeply intertwined, 1916 and all that notwithstanding. The vast majority on both sides have no animosity towards the other. In reality, Britain has been nothing but a friend to us in recent years. David Cameron, a Conservative, had no hesitation in both accepting the results of the Savile Inquiry and apologising unquestionly for Britain's actions on Bloody Sunday, and Britain had no compunctions about contributing to our bailout in 2010. On our side, the Queen has recently completed a highly successful visit here and, the likes of Republican Sinn Fein, Eirigi, The 32 County Sovereignty Committee and any other miniscule group of rejectionists aside, the vast majority of Irish people bear no grudge against the English. On their side, there is even less of an animus. After all, the English have had lots of enemies over the years, and in the great scheme of things, a small island next door doesn't count for much.
Of course, on the field, everything changes, at least from the Irish point of view. Beating the English is the most heroic thing an Irish sports team can achieve. When Ireland beat England at cricket in India this year, the sudden upsurge in interest in cricket was nothing to do with the sport's merits. Nor was it to do with the fact that in winning, Ireland broke several longstanding records in World Cup cricket. Nor was it the scale of the achievement. After all, in 2007 we went even further, managing to reach the Super 8's after beating Pakistan. Quite simply, it was the fact that we beat the English at a quintessentially English game. When the match started, only a very small percentage of the population would even have been aware it was going on. Once we had won, though, it became the proverbial talk of the country. No doubt in years to come, like the half million or so Munstermen who were in Thomond Park when Munster beat New Zealand, a far greater number will claim to have watched the cricket than mere TV viewing figures would suggest.
