Goodbye Stan...

A Euro campaign review presents a very sobering statistic...the Irish national soccer team took 1 point from a possible 6 from......Cyprus! Ireland still boast a team selection made up of mostly English Premier League players. Cyprus have mostly players selected from the Cypriot league...roughly on a par with the Irish domestic league (Eircom League), which is organized on what used to be known as a "semi-pro" basis. So Irish national coach Steve "Stan" Staunton will pay the ultimate price. What's more concerning is the scuttling sound emerging from the corridors of power at the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) as officials run for cover and try to avoid that awful thing...responsibility. Stan's appointment was contentious from the start as many outside the FAI criticized his lack of any meaningful coaching experience. Among many Irish football fans there is a popular contempt for the FAI and its perceived failings. There is a strong sense of disappointment now among the Irish football public as the past 5 years have been rather barren and the national team's decline has become apparent. Goodbye Stan. You will be forever associated with failure now, and with that spectacular shock when Cyprus put 5 goals past Ireland. Your huge contribution to Ireland as player and team captain are now eclipsed by your naivety and inexperience as a coach.

In Rainbow - Blue Nile?

This is not a re(bel song)-view!!
I have been a Radiohead head for zonks. Those awful traffic choked drives home through Kuala Lumpur from the night job during '97-'98 my sanity saved by 'OK Computer'. I wore out 2 cassettes of said work in my car stereo. I paid 5 pounds for my download of 'In Rainbow'. I put it on a CD and listened to it as I drove through the awful traffic choked roads of Dubai. It takes me time to savour and arrive at somewhere with works of art - be they music, literature, whatever...
With many of the tracks on 'In Rainbow' I can only say I must have lived too long...all I can hear is 'Blue Nile' - remember them? I think they release a collection every 25 years! Anyway, I think Thom has been listening to a lot of Blue Nile. Just as we did all those years ago...on the real Blue Nile: Rufaah, Wad Medani, Singa and Sennar...
Blue Nile River
Blue Nile - the band

Croking on the foreign games..

The recent "opening" of the great Irish national stadium of Croke Park to "foreign games" was given its most stirring manifestation by the emotional rendetion of the Irish rugby team's two national songs. This was all the more powerful following the respectful reception given by the Irish crowd to "God Save the Queen". The most potent and delicious blow for Irish national self respect and pride was then delivered by the national rugby team andthe only explosions heard were of joyful Irish throats celebrating a glorious victory over their great sporting rivals.
Soon, we will witness another great departure, as Croker welcomes the soccer players of Ireland. The Irish national soccer team may not match the performance or success of their rugby colleagues, but their matches at HQ are just as significant.
In the light of this great opening of the Irish identity definition, where nationalism in sport is no longer bitter and exclusive; it with great joy that I witnessed the ultimate "Garrison game" knocking old prejudice (literally) for six as the Irish cricket team humbled one of the elite of the world game, Pakistan with a sterling, fighting, proud display. It was perhaps, one of the greatest achievements of any Irish international sporting team. It is great to see Irish sport jettisoning the old tired rhetoric. It is wonderful that our spectacular passionate native games, can now co-exist with sports who despite their origins, are no less capable of instilling pride in Irish breasts.
See the cricket magic HERE

Border Bard

Dundalk has never enjoyed the popular national cultural cache that some other Irish towns did. Even souless dormitory An Uaimh had its "Navan Man" period. Now one man threatens to propel the Town into the nation's contemporary artistic consciousness. Jinx Lennon - the putative (stylistic) spawn of Bob Dylan and Eminem according to one critic. Visit his site and listen to some of the songs available there. Not immediately registering on the sweet melody scale, there is "a terrible beauty" about Jinx's work and a dissonance based charm about his work. His lyrics delivered in that unflinchingly proud North Louth accent are a delicious if not immediately obvious pleasure...kind of like the taste of poiteen or hot chilli paste.

Dundalk Heartbreak - Fully Audited.

The Town consigned to the dubious delights of the first division for another season. It seems that the decision was not made by the usual football criteria - ie final position in the table, or performance in the play-offs. Rather, in a sign of the globalized managerialist consultanist times in which we live, it was some sort of TQM type "audit" which deemed Dundalk unfit for the new elite of Irish domestic soccer. Benchmarking and the ISO finally reach what we quaintly used to refer to as LOI in my youth. Hopefully, Dundalk can recover their poise and determination for next season. The club's run in after a disastrous start to the season just completed was remarkable. If Gill can remain at the helm and the squad can be kept intact, things look good for the next campaign.