Great Britain vs Ireland – do we care?
Sutherland loses out to DeGale in semi-final
Who’s side were you on early this morning? Did you care? Do you despise fighting sectarian battles through the innocent medium of the boxing ring and the athletics track? I care passionately for about ten minutes, welcome Ireland’s scrap of salvaged pride and dash to the Olympics table to see if “Great Britain and Northern Ireland” can cling on to third place. By next week I’ll have forgotten about that too.
My definition of an NI liberal incidentally is someone who wants the Republic (when it is the Republic only) to come in second and even sometimes first. An NI bigot is one who wants the Republic to come in last.
Next up, Kenny Egan or Tony Jeffries?? Recent odds:Kenny Egan 1/2
Tony Jeffries 6/4
No argument about the big one is there?
“West Belfast’s Paddy Barnes guaranteed himself a bronze medal after his quarter-final triumph in the light flyweight division.
He now faces China’s Zou Shiming, a home-grown favourite and a man who beat Paddy in the World Championships last year.
So no surprise to see Paddy Power offering 9-1 about Barnes taking gold and 7-2 to clinch a silver”.
DK,
“To wild Rover – I totally misunderstood then, my apologies to you. I rather like you now.”
No apology necessary. I can see how my post was a little ambiguous.
>>the arrangement is Commonwealth Games – NI, Olympics – Ireland.<<
Too sensible for me that Windsor. No wonder we never get boxing brought into the usual sporting catfights on here.
Unbelievable scenes in the Taekwondo. Fair play to the event organisers and indeed the Chinese team:
Britain’s Sarah Stevenson received an unprecedented reprieve after an appeal against her quarter-final defeat by China’s Chen Zhong proved successful.
Team GB appealed after judges clearly missed Stevenson’s kick to the head in the final round.
And after video footage was considered, the result was reversed with Stevenson now taking on Mexico’s Maria del Rosario Espinoza in the last four.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/live_action/7578005.stm
‘Unbelievable scenes in the Taekwondo.’???
Time for a wee lie down,mate.
Bemused
Paddy’s pride was clearly hurt immediately after the fight. Your tirade of bile wouldn’t have been merited in any case.
Brian
There is a quote from Lemass about how patriotism is essentially wanting to see your country do well. So, yes, it matters. Not in any great cosmic sense, but it is nice to see. You only have to look at the buzz the UK’s medal haul generated to see that.
Does beating GB matter? Well, again, yes, it’s nice to pull a rare victory over the Old Enemy. But again, in a cosmic sense I doubt many people will lose sleep over it.