Slugger O'Toole

Latest comments from CW (see all)

CW has commented 85 times (2 in the last month).

1. Comment on #Euro2020: Professor McWilliams open letter from Northern Ireland to the Faroe Islands…
   on 17 May 2012 at 1:12 pm

   Slightly off-topic here, but in the run-up to this weekend’s “All-Ireland” Heineken cup final there’s a good article in today’s Irish Times about the changing attitudes towards rugby in the north and how creed and class barriers are gradually being broken down.

   http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0517/1224316238462.html

   Perhaps one of the regular Slugger bloggers would like to take this up as a separate blog post? (Hint, hint).

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2. Comment on The Brendan Smith case and the church’s strange relations with the power of law
   on 3 May 2012 at 12:24 pm

   The irony of it all is that if Brady actually did something sensible (ie sensible in the context of wider society rather than church society) like call for the ordination of women priests or say it’s ok to be gay he’d be summoned to the Vatican forthwith where Bavarian Benny would demand his head on a plate.
   Yet the church seems to think it’s ok to withhold information relating to serious criminal offences, but it’s not ok to encourage equal rights within society.

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3. Comment on “This is [partitionist] provocation in the extreme…”
   on 22 March 2012 at 1:19 pm

   I remember a similar incident a few years ago when the Tyrone team were staying in a hotel on their way back from a league somewhere in the deep south. A wedding party was staying in the same hotel. A few of the wedding guests had had a drink or two and decided to wind up the Tyrone team by the God save the Queen, which caused a bit of a fracas. The incident didn’t get widely reported as Mickey Harte and co wanted it to be hushed up (and rightly so) so as not to distract the teams’ preparations for the championship.

   The fact is that southerners know damn well that one surefire way of winding up northern GAA types is by calling them British. McKeever foolishly rose to the bait and Armagh used it as a pathetic excuse for their poor performance. Brolly is spot on here. End of story.

   On the other hand had it been genuine racist abuse against a black player there would have been a real need for an investigation and disciplinary proceedings. Incidentally if I remember correctly there a mixed race player called Joey Cunningham who lined out for Armagh in the ‘80s. He also played soccer for Portadown. Whether he received any abuse I have no idea, but if he did it wasn’t widely reported.

   Mick – interesting comment about Armagh GAA being the “least British” of NI GAA counties. Not sure what this means, but I’d intrigued to know what the most British GAA county in NI is!!!

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4. Comment on Gay Marriage: Cardinal lobbies against whilst Church of Ireland opens a debate…
   on 6 March 2012 at 1:24 pm

   I’m not defending O’Brien here, but all he’s doing is toeing the party line, echoing his master’s voice. He’s hardly going to say:

   “Actually I have no problem with gay marriage. What two consenting adults do in their private lives is no business of mine or the church’s. And in any case my church is no position to moralise over sexual matters given our history of sexual abuse and cover-ups which involved innocent non-consenting children. I know this is going against what the church says, but I have to speak my mind and stand up for what I believe in otherwise the church will remain a corrupt, outdated, sexist, homophobic institution from the middle ages and will never change. And I stand by what I’ve said and I’m fully prepared to face the consequences – because if I don’t take a stand no-one else will.”

   However if he (or any other senior cleric) had the balls to make such a statement he would gain a great deal of support and respect both within and outside the church. He would also no doubt be summoned to the Vatican for a “briefing” with Benny the Bavarian, would be disciplined and probably demoted, if not defrocked. But at least he’d emerge with the honour of having the courage of his convictions to go against the party line.

   I won’t be holding my breath though…

   By the way, this is off-topic, but I’ve been trying to persuade the good burghers of Sluggersville to post a piece on the late great Frank Carson. But my pleas fell on deaf ears, so I’ve posted a tribute on my own blog:

   http://dreamingarm.wordpress.com

   Your comments would be most welcome.

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5. Comment on GAA promises to attend all coming ‘milestones’ (even Unionist ones)…
   on 26 February 2012 at 12:46 pm

   If nothing else it’s progress, As recently as 10 years ago the concept of a unionist politician attending a GAA match or the Queen visiting Croker would have been unthinkable and the fact that it’s happening now can’t be a bad thing.

   Now (at the third time of asking!) can we at last have that much needed blog post on the late great Frank Carson? I would gladly do it myself only I don’t have user rights to this blog!

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6. Comment on Is the Rangers crisis undermining the false economy of Scottish football?
   on 24 February 2012 at 6:28 pm

   What, still no blog on Frank Carson? Tut, tut Mr O’Toole, this just won’t do!

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7. Comment on DevoMax may be more disruptive to English regions than Independence…
   on 23 February 2012 at 6:46 pm

   Hear hear John! Now that Frank Carson has exited the stage for the final time he deserves an article on this blog!

   Apparently the family issued a statment sayinfg somehting to the effect of:
   “It’ll be quiet in the house now that Frank’s gone. But God help the ones up there!”

   Classic Frank joke:
   Grumpy Woman to butcher: Is that a sheep’s head in your window?
   Butcher: No, it’s a mirror, Mrs.

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8. Comment on DevoMax may be more disruptive to English regions than Independence…
   on 23 February 2012 at 12:51 pm

   Apologies for being off topic, but can we have a blog on the late great Frank Carson, one of the North’s/the Province’s/Ulster’s/NI’s/Occupied 6 counties’ (delete as appropriate) greatest comedians?

   Another great name in Irish entertainment circles has gone to the great stage in the sky in recent times following the passing away of David Kelly a few weeks ago – best known as the cowboy builder in Fawlty Towers and the nude motorcyclist in Waking Ned.

   It was the way they told them…

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9. Comment on Patsy McGlone answers your questions on the SDLP leadership…
   on 4 November 2011 at 1:22 pm

   How about a further question –

   Why not just drop the nationalist tag altogether, do a three-way merger with both the UK and ROI Labour parties and become a non-sectarian centre left all-Ireland, pan-UK party which could appeal to left of centre nationalists and unionists?

   If the UK labour party can have members with both unionist (Kate Hoey) and nationalist sympathies (Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone), then why can’t the SDLP? This would be a progressive move away from tribal politics towards normalisation.

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10. Comment on Thoughts on the Liberal Dissidents
    on 25 October 2011 at 12:36 pm

    It seems that “liberal dissidents” are not unique to NI. I would offer a more general definition of the term as highly educated middle class people who claim to stand up for the rights of the downtrodden and oppressed, but live in prosperous suburbs, drive expensive cars and have little contact with anyone from the deprived backgrounds or minority groups they profess to support.
    Anyone who regularly reads Viz comic will be familiar with the characters the “Modern Parents”:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Modern_Parents

    – an ingenious piece of satire which brilliantly sends up the double standards of such people.

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