A few years back in Belfast taxi, myself and the driver got talking about sport. He’d returned to Belfast seven years earlier after years living in southern England, where he’d picked up a passion for playing cricket. I asked him whether he’d continued playing when he returned. “No” he said, “I live in a nationalist area. I wouldn’t dream of mentioning my love of the game to a soul, never mind playing it”. This piece looks at how the now abolished rule 21 affected people keen on playing games outside the Gaelic code. Thanks to reader 6countyprod for the heads up.
A slightly inhuman presence that bans bad comments and works late at night to remove the wrinkles in Slugger’s technical carpet. You will need to know about the comments policy to stay off the fightin’ side of me and there is a bit of background about me here. You can email me using this spam-proof link if you really need to, and Slugger is @sluggerotoole on Twitter. But above all, remember, Play the ball and not the man.