Quote:
Originally posted by Trevor
No need to feel sheepish Joe,
I watched the game at an Auckland City Irish Pub, ÒThe DogÕs BollocksÓ. My son was entertaining, before the game was shown on a large screen TV, as part of a four piece band. They are the regular band at a pub called Ò Molly MaloneÕs Ò on Waiheki Island in the gulf, 35 mins. from the city by high speed ferry.
They are not too bad and had the crowd going with a batch of rebel songs. In fact they sound more home grown than music on an Irish CD which I recently purchased in the hope it might be of interest to my son but which to me was pure Country and Western. However one could no doubt argue about the origins of C&W! You lot have infiltrated the world. My mother was of Irish decent and my father English born.
Regards, Trevor.
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Yes Trevor, it is a likeable feature of the Irish game, round ball, oval ball, that they never or rarely lie down and die, they play their hearts out till the final whistle. A feature that can be attributed to stout leadership and mentoring, bodes well for the future.
Dog's Bollocks always struck me as an English terminology, but you know us, we'll drink anywhere. With anyone. Nice to hear your son is musical. I can play a bit myself in an amateur fashion.
It is a trueism that rebel songs are the ones that appeal to the so-called diaspora, the displaced Irish, those far removed from the homeland. It seems somehow to be a stronger affirmation of Irishness, and this is understandable in their alien environment. For me, 1922 is not that long ago, but I reject the demonisation of The Old Enemy that rebel songs perpetuate. My own father was thumped by an English Black & Tan riflebutt as a child, but I would rather see Ireland portrayed as a place for soft green scenery and smiles and welcomes and sport, than the land of the carbomber. No harm remembering the past, lest we run the risk of reliving it, but we need to move forward, not back.
You say we have infiltrated the world, but the world is currently getting it's own back. There is now a lot of colour on Irish streets from immigration. I like it, it adds colour and diversity of culture. However, I do fear we are not well prepared for it. With an expanding economy, we need extra people for service and hi-tech industries. However, there are a lot of the influx who come prepared to milk our social welfare service for what it's worth, freeloaders, who probably did not work where they came from, and will not work here while the system pays them fortunes because they have big families. That is what I mean by not well prepared, our system has no way to separate out these freeloaders from the genuine ones. Meantime, the public perception of immigrants gets worse and worse, and they all get tarred with the one [unfair] brush.
No doubt in time it will sort itself out.
Congrats again, hope we prepared you guys a little bit for the time when we will kick your butts.
Joe
