Flying Hippo wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 8:07 pm
tuffers#1 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 6:19 pm
Still they may mostly be protestant school educated & therefore trapped in the "Foreign game " Ethos.
As you know, there are no "protestant schools" in Northern Ireland. There are state schools open to all. The apartheid in education there is the sole preserve of the Roman Catholic church. For what it's worth, eight of the 11 in the test match are indeed Ulster protestants, with five of them, remarkably, from small villages along the Co. Donegal/Londonderry border. One is a Dublin protestant, one is English and the other, a fine player, is a southern catholic - and there are plenty of other good players from his background who'll be playing test cricket in the years ahead. So what? Who cares? They're all representing Ireland.
Considerable intellectual tautology is also required when condoning the GAA's approach to anything at all. Great games they are but, despite the commendable efforts of some in their organisation, it is clear that the GAA still has considerable work to do before the majority of people in Northern Ireland are persuaded that many GAA clubs in NI are not the hateful dens of bigotry many believe them to be (as is Celtic FC in Scotland, with additional institutional child-abuse, of course). What the protestant Graham family in Fermanagh and the catholic Heffrons in Co Antrim endured from their experience with GAA are tragedies, particularly for the Heffrons. It is surely time to leave this religious/nationalist obscenity behind.
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Cork conn rugby club named after a newspaper :
In its second incarnation, the Cork Constitution supported the union of Ireland with Great Britain, was the paper favoured by the Protestant population and patronised by clergymen of the Church of Ireland as well by officers of the British Army who were stationed in the area.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.indepe ... 42724.html
President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin are strong Catholics. Yet they have chosen to transfer their son from the Catholic all boys Belvedere College, to the co-educational Kings Hospital in Palmerstown which is rooted in the Protestant tradition.
Cricket in Ireland
Cricket was introduced to Ireland by the British, probably during the 18th century, and the earliest known reference is a 1792 match in Dublin between the British garrison and an "All-Ireland" team, the garrison team winning by an innings.
Cricket was being played in the towns of Kilkenny and Ballinasloe in the early 19th century. In the 1830s, the game began to drop down.
Cricket is predominantly played in the Republic by those who would have attended
Protestant irish schools ( church of ireland ) , these schools would have been rich in rugby
& cricket tradition.
As for all your other vitriolic bluster about the north, uslter , gaa & hatred , did you ever think that i was just pointing out the mixed traditions of irish sport.
The fact that Rugby Union has established itself so widely & so quickly shows how great a game it is.
Cricket on the other hand is sh*t .
Whether Irishmen play it or not i will never support it because it is Sh*t.
You win world cups by drawing a game twice .
All because you did less running in getting your runs than the other team.
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