Maguire critical of “drunken yobs”. Greek police have had issues dealing with loutish behaviour by yobs in recent times.
Ball-watching.
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It’s not a lottery just because English players lack the minerals to hold their nerve,
England did really good to get to the final. They should be proud of themselves
Personally I would compare many of the ABEs to hardline Unionists even more than Brexiteers but this article raises some good points. Being obsessively anti-England really is a terribly negative, paranoid, confidence-free version of Irishness that rejects the notion that it should take its place among the national identities of the world - and instead ties itself to merely being defined by anything the English are not. Which given that most of these same ABEs consume English culture by the barrelful, is very funny.
Martin and Coveney’s soft diplomacy should not be underestimated in its value. And whether we might expect Ireland to receive the same treatment from Westminster is secondary. Great countries lead by example.
Jesus fucking Christ.
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What we need is politicians that don’t think before they speak. Playing to forum posters who are dying for a Trump like figure is much important than actual diplomacy.
Justin Barrett or Airlines Gemma should fit the bill.
you seem to need that more than anyone to fuel your crazy.
As usual you’ve missed the point and are wrong, of course.
What crazy? When Micheal Martin spoke on that Claire Byrne programme about a United Ireland some months ago he spoke exactly how I would want a Taoiseach to speak. He refused to speak in soundbytes and instead waffled his way through using vague, de-dramatised, conciliatory terms, all spoken in a quiet, reasonable, extremely boring manner. You’d have fallen asleep during it. That’s what public diplomacy is and it’s exactly what you want during a situation which threatens to explode at any moment. Coveney has done similar over the last few years.
Obviously most lads here hate that because they’re now addicted to the excitement of gobshite politicians saying incendiary things for kicks, they want politicians to behave in the manner of a forum poster who is “right” about everything and will quit their forklift driving job to stay in a bedroom for a decade to prove they’re “right”.
Those people are essentially the DUP and their supporters, no matter whether they’re orange or green.
that crazy… it was a soccer match dude. Get over it
You literally ridiculed the notion of soft diplomacy.
it was a game of ball, dude, time to pull on your big boy pants now and accept it for what it is
Football has a great way of exposing the bankruptcy of particular nationalist ideologies.
That goes for Brexitism and insular English nationalism and it goes for the sort of mean, miserable, swivel eyed, perpetually negative, insular Irish nationalism you see so commonly on these pages.
oirish fans dressed as leprechauns shaking inflatable shamrocks?
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Her whole article seems to be anti nationalism and patriotism and she finishes with that.She seems a bit of an idiot
I wouldn’t be a big fan of her writing in general but as I said I think she did raise some good points. Using the term “great countries” is not one of them. There are no great countries. No country should try to be a great country, only a good country. But good countries do try to lead by example. Patriotism and nationalism are mutually exclusive. Those who currently brand themselves as “patriots” (paytriots) are grubby little far right nationalists, the exact opposite of actual patriots.
The bits that were good coincidentally are the bits that align with your worldview?
It was an absolute cluster fuck of an article, praising the leader of a country within the EU for rooting for a country that has just left the EU over an EU nation. Smacks of misguided diplomacy to me, not soft diplomacy
Soft diplomacy would have been to say I hope it’s a good final and may the best team win.
Your obsession with picking sides has lead to you sticking up for a pro-Israel Tory here
Have you considered Martin and Coveney actually wanted England to win? Like a lot of Irish people did?
have you considered them saying so publicly may not have been in the best interests of their respective offices?
Soft diplomacy my bollix
Huge scandal about to break about Marcus Rashford. He has endorsement deals. Shocking stuff.
It really fucking angers the likes of Andrew Neil and Fraser Nelson that a young man of colour can use his platform to do some good for society, doesn’t it?
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