Susan Hated Literature

I was at Croke Park today. As a witness you’d think I’d therefore have some clue what was going on, but, omg, wtf was that?

The first half was okay. We made some chances and really should have been further ahead. But the second half was just plain poor. The lineout was atrocious. How is it that Munster can be playing so well yet many of the very same players are so just not doing anything in the green shirt? I can only blame Eddie O’Sullivan. I’m rolling with the bandwagon here, I know, but honestly, I can’t come up with any other explanation.

Gordan D’Arcy’s injury was unfortunate as he wasn’t bad, but he has’t been anywhere near his best in a long while. In the “A” game Bowe played well, I wonder will O’Sullivan call him into the squad for the next match?

Today is James Joyce’s birthday, so I could have used one of his quotes as a title, but I decided instead to go with a line from George Hook, grump extraordinaire.

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Author: George Hook
ISBN: 184488077x
DDC: 384.54092
See also: Library Thing

When you are a child, and you’re poor, and you live next to other people who are poor, you never think of yourself as being poor.

Around amonth ago I read an entry on Omaniblog about this book, up until then I hadn’t even known that George Hook had a book out. But that post caught my attention. George Hook is probably best known in Ireland for his rugby punditry. Together with Brent Pope and Tom McGurk, he analyses rugby for RTE in an entertaining, honest, blunt manner. He also has a radio show, but I’m not big on the radio so haven’t heard him enough to comment on that. In many ways I suppose he is the Eamonn Dunphy of the rugby world.

But I know him primarily from his rugby comments, and his constant promises that Munster will lose, and that the likes of Stringer shouldn’t be playing. I disagree with him, but am well aware that he is very knowledgable about the game. And in an entertaining way.

But when I started reading this book I was very surprised at it. From Omani’s blog I’d heard that it wouldn’t be all easy reading, and he’d only gotten to page 4. But I wasn’t aware of the depression, the debt, the fraud, or many other things that this book brings to light. And all the while he is describing his “Black Dog” and his running from trouble into strife, it is always so very readable. And if it wasn’t for the subject matter you’d have to say likeable. Still, it took me longer than I expected to finish it. Mainly, I think, because I wanted to pay attention to it, so I didn’t read it if I thought I might be distracted by the telly, or the radio.

I’m not a big reader of biographies, but I’d recommend this to anyone. And it is on 3 for 2 in Waterstones.

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The good people over at In Fact, Ah have put back up their clip of Dunphy on Keane. Makes for bloody addictive tv viewing. And highlights the fact that Roy Keane must be one of the most divisive topics in the Irish sporting world at the moment. Or ever.

Please note, the title of this post is not my opinion but a direct quote. If you have issues take it up with Dunphy

Now I’ve said it before, and I may say it again, I’m more on Keane’s side than against him. Was Keane right to say whatever it was he said in that interview? Depends on your perspective doesn’t it. If you put the team before everything than he was wrong. If however you value the truth then he was right.

Is it treachery to speak the truth? Or is it stupidity to give out and bring down the very team you are supposed to be working for? Surely saying that your team-mates are rubbish isn’t going to help any cause?

Have to say I agree with their statement that RTE provide some great pundits. I’m a huge fan of Brent Pope and George Hook’s rugby discussions. I may not always agree with them, but they are great to listen to.

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And I think Ireland bottled it. They never played as well as they could, imo, and stuck far too much to the kick for position and set-piece game. Now I know it has worked well for us, but for a team to win they have to be able to adjust in order to face different teams. To be able to raise their game. And Ireland didn’t.

Hook made the comment on RTE that Sullivan has done the same thing to the Irish rugby team that Jack Charlton did to the Irish soccer team - impose a style of play that lacks any style at all. And in a way he may have a point, but unlike Charlton who stopped Brady and Whelan from playing, Sullivan does let the likes of O’Driscoll and D’Arcy cut loose every now and then. Maybe it is a question of combining the two methods together.

All in all though, there was only one really good game of the competition, and that was the Wales v France game. So well done to those Welsh wankers (I called the french fuckers last time, so it just wouldn’t be fair to leave the Welsh fellas without some insult now would it?) for winning everything that could’ve been won: Grand Slam, Triple Crown, Six Nations etc.

And there is some good news, the Sligo U18 team are all-Ireland champions. First time a Sligo team has ever gotten as far as a semi-final was this year, so congrats to them.

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