St. Patrick’s day yesterday was absolutely massive. I was part of Waterford’s St. Patrick’s Day parade onboard the ACSE boat which was a new and fantastic experience for me. Then it was off to the pub to watch Ireland hammer Italy in their Six Nations game. The 51-24 result meant France had to score 24 points more than Scotland in the following Six Nations game. That seemed a big ask and with Scotland doing well out of the gates we all thought Ireland had a good chance of winning the championship. France though started pulling ahead and at one point looked good to win. Somehow though Scotland pulled a try back and left Ireland in the lead. The pub went wild, celebrations about to begin when France in the last move of the game went over the line. But a Scottish defender had an arm under the ball and not even on the replays could anyone see if the ball was down. Somehow the TV ref gave the try and France won.
I have to say I haven’t felt that gutted over a sport’s result since South Africa failed in a Cricket World Cup years ago against Australia.
The day wasn’t over though and we happily watched Wales beat England.
Then the most amazing thing happened; Ireland beat Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup. Ireland beat Pakistan, who are ranked fourth in the world. Absolutely incredible. Easily the biggest shock of the CWC so far and probably for the rest of the tournament.
Well done to Ireland for drawing their game against Zimbabwe in the Cricket World Cup today. A draw in one-day cricket is pretty bloody amazing. 221 each. Zim really fumbled it at the end it seems.
I would have been happy with either team winning as I’ve lived in both countries (Zim as a kid and Ireland now.) Great places both and some of the best people I have known.
The 2007 Cricket World Cup is coming up in March. Thankfully Ireland is such a cricket mad nation I, a cricket fan, won’t have any problem watching any of the games.
Oh wait, sorry, that’s India, not Ireland.
The Irish would rather pick up a cricket bat and beat you with it than sit through a cricket game. It is a shame really as the average Irish fella, and wan, is sport mad. They love their sport and are fiercely competitive even if just sitting at the pub counter swilling pints. I’d bet a hurling fan or an Irish rugby supporter would, were their preconceptions and love for the English set aside, be leaping off their stools in excitement during a Pro20 game.
Sadly I’d be beaten by that aforementioned cricket bat should I even suggest it.
Being a cricket fan though I am determined to get my cricket fix. Going down to the pub, even a sports pub, is not going to happen. They’ll probably rather show reruns of the Croke park massacre than show a second of cricket in an Irish pub. Local TV channels are not showing it. A mate has Sky Sports which is showing it but… he is Irish. Not going to happen.
It turns out I have exactly two options if I want to watch games from the CWC while living in Waterford, Ireland. 1: Fly to the West Indies and buy some scalped tickets. 2: Get Sky Sports.
The funny bit is option 2 would probably end up costing as much as option 1. Sky is expensive, to get what I want it would cost €64 a month. I can’t subscribe for just the two months the CWC is on either, oh no, Sky will be with me for a solid 12 months. That is €768.
Anyone know of an affordable way I can watch cricket in Ireland?
I took a 40 minute walk home in the rain yesterday evening after the shocking France vs. Ireland Six Nations match. To swing from the joy of Ronan’s 4 point gap-making penalty in the third-to-last minute to the gut-dropping try in the second-to-last minute by the French is an intense experience.
Either team deserved to win that match. Based solely on the first half France were brilliant but a Rugby game is 80 minutes long, not 40 and Ireland earned respect by clawing back. Games with 1 point differences are always great and this was a great game, best of the Six Nations by far.
Croke Park was a big part of the game too and having been there once myself I know it must have been a thunderous experience. Well done to Ireland for moving forward in that regard. Ireland should beat England in two weeks time at Croke Park and that will be a magnificent sight.
The fourth player in the game was not to blame, for he refereed very well for 90% of that game, but the two decisions against Ireland were felt very hard. What if? What if.
Perusing the Oscar nominations list I realised how living in Waterford has pole-axed my cinema habits. Back home in Cape Town I had the choice of 7 or so cinema complexes all of which were good quality. Here in Waterford we have one dingy complex that I have been to two times too many. I saw more films at the cinema during my months holiday to South Africa than I have seen in over a year here in Waterford. Supposedly Dungarvan has a nice cinema but driving 45 minutes for a cinema is crazy.
Waiting for DVD is now my habit.
Of the Oscar list I have seen just 8; The Devil Wears Prada (good), Cars (entertaining), Pan’s Labyrinth (brilliant), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (entertaining), Children of Men (very good), United 93 (good), An Inconvenient Truth (very good) and Superman Returns (disappointing.)
A month after I first came to Ireland a co-worker’s father died in a road accident. The co-worker and I had shared a few drinks together and I went to his home village to attend the funeral. I was quite dumbstruck by the outpouring of support the community gave. Hundreds if not a thousand people arrived for the funeral. The local fire-brigade came in dress and formed an honour arch as the family left the church. Most of the crowd could not fit into the church and we stood outside in a cold November morning as songs were sang and words spoken.
I thought the deceased man must have been a great one, someone high-up in the power of things. And while he was liked and respected I found out during the rest of my year in Ireland how this community support is quite normal. Many a time passing through a village on the way to Dublin or Carlow we would be slowed down as hundreds of people left a cemetery after a funeral.
This respect for the lives, current and past, of people is something I really like in the Irish.
There are only two things I can say about this past Saturday’s Ireland vs. South Africa Rugby match; I am embarrassed by my team and well done to the Irish for playing so well.
I lived 20 years in South Africa, one of the most violent countries on Earth, and never saw a single street fight.
I have lived 1 year in Ireland and seen two people have their heads kicked in on the street.
Tonight I walked past a man beaten till he was unconcious. I watched his head get wedged under a car tire, his torso pushed under a bumper by the force of the kicks. He went limp as two men kicked him. He was corpulent and it took many kicks to move him. They kicked him, he got to his knees and they kicked him back down.
This was in the center of Waterford, the 3rd biggest city in Ireland. The victim was Lithuanian and the attackers Russian. My girlfriend, Irish, tried to intervene and the Russians, herding her away, simply told her that the Lithuanian hadn’t paid his dues. They mentioned 20 thousand Euro and 60 thousand Euro. While one Russian was talking to her I saw the unconcious man stagger to his feet, walk around the corner and then pull a knife on two other Russians following him. They beat him back to the ground. He got up again and walked down to the quays and around a corner.
My only concern was getting my girlfriend and another friend back to our apartment just a few hundred meters away. Tomorrow we will report it. Hopefully the growing statistics on foreign-national crime will kick start the Gardae (Irish police) into cracking down on them. Till then I can only think of moving out of the city center. I don’t want to run away but there is no chance I or the few others in the area can stand up to this. These are hardened thugs from eastern Europe, they won’t think twice about silencing a few people.
A strange night really. Earlier our friend’s jacket had been stolen from Muldoons (a pub) while my girlfriends coat was close to being stolen. She had to grab the coat back from a young woman who was walking out the door. Only a few minutes later did we realise she had taken the other friend’s jacket.
It is horrible that I get to experience this in Ireland. It is sad to see the difference between poverty driven crime as we have back home in South Africa and this greedy, brutal and organised crime I see in Ireland. I have no sympathy here, there is no excuse for it.
Fearless by Ronny Yu and starring Jet Li tells a powerful story of the founding of the Jin Wu Sport Federation which brought wushu (literally “martial arts” in China) together. Fearless is easily one of the best of the run of beautiful, high-production value martial movies that have come out of the East in the past few years. Fearless is hard and gritty unlike some of the others where the fights can be choreographed till they might as well be two butterflies farting at each other in the wind.
Speaking of wind I also got to see The Wind That Shakes the Barley which is a good film. It isn’t all it is cracked up to be with my main objection being that it is neither a strong tale between brothers nor a broad story of the Irish nation. It floats between the two and loses out on both. It is still worth seeing.
