Please, just let it go!

It’s been about three days since Ireland dropped out of the World Cup, and quite frankly I will hurt the next person who whines about it. It’s plastered the press, been a hot topic of discussion; mainly amongst people who can’t place Galway on a map and think “slainte” is a Russian cocktail, and just generally been everywhere.

Before tackle this properly, let me explain something: I’m Irish by nationality, I love Ireland, I think the British owe the Irish an apology, I ride horses, I can hold my drink and so on and so forth. Anyone with a pair of eyes (or just one half functioning one) could have seen that Henry handled the ball, but Ireland did the same in the same game, it was just bad luck it was not picked up by the referee. The amount of interest on Twitter and and Facebook has been truly ridiculous, behold the following creation, made only a few moments after the game:

It was not as bad as the hand of God incident, and I think it’s hugely doubtful (as the Sun were claiming) that the whole thing has been a scheme organized by Adidas, it was just unlucky, end. Fifa have said no replay, thus there shall be no replay, unless France offer a replay, which would do them no harm (Ireland aren’t great at football anyway), but they won’t, so final point, no sodding replay. Not to mention the logistics of organizing an international match with a few days notice.

The biggest irritation of the entire scandal has been the involvement of politicians, especially on the Irish side. I didn’t expect anything else of Sarkozy, but Irish politicians should just leave matters alone. The day following the match, Dermot Ahern, the justice minister was demanding a rematch. Frankly, there are many other things the Irish government could be concerning themselves with, for a start, they are currently the only country making Britain’s economy look alright, and anyone who’s tried to apply for university with CAO will probably quite happily go to great lengths to see the system reformed. It is also a country that’s population said NO to Lisbon, only to be told that this was the wrong answer, and that they would have another referendum so they said yes. What Henry did was not right, but not only is it not a political issue; it’s slightly ridiculous of the Irish government to preach ‘fairness.’

Yes, I would love the French to offer a rematch, even though I can tell you they would win, simply on the grounds of integrity and decency, but I doubt they will, not least because of the implications of organizing an international match with less than a few days notice, and if FIFA have refused the pleas, would they count it in the first place?

If the Irish can come out the better side in the Irish war of independence, survive a famine and create a ridiculously strong national identity and pride for such a small nation from which so many people emigrate I’m sure they can get through a handball against France. We’ll hold our heads up high, as always, and go and numb the pain with some bushmills whiskey, and come the big rugby matches, no doubt we’ll be dismissing football as a sport for puny girly men. Our national anthem is called “Amhran na bhFiann” which basically means the soldier’s song, and I think it’s time we start living up to this, not behaving like the whiney kid in the playground because some fat kid gave him a shove.

Emma-Louise Kerwin

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Tags: Politics, Sport

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Comment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.