Re: Shoulder to Shoulder
Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:19 pm
I haven't watched BOD's programme on BT sports. God knows how I have avoided it as it seems to be on all the time, being regurgitated over and over.
I can guess what BOD is saying on it. Which is typical of most middle class people down here.
Basically all my life growing up, most Dublin and southern people wanted to stay as far away as possible from Northern Ireland as we felt genuinely unsafe and uncomfortable there, and with both sides. The Falls Road being as bad or worse than the other one.
The instinctive reaction down here was to reach for the off button on the radio or change tv channel asap. My father did that every day in the 1970s... just turn it off. And he did. Gerry Adams and Co were banned from all broadcasting but the reporters were almost as bad in my Dad's opinion.
We were really happy that you played rugby with us as it made us think that there could be a good side to life up there.
We loved Willie John and Trevor Ringland. Why couldn't there be more of them?
If we met you on holidays then we would often be surprised at how normal you could be. I remember running into a dentist and his family from Ballymena at a camp site in Brittany in 1990 and having a great time with them. If our rugby club played up there then we were really welcomed and we reciprocated.
Then Good Friday 1998 happened and we thought "well, that's super. All over now, everyone happy and no need to mention the war..." Then Northern Ireland became really boring to us. I mean really boring as we lost track of the arcane and obscure arguments over how you ran your affairs. It was about as relevant to us as Cork County Council. But people began to venture north and tell everyone it was ok. They didn't feel unsafe. OK, you didn't have great tourist infrastructure but how could you have it?
I imagine BOD as a privileged Blackrock boy has all the stereotypical baggage of somebody who never ventured over there until he made the programme. I still won't watch his show but take these views into account when you do.
I can guess what BOD is saying on it. Which is typical of most middle class people down here.
Basically all my life growing up, most Dublin and southern people wanted to stay as far away as possible from Northern Ireland as we felt genuinely unsafe and uncomfortable there, and with both sides. The Falls Road being as bad or worse than the other one.
The instinctive reaction down here was to reach for the off button on the radio or change tv channel asap. My father did that every day in the 1970s... just turn it off. And he did. Gerry Adams and Co were banned from all broadcasting but the reporters were almost as bad in my Dad's opinion.
We were really happy that you played rugby with us as it made us think that there could be a good side to life up there.
We loved Willie John and Trevor Ringland. Why couldn't there be more of them?
If we met you on holidays then we would often be surprised at how normal you could be. I remember running into a dentist and his family from Ballymena at a camp site in Brittany in 1990 and having a great time with them. If our rugby club played up there then we were really welcomed and we reciprocated.
Then Good Friday 1998 happened and we thought "well, that's super. All over now, everyone happy and no need to mention the war..." Then Northern Ireland became really boring to us. I mean really boring as we lost track of the arcane and obscure arguments over how you ran your affairs. It was about as relevant to us as Cork County Council. But people began to venture north and tell everyone it was ok. They didn't feel unsafe. OK, you didn't have great tourist infrastructure but how could you have it?
I imagine BOD as a privileged Blackrock boy has all the stereotypical baggage of somebody who never ventured over there until he made the programme. I still won't watch his show but take these views into account when you do.