It’s at times like this that I suddenly recall that my nineteenth-century forebears had names like Kalaugher, Kelly, Driscoll, O’Reilly, McCarthy, MacGuire and McAuly (not to mention plenty of eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish Brookes), and I feel more Irish than I actually am…
… although it looks as if you have to be called O’Brien to play for the Irish cricket team.
(Similarly, one of the minor pleasures of watching Wales beat England is the affinity provided by the knowledge that my great-grandfather Alfred Mathews took the field for Wales against Scotland on 9 January 1886. It was his only cap, and Scotland won on the day, but it’s enough for me. It’s interesting to be diasporic in an almost entirely non-diasporic kind of a way.)
Makes me wish I actually liked Guinness. Well, I’m sure Ireland won’t mind if I make do with this bottle of Portuguese red…
And please note that through hitting a six off the final ball, Ireland reached their original target of 133, even after it had been reduced to 128 by the Duckworth-Lewis method. You don’t see that happen very often.
Absolutely unbelievable. Go on lads.
I found a few photos around the place and have them on my blog at http://alexleonard.vox.com
Incredible!
(Poor Bob Woolmer.)
Yeah. Bloody Bill Shankly.
Yes, well I get the feeling that someone might have to explain to the majority of the ‘Irish’ side what Guinness actually is. Though they’ve done reasonably well so far considering their best batsman is playing for England.
Do you think Andre Botha feels ‘diasporic in an almost entirely non-diasporic kind of a way’?
After being given out to a quite shocking decision, the commentator said something about, ‘the luck of the Irish not being with him today.’ With a name like Botha, one wonders when he’d be entitled to the luck of the Irish at all.
I quite like the way these kids from the Southern Hemisphere show up in Northern sports teams — the Italian rugby team always seems to find a Kiwi or two.
They can’t be any less Irish than Jack Charlton’s World Cup squad.
Bah! Irish cricket has never been the same since Beckett went into self-imposed exile.