They’re just not playing ball… John Bull’s Other Island and the Irish Teasock.
How else to explain Irish ‘prime minister’ Simon Harris not being swept up in England’s march to Euro soccer glory?
Eminent Sky TV political interviewer Trevor Phillips dropped the ball (yes, it’s all footballspeak at the moment).
When he tried to chivy Ireland’s leader along in his discussion about the new British government.
By asking him what he thought of England’s progress in the Euros.
Taoiseach’s low block
Of course my old neighbour from my time in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, let Trev’s volley bounce back at him off his wall.
Now politicians and politicos trying to ingratiate themselves with sporting fans rarely works well,
Who can forget Rishi Sunak asking the Welsh public if they were excited about the Euros?
A Euros where Wales would not be playing but fierce rivals England were.
Political football own goals
God love them, they try.
But unfortunately our politicians still don’t see that the world no longer wants the sun never to set on their empire.
Or that they ever did.
To be fair, some Brits do take a stab at learning the lingo.
To try to blag that they know, and care, about what Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw called John Bull’s Other Island.
Like former British prime minister Liz Truss’s mangled attempt at pronouncing Taoiseach, the Irish name for their leader?
To be fair, it’s not Lettuce Liz’s fault that she’s not of the diaspora.
A Brit of Oirish
You can, of course, tell the true Brits in any airport heading to Ireland by their stag and hen Oirish merch.
And thankfully avoid them too by steering clear of their meeting place, the overpriced Temple Bar on the banks of the River Liffey.
Which, of course, I’m doing as I board my Ryanair red eye and head over for a catch-up with travel friends at the Shelbourne Hotel on Stephen’s Green.
It’s certainly one way to block out the hysteria greeting England’s arrival in the Euros final by our neighbours.
Biden his time in Ireland
Our talk with our American guests in the Shelbourne at the annual US Soiree in Dublin will doubtless be about their elections.
And being the wide-eyed liberals we will. Of course, be wildly sympathetic to Joe Biden’s travails.
And not mention his loose pass when he visited his ancestral home a couple of years ago.
And mistook the New Zealand All Blacks for the hated British regiment from the Irish War of Independence, the Black and Tans.
Of course, the Irish have such a love-in with America that they instantly forgave him.
Particularly as he was playing hard ball with Britain over a trade deal at the time.
And knowing that whatever his frailties he would always know about John Bull’s Other Island and the Irish Teasock.
