This Sporting Life

Craig Gilroy had a pretty spectacular debut for the Irish Rugby Team yesterday. He played brilliantly, scored a fantastic try and electrified the crowd every time he got the ball.

He’s also from Bangor !!!

Craig went to Methody College in Belfast, he has played GAA football for St Pauls in Holywood and Soccer for Bangor Swifts as well as Rugby.

Although he is far from the first Rugby international who cut his teeth on a GAA pitch, Down GAA, you’ve missed a trick there.

Well done to Craig and I hope he’s on the pitch for the six nations in the new year.

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In the Mix – Integrated Education?

Something to keep you all occupied.

The Detail Website has produced an interactive map showing the demographic breakdown of every school in the North.

I am linking to it here.

I am sure you will all look first at your own local areas as have I. Bangor, for instance throws up some surprising figures:

	Primary	Secondary
Catholic	11.41%	8.98%
Protestant	51.64%	65.90%
Other	36.95%	25.13%

This doesn’t of course factor in students who may travel outside the area to school and the very high figures for “Other” in the survey but it is a good guide as to trends in particular areas. Dungannon is a case in point.

I will put some figures together for other areas over the next few days. The map is on a school by school basis and based on raw numbers so this may take me a little time.

Update: Here are the headline percentages based on the NI Total figures. I have included the 1998 percentages for comparison.

2012	Primary	Secondary
Catholic	50.70%	51.70%
Protestant	35.90%	38.60%
Other	13.40%	9.70%
1998	Primary	Secondary
Catholic	50.40%	52.00%
Protestant	43.50%	40.80%
Other	6.20%	7.10%

Belfast Summary:

2012	Primary	Secondary
Catholic	51.80%	54.45%
Protestant	31.21%	32.74%
Other	16.79%	12.82%

Group psychology in this day and age

What relevance does “I’m a Celebrity” have to party politics in this day and age?

Well, it’s about group psychology for a start. Groups form for many reasons but they have common characteristics and the members adopt roles that are similar regardless of of the purpose of the group. Some of those roles include:

Leaders, opinion formers, reinforcers, followers, influencers, sympathisers, facilitators, delibarators and, of course, people pleasers, to name a few.

The dynamic of shows such as I’m a Celeb, is dependent upon throwing a mix of people together and allowing the group dynamic to evolve and develop.   That’s great fun for TV but the same dynamics are evident in party politics too. The UUP is busy tearing itself apart primarily about the leadership dynamic. The SDLP leadership battle is settled but the other roles within that group are still being fought over, internally. (Personally I’m all for FJH as party chairman) The “bag of mad cats” analogy still sticks.

Alliance, of course, have no group dynamic at all, they are a collection of individuals.

I think an understanding of the dynamics of group psychology may benefit certain parties if they wish to progress electorally.

European Dream

Remembrance or Triumphalism

Following on from my last post regarding Poppy Day and the meaning of that, whoever is currently running things at Ibrox stadium obviously hasn’t a clue what it’s about at all. The following are two pieces relevant to this. The first is an emotional but thoughtful reaction, the second is a considered reaction. The strange thing for me is that this isn’t strange on this side of the pond.

Both are comments on the Scottish football monitor website.

“I am sitting on a Saturday night watching on television the Royal British Legion Service of Remembrence. A very dignified occasion well prepared and presented.
Tomorrow morning I will go to the local Cenotaph and join with many others in remembering those who gave all in the various wars. in the small town where i stay the service will be conducted by the local minister. The music will be provided by the Salvation Army and the local Orange Order. I have been attending for so many years i couldnt guess how many. Both bands will be well turned out and always play appropriate music. I must give them all enormous credit.
Everything is done properly and is very dignified.
Next year i and the remaining members of my family will travel to Italy to keep a promise to my now departed mother to visit the War Grave of her only brother who left home in 1943 to serve his country and never returned.
And why am I saying all this in a blog dedicated to monitoring Scottish football.
Let me tell you why i am doing this.
This afternoon I managed to pick up on the Internet coverage of The Rangers game being televised by Rangers TV.
i am a football fan and watch anything and everything on the box or on the internet.
During the commentary in the first half they made reference to an appearance at half time of some 400 or so military personnel.
I stayed tuned in to witness what i hoped would be a dignified parade allowing fans the opportunity to show support for our military and respect for the departed.
What did I see? A bloody rabble.
Several hundred military personnel did descend onto the park.
They ran, they jumped, they kicked a ball about. They chased and hugged rangers substitutes warming up on the park. They ran into the crowd and posed for pictures. They dived about the goalmouth, and all the time the baying crowd sang Rule Brittania.
It was a shambles, it was a disgrace and it was totally inappropriate.
This football club, born of the ashes of a similar club who failed to pay millions of pounds in taxes disgraced the memory of those who had fallen in all the wars.
I watched it, I witnessed it.
Do these morons think for a minute that it was only Rangers Supporters who died in the war.
who on earth in our services authorised the attendance at Ibrox of servicemen and allowed them to behave in such a disorderly and inappropriate way.
I am disgusted at them.
But not half as disdusted as i am at that shower in charge at ibrox who arranged such a display.”

Major-General N Eeles,
General Officer Commanding Scotland,
Edinburgh Castle,EH1 2NG.

Dear General Eeles,

You will, I imagine, share my dismay that Army, Navy and Royal Marines service personnel were participants in a travesty of a ‘Remembrance’ parade at Ibrox Park, Glasgow, during half-time in a football match being played between The Rangers FC and Alloa Athletic last week-end.

Whatever the original intention may have been, the occasion was allowed to degenerate into what I can only describe as a show of sectarian support- by the military personnel involved- for one particular section of Scottish society and one particular football club.

It was in no way respectful of the men and women ( among whom I include my own father) who suffered death or injury in the second World War, but was an absolutely undisciplined display of sectarian bias by the army unit(s) involved, who, I believe had balloted to be present because of their personal support for the aims and ideology of The Rangers FC.

In my view, the officer who authorised the use of tax-payers’ money for such a shameful partisan display, and the senior officer present on the day ( if indeed, any officer was present) should be asked to apologise to the people of Scotland for being so crassly insensitive to the feelings of many like me, who distance themselves from the poisonous ideology behind Orangeism and who do not wish their support for the Armed Forces of this country to be predicated on a false assumption that Orangeism equates to patriotism.

I am copying this letter to Rear Admiral Hockley (Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland) and to Major-General Davis, CBE RM (Commandant General Royal Marines)

Yours sincerely,

Poppies, Patriotism, Politics and Petit Point(s)

Excuse my alliteration in the title, spoken aloud it reveals my meaning. It is traditional at this time of year to note the proliferation of Poppies and the Taliban like observance of the wearing of this symbol. Particularly on the BBC. In the North of Ireland, naturally, the wearing of the Poppy takes on a meaning entirely of it’s own.

It is an honourable and noble thing to remember those who died fighting for one’s country. Remembrance of courage and sacrifice are important and teach lessons for future generations. It binds people of a country in ties of patriotism and common cause, it serves as a reminder of principles and values. It helps people to understand things greater than the individualistic self interest that characterises  much of todays world.

Ideally that is what the wearing of the Poppy should be about.

But that is not what it is about here. The British Army represents none of the above values to me. The wearing of the Poppy is about flaunting something entirely different. It is, like most displays in the North, about identity and allegiance. It is a petty point scoring exercise which cheapens the sacrifices of those whom it is intended to commemorate and demeans those who use it as a political weapon.

As Channel 4’s Jon Snow discovered, there appears to be a mafia style insistence upon wearing this symbol for a two week period every year, even in Britain. We have the ridiculous sight of entertainment shows with non British contestants wearing them, we have shiny ones, enamel ones, diamond ones, flamboyant ones, silk ones…..you name it. It is beyond parody.

Personally, I believe countless thousands have fought and died for Britain over many Centuries including many, many Irishmen. ( Many more from South of the current border than North of it). For what? Certainly not so people could wear a flower as a means of rubbing their neighbours noses in it. Certainly not so that a TV producer could insist, whether directly or implicitly, that a teenage wannabe is seen to be toeing the fashionable political line.

My Grandmothers brother was shot dead by the British Army at the door of his Mothers farm in 1920 in Co Tipperary. His “crime” was the way he looked at them. I’ll not be wearing a Poppy this year.

 

 

Led Zep and Paul, the Mellowing

Ok, Grainne Brinkley and I disagree musically. She prefers Led Zeppelin to Paul Weller. I like both but I think Paul has maintained his Rebel heart better.

I’m open to arguments so here’s a bit of both. (I’ve cheated a bit by using this very very unusual version of Black Dog with Alison Krauss- showing my age perhaps)