Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Rory McIlroy – what can you say?  Northern Irish golf has been in great shape in recent years and he is its David Healy .  It’s not just the record of astonishing, trail-blazing achievement: although Rory spent the week demolishing practically every US Open record (Sir David did much the same during the 2008 European Championship qualifying group).  It’s also in the way the two players conduct themselves. McIlroy has self-confidence - he buried any notion to the contrary this weekend, with a relentless march towards his first major golf championship – but he’s also pleasingly grounded.  What’s not to like? He plays a great sport and he’s mastered it at a young age.  He shows sportsmanship and poise on and off the course – even in the teeth of a supposed “melt-down” at the US Masters earlier this year. He’s a proud and enthusiastic ambassador for Northern Ireland.  No-one’s keener than Rory to fly the colours in the wake of a victory and he backs all of ...

Kenny Dalglish made the first big signing of the close season last week by bringing ex Sunderland midfielder Jordan Henderson to Anfield.  Now, I’ve got to be honest, I know very little about this player.  I don’t even know, for instance, whether he is principally a defensive or attacking midfielder.  The Liverpool team which last made a serious attempt at the title had two members who have never been adequately replaced.  There was silk – the peerless passing ability of Xabi Alonse – and steel - from the rugged Argentinian Javier Mascherano. I suppose it’s too much to hope that a 20 year old could immediately fill the shoes of either man.  But although critics will imply that £20 million is too high a price for an unproven player, Liverpool’s new owners, the FSG group, have made it clear that they are prepared to spend big wherever they see potential.  Damien Comolli, the director of football, has been charged with overseeing recruitment.   T...

It's good for Northern Irish football that Jim Boyce, former president of the IFA, has been elevated to football's top table.  In a turbulent week for FIFA he has been named vice-president, representing the four UK associations. Northern Ireland has long punched over its weight in the world governing body.  The late Harry Cavan occupied the role which Boyce now fills for ten years, between 1980 and1990. It can't hurt to excel in football politics and it can't hurt to have friends in high places.  You have to wonder, though, about Boyce's contention , however diplomatic it may have been, that FIFA president Sepp Blatter is a 'friend' of Northern Ireland soccer. Blatter's high handed and ignorant treatment of the eligibility issue has been one a spect of his presidency.  Then we have his ill-concealed preference for a single British football association and one UK team.  The question must be asked, with friends like these who needs enemies?

From yesterday's Tele . Barack Obama and the Queen may have been recent visitors to Dublin, but the vast majority of local football supporters are giving it a bye-ball. Thousands of Northern Ireland fans had been expected to travel to the Aviva stadium for tonight's Carling Nations Cup clash with the Republic, but now it's likely they will number in the low hundreds, with most supporters' clubs boycotting the match. The impetus for fans to take this action came when the IFA imposed draconian travel restrictions and levied a £30 fee for coach travel to and from the game. Digging a little deeper, though, it's clear that the boycott reflects growing disillusion among supporters with the arrangements surrounding the Carling Nations Cup - and even Northern Ireland's decision to participate in the first instance. The Amalgamation of Northern Ireland Supporters' Clubs insists that its problem with the game is not just an expensive bus ticket; it maintains that ...

When either the President or Prime Minister of Russia wants to emphasise their liberal credentials they head to Skolkovo.  A business school, set to become heart of Moscow’s answer to Silicon Valley, it’s an emblem for the new Russia: educated, tech savvy, pro-business and punching its weight. Something of a kerfuffle accompanied Dmitry Medvedev’s press conference , planned for Skolkovo this afternoon.  There was some expectation that the President would declare his hand and announce whether he would run for a second term, in next year’s election. The conference followed hot on the heals of the announcement that Mikhail Prokorov, currently Russia’s third wealthiest billionaire, would lead Right Cause, the pro-business party which has backed Medvedev for the presidency, into December’s state Duma election. Interesting choreography, but the journalists who flocked to the Moscow Management School were disappointed.  The President said that it is ‘too soon’ to announce hi...

My column from Saturday's News Letter. As last week’s election count ground on through Friday evening, I took a much needed break from the coverage to visit the reopened Lyric Theatre in Belfast.   It’s been closed for the past year or so, as the old building was more or less rebuilt from the ground up and replaced by a gleaming, modern venue costing £18.1 million.   The Department of Culture, Arts and Lesiure stumped up about half of that total.   A hefty price tag, but it seems to be money well spent.   The lack of sound-proofing at the old Lyric was a particular irritation, with the roar of traffic from Stranmillis Embankment, car alarms and the like constantly intruding on performances.   Nothing quite explodes the illusion that you are in say, 7 th century Denmark, like the cheesy jingle of an ice cream van. There are no such issues with the new theatre.   The heavy wooden panels surrounding the auditorium insulate it perfectly from the outside wo...

A nice column today from David Mitchell in today's Observer .  The comedian skewers a neglected issue raised by the spectre of Scottish independence.  How would us Brits feel, deprived of our country? When I appeared on an episode of  Question Time  broadcast from Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, the issue of Scottish independence came up. One of my fellow panellists, the SNP deputy leader, Nicola Sturgeon, was at pains to make clear that her party had nothing against England and were admirers of that country.   What I didn't say in response, what I've kicked myself for not expressing ever since, was: "Yes but you've got it in for Britain. You may be happily in cahoots with the morris-dancing English and the Eisteddfod-organising Welsh, but my country, the Britain of London where I now live, of Swansea, my mother's home town where I spent a lot of time as a child, and of Galloway, where my paternal grandparents lived, is something you want to destroy. I'...