Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

It's evidence, not blank sheets of A4 paper. Honest! The acronym ‘MOPE’ is well known in Northern Ireland. For the uninitiated, it stands for ’Most Oppressed People Ever’ and both ’communities’ here regularly vie for the title. Though, even by our tortured standards, this story just about takes the jammy dodger! Ex BBC Northern Ireland sports presenter, Jerome Quinn, has taken his former bosses to a fair employment tribunal, alleging ’religious and racial harassment’ because he is Irish (yep only in Ireland eh?). In addition he claims that the Corporation favours ’Protestant supported sports’, like …. the North West 200! Fans of the Northern Ireland football team will remember that Quinn has a history of taking offence. In 2001 he decided to wear a Tyrone Gaelic football jersey to a home match against Iceland at Windsor Park. Unfortunately the resultant article is no longer online, but some feedback still survives thanks to the BBC website’s archive. ( It has been found - ...

“I wish I had listened to Malcolm's advice before pouring out so much undiluted advocacy for the Maze”, concedes Ed Curran. Seasoned local football journalist, Malcolm Brodie, had advised the former Belfast Telegraph editor that a multisports stadium on the former prison site was not viable. So does Curran’s rueful admission represent the beginnings of an apology for submitting readers to a barrage of ill-advised, senseless propaganda? Unfortunately not . He remains implacably convinced that a flawless project was sunk by sectarian prejudice, rather than practical objections and pragmatism. Curran has got it so wrong, yet remains convinced that he is so right, that it is almost poignant. None of the three sports governing bodies were half hearted in their commitments to a multisports stadium simply because it was to be shared, whatever the ex Tele supremo might insinuate. There was no significant undercurrent of sectarianism from supporters which caused the project to flound...

From the perspective of a fan of the Northern Ireland football team, I was opposed to the Maze stadium proposals for purely apolitical reasons. The plans would simply have delivered the wrong facility in the wrong place Naturally, as a unionist, I was also deeply unenthused by the prospect of a terrorist museum being erected / preserved at the Maze site. However my apprehension in that regard had little to do with concerns about the suitability of the stadium. The act of building a sports’ venue at the Maze would not have metamorphosised the adjacent hospital into some manner of IRA shrine by some indelible law of nature. Nor will scrapping plans for the stadium necessarily involve shelving the ‘peace and reconciliation centre’ (ho hum), as is becoming increasingly apparent. I can also say with absolute certainty that the vast majority of Northern Ireland supporters have no difficulty sharing a stadium with the GAA (in principle). There may be reservations as regards design implic...

The awesome ability of people in Northern Ireland to become offended at the most trivial perceived slight has been exhibited once again, as two customers are purportedly to sue the Hilton Hotel alleging that its staff refused to show last month’s all Ireland Gaelic Football final. Whether the hotel actually did show the final or not appears to be disputed. Although, frankly the facts are neither here nor there. It is the notion that a 5 star hotel should not have discretion to decide which programmes are convivial to the ambience it wishes to create and which are not, that is simply outrageous. More laughable still is the suggestion that declining to show something on television comprises an “affront” to anyone’s “dignity and national identity”. Are the two litigants the biggest MOPEs in the history of MOPEry? Assuming (and it's fair to assume) that the match was not blocked out on TVs in guests’ bedrooms, why would anyone choose to visit the Hilton Hotel in order to watch...

I am not known for my love of County Tyrone nor for my interest in GAA, however I managed to drive to Enniskillen and back over the weekend, past Dungannon, through Augher, Clougher, Fivemiletown etc., without noting anything either intimidating or offensive. Two wrongs don’t make a right and complaining about a Tyrone GAA pennant on a car in a car-park is as pathetic as objecting to a British Olympic Association flag or the infamous ' Boots’ Union Flag '. Provided it doesn’t entail dragging their sofas unto the streets of Belfast , then getting blocked before playing hurling amongst cars, the people of Tyrone are entitled to enjoy their sport and culture unencumbered. Perhaps both sides here need to start treating others as they would wish to be treated themselves as a preliminary to arguing their own case for discrimination.

A senior County Fermanagh GAA player Darren Graham has quit the sport because of persistent sectarian abuse inspired by his protestant background. Whilst the news has been greeted with something approaching excitement by some unionists, I find the story neither surprising nor particularly shocking. This sectarianism exists in many facets of society and in other sports also. As a Northern Ireland supporter, however, it is hard not to recall the media frenzy which accompanied Neil Lennon quitting the Northern Ireland team and to harbour a tiny inkling of desire that the same outrage greets a very similar story. In contrast to Irish Football Association, the Gaelic Athletic Association retains an overtly political constitution and its history is firmly grounded in an exclusive Catholic, Gaelic nationalism. The following are extracts from that constitution: ”Basic Aim The Association is a National Organisation which has as its basic aim the strengthening of the National Identity in a 32 Co...