Pluck off, Brendan O’Neill, Spiked
Online
Japanese World Cup fans dressed up as leprechauns, references to
the Irish team as ‘warm, spirited, have-a-go heroes,’ and
post-match coverage of Ireland’s ‘brave boys in green’ are all too
much for Brendan O’Neill. As the Irish football fan writes in
Spiked Online, Irish stereotypes and the media’s
outpouring of sentimentality made Ireland’s defeat in the clash for
the World Cup even more pathetic than the loss itself. O’Neill
resents the patronizing sympathy, saying that it’s not much
different from earlier Irish images of fighting drunks or thick
Paddies, and argues that Ireland’s loss should be treated as any
other loss. And as for the recent gushing ‘terms of endearment’
toward the Irish, The writer says, ‘I think I’d rather be called a
fighting bogtrotter.’
–Julie Madsen
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