March 2009 Tallrite Blogs

Domestic Vermin Need a Robust Response

Two brave soldiers and one brave policeman lost their lives earlier this month, shot by so-called republicans. Some might think this was to advance their cause that Ireland should be re-united, as it was for 700 years under - ironically - hated British rule, with sovereignty of Northern Ireland wrenched from the UK to the Republic of Ireland. It was of course no such thing. Nor can there be any doubt that an Ireland united by such violent means is today anathema to nearly every Irishman and woman of whatever religious or political persuasion.

Thirty-plus years of brutal guerrilla warfare between the IRA and the British Army ended in, if not quite defeat of the IRA, at least a stalemate, with the IRA at last recognizing that it could never achieve through armed struggle the unification it sought. With this reality on the ground, its representatives (ie Sinn Féin) and those of the other main paramilitary/sectarian groups entered into tortuous negotiations with the British and Irish Governments. What emerged was the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, signed by all parties, which was then ratified overwhelmingly through an all-Ireland referendum, with implementation following in fits and starts over the succeeding decade. And with that decade finally came peace as a cross-party coalition of former enemies ruled the province, often bad-temperedly, frequently incompetently, with several childish hiatuses, but - significantly - with no-one resorting to the gun to settle their political differences.

So the vermin who perpetrated these murders - the first sectarian killing of British law-enforcers for over a decade - who describe themselves as dissident republicans will be in no doubt of the utter futility of such killings in terms of achieving any political change. For if the mighty IRA were unable to unify Ireland by force and send the British and other Protestants scuttling back to the mainland for their own safety, tiny splinter groupings taking pot-shots certainly cannot.

Therefore the question arises why did they do it? Why was it so important for them to take three lives and destroy three families? As Kate Carroll, the heartbroken wife of Stephen, the murdered policeman rightly pointed out, “These people have just taken my life as well.”

What do they think they will gain, other than notoriety?

I think the answer is obvious. They kill in order to kill. That's all. These domestic vermin are no different from the Islamist vermin of Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda and related terrorists, whose sole objective for killing their enemies is to kill them, not to advance any cause whatsoever.

Abbas Hussein al-Musawi, the erstwhile leader of Hezbollah whom the Israelis blew up and who was succeeded by Hassan Nasrallah the current incumbent, once pithily observed,

“We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you”.

Leaving little doubt as to his genocidal intentions, he had promised that Hezbollah would

“wipe out every trace of Israel ...the cancer of the Middle East ... and intensify its military, political and popular action in order to undermine the peace-talks.”

Satirist John Oliver, commenting on the Mumbai Islamist attacks on Comedy Central's the Daily Show, hit the nihilistic nail on the head when he said, “We hate and kill everything you stand for - Join us!”

Inasmuch as the domestic vermin who call themselves Irish republicans have behaved exactly as such Islamists do, they should be treated in the same way. They need to be stopped in their tracks.

It is encouraging that parts of the Sinn Féin leadership have been prepared to condemn the slaughters. In particular, Martin McGuinness, its number two and also Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, declared:

“I supported the IRA during the conflict, I myself was a member of the IRA, but that war is over ... these people, they are traitors to the island of Ireland,”

while standing shoulder-
to-shoulder with the
(Unionist/Protestant)
First Minister Peter
Robinson and the Chief
Constable Hugh Orde.

Unprecedented.

But Leader Caoimhghín
Ó Caoláin its leader in
the Dáil (Irish
parliament) prefers an
otherwise vilified hierarchy of victims

Peter Robinson, Hugh Orde and Martin McGuinness condemn the murders

wherein murdered British soldiers are worthy of less outrage than murdered British
policemen -

“Those killings [of soldiers] were wrong because they were in breach of a Peace Process entered into in good faith by Irish republicans.”

He was on-message with his boss Gerry Adams:

“What happened Saturday night is wrong and counter-productive.”

Neither of them seems to consider the murders to have been immoral or unlawful - or even murders. Just annoying.

As for the rest of the political establishment in Britain and Ireland, they have indeed been unequivocal in their condemnations. However, in my view, their follow up proposals are universally wishy-washy, as they drone about “bringing those responsible to justice”. Compare such language with, for example, President Asif Ali Zardari's much more forceful promise to punish “with iron hands” the Islamist killers who attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.

When dealing with domestic vermin with the mindset and behaviour of the worst of Islamist terrorists, they should be treated with a similar rugged approach. They need to be hunted down and captured or killed.

Last October, the Spanish police were faced with a bank robbery in Alicante on the East coast. The robber had seized hostages and was threatening to kill them if he was not allowed to escape. So in return for freeing them, the police provided a getaway motorbike and allowed the robber unmolested to race away from the bank on it.

The getaway, which appeared on CBS television with English commentary, can be viewed in this dramatic 55-second video clip. Note the well-planned, simple, direct manner in which the Spanish police brought the whole incident to a striking conclusion [Hat tip: Dave in Spain].

asdfds

I wish the politicians on both sides of the Irish border and of both traditions would use robust language and be prepared to advocate whatever tough steps are necessary to end the careers of the vermin who murdered those three courageous soldiers and policeman.

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Rugby Dispatches

Every four years, I head off to make my own Hajj, or religious pilgrimage, to watch the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament, a short, fast and furious version of the normal 15-a-side game. This month it took place in sunny Dubai for the first time. I wrote before and after dispatches, which were published in the Irish Times. To give you a flavour of the event, and perhaps tempt you to the next one in Cardiff in 2013, here they are.

Rugby Dispatch Nbr 1
Sevens Heaven in the Middle East

ONLY A few days ago every paper and broadcast in Ireland was full of just one sporting event – the defeat of the mighty English by the plucky Irish in the latter’s quest for a first rugby Grand Slam since 1948 under the legendary try-scorer Jackie Kyle, when, coincidentally, England were also beaten by a single point.

So how could another rugby event, with a far more international flavour than a contest between a mere six countries, a World Cup no less, have glided so silently beneath the Irish radar? The quadrennial Rugby World Cup Sevens, just about to begin in Dubai, is one of the world’s great unsung competitions, and this time it’s not just for the boys.

A parallel competition has brought 16 women’s teams to Dubai to battle (minus burkas) for an inaugural Women’s Cup, with the Irish currently ranked sixth in the world (and ahead of England and France).

Sevens rugby is played on a full-size pitch, but each team has only seven players – three forwards and four backs – and each half lasts just seven minutes; yellow cards mean two minutes in the sinbin. Apart from that, the game follows the same laws as the 15-a-side version, but is played at a much more frenetic pace which is only for the super-fit.

Matches follow each other at strictly choreographed 22-minute intervals, which allow for stoppage time and changeover.

This means spectators gorge on a non-stop feast of fast, skilful, international rugby, for 2½ crazy days, interrupted only when attendants bring food and refreshment to your seat. It’s almost like getting up to go to work every day, except that every night is party time, which can make it hard to get up in time for the first game.

Bar a handful of games, the whole tournament takes place in a single stadium, which means not only do you see every knockout contest, but you never have to miss even a pool game.

The men’s 36 pool games occupy the first day and a half, after which a points system divides the teams into three groups of eight. On the third and final day they compete in three knockout battles for a bowl, a plate and the big one, the 2009 Rugby Sevens World Cup. In the midst of this, there is a break for a big parade of all the players and match officials and some extravagant entertainment.

The Sevens are being staged at a just opened stadium called, er, The Sevens (click on photo to enlarge in a new window), located on the outskirts of Dubai, a half-hour’s drive from downtown. It sports a permanent grandstand with 4,000 seats, plus temporary stands for a further 36,000 people. The complex has a secondary pitch which caters for 5,000 spectators where some of the men’s and most of the women’s games will be played, plus a further four.

It also incorporates changing rooms, hospitality areas, broadcast and medical facilities, as well as a 30-metre wide rugby promenade, featuring cafes and food outlets. Though intended to become the new new home of rugby in the Middle East, it will also target cricket, football, basketball and netball.

There is no doubting from the international array of colourful shirts, hats and other accoutrements on display in the streets and haunts of Dubai that there is a very big rugby event in the air.

You know it is rugby and not, for example, soccer because of the way all the men walk.

It is more of a slow, exaggerated, nautical swagger, with hips moving deliberately fore and aft while the manly shoulders sway in a kind of horizontal circle that says “I’m a tough guy, I could win this competition single-handedly, don’t mess with me”.

However, exchange a few words and they are instantly your best friend, as eager, enthusiastic and childish as you are to talk about the forthcoming games, the players, the beer, the rankings, the Fijians (current world champions), the All Blacks (everyone’s nemesis) and plans for the next competition in four years. And no player has even kicked a ball yet.

It all begins at 5pm today with Wales v Zimbabwe. An hour later Ireland, under manager Jon Skurr, plays its opener against a formidable Samoa. Australia and Portugal also share this tough pool.

Can’t wait.

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So two days later ...

Rugby Dispatch Nbr 2
Why, Why, Why? (It's Just So Unfair)

The fifth Rugby World Cup Sevens hosted by Dubai was certainly a festival of surprises. The spectators' unforgiving hard benches in the unforgiving open sun was one. The parade taking place, without the combatants, on Day One instead of Day Three as advertised was another.

A third, monumental surprise was the unceremonious dethronements of the current champions (Fiji), the perennial favourites (New Zealand), the other big guns (England and South Africa) in the quarter-finals by no-hopers (I exaggerate) Kenya, Wales, Samoa and Argentina, Ireland having previously taken out doughty Australia. Then there were the sweet eventual cup-winning victory over Argentina by a deserving Wales and the gripping women's inaugural final where the Aussies overcame the All Blacks.

The women's world cup competition was an innovation, which many welcomed but most found a tiresome interruption to the smooth progress of the mens'. It meant matches had to be held simultaneously on two pitches which you had to yo-yo between and still would miss crucial contests. Moreover, apart from the final few games, the standard of the women's matches was mostly akin to primary schoolchildren's and great if you enjoy the delights of slow play, knockons and dropped catches, but at least you could follow what was going on more easily.

Some of the winsome cheerleaders Predictably, curmudgeonly chauvinists far preferred the troupe of leggy cheerleaders with their black and orange outfits and silver pompoms as, with the same verve and energy as the players', they danced and leapt and cartwheeled all over and alongside the main pitch whenever there was a brief respite in the rugby.

The Day One parade was very well choreographed and entertaining: half a dozen gaily-bedecked camels haughtily strutting their stuff like catwalk models, bare-chested kung-fu tumblers performing impossible acrobatics, Arab drummers in traditional robes providing a thrilling beat, children in beautiful Graeco-Roman tunics dancing in perfect unison, the lovely cheerleaders of course, and other black-clad children releasing clusters of coloured helium balloons and rocketing streamers.

Within the compound outside the stadium, franchisees in huts and marquees sold their coffee and pies and chips and beer and ice-creams, having, of course, ensured everyone at the entrance gates had first been frisked of all food and drink. You had to buy coupons to effect payment. An amusing sign in the bars admonished you not to drink and drive, while advising that the only way to dispose of Colourful shirts brighten up a couple of curmodgeonly chauvinists at the RWC7s 2009 in Dubai unused coupons was by taking the car to a particular alcohol outlet in the distant fellow-emirate of Ras al-Khaimah. A merchandising store sold multi-coloured, overpriced rugby shirts and hats emblazoned to commemorate the event, which were irresistible. Raucous bands played in shifts from a large temporary stage to keep the noise levels and atmosphere almost as elevated outside the field of play as at it.

Back within the stadium, we were regularly exhorted over the loudspeakers to join in with what has become the de-facto anthem of big Sevens tournaments everywhere, “Hey, baby, will you be my girl”, which has as much relevance to rugby as the “Fields of Athenry”, the lusty rugby anthem of Munster and Ireland. But likewise, when belted out with gusto to the non-existent rafters, you cannot fail but feel uplifted. Disappointingly, the Irish crowd was so small and scattered that Athenry was never heard, except from my own spindly throat.

But what was heard roaring round the stadium, especially once Wales had secured the mantle of world champions and posed on the sward before the dignitaries and the crowd as the cameras whirred, was Tom Jones' timeless rendition of Delilah, that curious paean to violent domestic abuse (“I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more”).

Wales: Rugby World Cup Sevens Champions, 2009-2013

It was dark by then, and the sumptuous finale of fireworks that then lit the night sky made the floodlights redundant. People started to drift away for another four years. But as Wales gloried on noisily, in the distance you could faintly hear disappointed Fijian, New Zealand, South African, Australian and English accents with their plaintiff wails (Wales?), “Why, why, why, Delilah?”

++++++++++++++

My two newspaper columns on the tournament
are transcripted at http://tinyurl.ie/09-7s

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Some trivia from the tournament -

78,000 – Cumulative attendance over three days, comprising 12,000 on Thursday, 32,000 on Friday and 34,000 on Saturday.

0 – points conceded by England and New Zealand women during their pool matches.

98 – number of matches played in total across the men’s and women’s tournaments.

480 – total number of players in squads across two tournaments.

34.5 – average number of points scored per match in the men’s tournament , 1968 in total.

28.8 – average number of points scored per match in the women’s tournament, 1180 in total.

20 – number of tries scored by Scotland in the men’s tournament, the most of any team.

29 – number of tries scored by New Zealand in the women’s tournament, the most of any team.

24 – Number of points scored by Aled Thomas of (eventual Champions) Wales in the men’s tournament, the highest of any Wales player.

14 – number of players in the men’s tournament who scored more points than Aled Thomas. The highest points scorer was Scotland’s Colin Gregor.

52 – number of points scored by New Zealand’s Selica Winiata, the highest in the women’s tournament.

You can watch video highlights (free)
of previous world cup tournaments here.