SOCCER. The Emergency.
We really are a trivial country sometimes. Not small, not globally insignificant, not simply an island with an island's insularity, but trivial.
Admittedly, this World Cup is different in that it has a particular whiff about it that isn't pleasant. Think FIFA, think Infantino, think Trump.
World Cups might still hold a childhood nostalgia for many of us, but it is hard to maintain that innocent feeling while watching the cynicism of ad-drenched "hydration breaks" in air-conditioned stadiums.
So, fair enough, but this is still the biggest sporting tournament on the planet.
Now, one of the hosts does insist on calling this a soccer tournament, and we can let them off with that, given it is one of the few countries in the world where the game is not the national sport.
We, though, are not Americans. And the game is not called soccer. It is called football.
This strange insistence, especially amongst the GAA fraternity, on calling the game soccer is so trivial as to be embarrassing...
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