I Was There May 24, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Personal Favourites, Rugby.Tags: 6 Nations, Brian O'Driscoll, British and Irish Lions, Churchill Cup, European, Felipe Contempomi, Fernando Torres, Grand Slam, Harlequins, Heineken Cup, Ireland, Jonathan Sexton, Leicester, Leinster, Liverpool, Michael Cheika, Molly Malone, Munster, Murrayfield, RDS, Rocky Elsom, Rugby, Shane Horgan, Stan Wright, Steven Gerrard, Triple Crown
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Murrayfield, Edinburgh, 23rd May 2009. I was there. Along with a massive army of blue-clad fans, I was privileged to witness Leinster finally fulfill their potential and cap this glorious season for Irish rugby. Having been frustrated by the inconsistencies and heartbreaks of the last 10 years, it was an unbelievable rush and release to be there when it all came together.
But let’s start at the very beginning. I actually had an exam yesterday morning (my third of four final, Postcolonialism and Irish Studies, if you’re interested), 9:30-12:30. My flight to Edinburgh left Dublin Airport at 12:45. You do the math. The added difficulty was that, technically, you’re not supposed to leave the exam after 12, which meant a serious dash to get my three essays written in time. Thankfully, the chief invigilator (which sounds like it should be a villain in a Dan Brown book) was an understanding Ulster fan who waived the rules and let me sneak out at 12.05.
My taxi driver earned his tip, as I was at the airport by 12.25. My dad had been in touch with the DAA and, get this, I came through the VIP suite to speed up my chances of boarding the flight. I felt pretty damn cool being whished through a private check-in area, driven across the tarmac in a Merc and escorted to the top of the queue. It was all pretty posh but, ultimately, unnecessary. I was in my seat before my dad. Never mind.
So, to Scotland. We arrived at the stadium an hour before kickoff. Murrayfield is an impressive structure despite being topped with a curious mish-mash of iron twigs. There’s something exhilarating about entering a mostly-empty stadium which makes you take a deep breath as you do a full, 360 degree scan of the place. Like scanning a battlefield before the cry of charge rings out. Watching the place fill, it became obvious that the Leinster fanbase is growing. Walking through the streets to the stadium, the Leinster supporters clearly outnumbered the Leicester group by two or three to one. We were a rare breed ten years, even five years ago; now I’m not such an exclusive creature – we’re doing our best to catch Munster! In terms of fans and trophies.
Yes, trophies. That big, shiny, beautiful hunk of metal at the end of this European rainbow was well worth waiting for. I even got to touch the thing as Shane Horgan carried it through the mass of fans in the airport. The whole team passed through the departure lounge which was packed with singing and chanting happy Bluemen, signed autographs, did photos, beaming from ear to ear. A tremendous bond has started to develop between this team and their people. The travelling support has been superb and the RDS has become a fantastic venue full of fantastic fans. Munster have been able to beat Leinster with two sticks of underachievement and underwhelming support for many years, but the times, they are a-changing.
I have a seriously raw throat today after screaming and shouting all through the game yesterday. I’m not going to dissect the intricacies of the match, save to point out some obvious points. Leinster were by far the better team, with more chances and points before Stan Wright’s sinbinning. They conceded ten points while down to fourteen men, but did not allow Leicester a score for the final 37 minutes of the game. Leinster also played a very smart kicking game, chose their moments well and displayed great control and composure in the final 10 minutes to close out the win after Jonathan Sexton’s winning kick. Sexton deserves huge credit for controlling the game and contributing some stunning scores in the manner of a seasoned pro. It is sad to see Dr. Phil leave, but his young apprentice looks ready to fill his big boots.
It would be equally sad to see Rocky go. What a man. In the manner of Liverpool’s Gerrard-Torres axis, Elsom and O’Driscoll have invigorated this Leinster side beyond any previous level, especially since Christmas. They have been simply inspirational. Michael Cheika seems confident he can keep Rocky north of the equator. If he does leave, he will have left the proverbial indelible mark on Leinster rugby. As for O’Driscoll, it is as if he has decided that the stars are alligned and that he will fill in those blanks on his CV this season: Triple Crown, 6 Nations, Grand Slam, Heineken Cup. Top try scorer in the Championship and its player of the season. A winning Lions tour would be the icing on the cake. A Churchill Cup win would be a nice bonus too – Ireland has pretty much every other rugby trophy there is going right now!
Anyway, it didn’t matter that the flight home was delayed by an hour. It didn’t matter that I was shattered tired today. Hearing the stewardess congratulate us on “our win”, being congratulated by the passenger beside me on being a European Champion, the headlines in the Sunday papers, touching that trophy, getting Michael Cheika’s autograph, the signature of the man who has rebuilt Leinster in the last four years, roaring my guts out as the final whistle went…those will live with me forever.
This little piece will not read as a work of literary greatness, or as incisive sports journalism, or as a brilliantly constructed personal account. It’s a bit of a mish-mash, like the Murrayfield metalwork. But it’s hard to express yourself when you are on such a high, when your head is still spinning and when you can still hear the chants of “Lein-ster” and the strains of “Molly Malone”. It’s hard to believe, but Leinster beat Harlequins, Munster and Leicester to get here. They possess possibly the two greatest individuals in the competition. They deserve this win. We deserve it, the fans who’ve put up with the taunting and the topsy-turvy past. And Ireland deserves it too. With so many bad-news stories, sport is what we turn to for our joys. Yesterday was a joy and it was great to spend it witnessing a great team secure a great victory with my dad, who once had a trial for Leinster back in his college days. Yes indeed, yesterday was one of the best days of my life.
I Want My Football Club Back February 4, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Football, Personal Favourites.Tags: George Gillet, Liverpool FC, Rafa Benitez, Steven Gerrard, Tom Hicks
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I want my football club back.
I want my days to be full of the joys of great victories over great opponents.
I want to be able to relish the sweetness of 2 late goals against Chelsea, not suffer in the crossfire of 2 feuding owners.
I want to celebrate the dignity of our name, not be derided for the public enmity seeping through the cracks in the walls of this great establishment.
I want to see my inspirational captain lifting glittering trophies, not trudging from the field after another 0-0 draw.
I want the press to be serenading the genius of my team’s craftsmanship, not mocking the manager, the players, the name.
I want to see a team of legendary names playing legendary games, not a collective of overpaid, under-par flyboys.
I want my team to sing in harmony, not to sing from the rooftops when things go awry.
I want my club to rebuild itself from the bottom up, not tear itself down.
I want playing for my club to be a privilege to be earned, not a right to be expected.
I want my club’s owners to either understand what it means to be a part of Liverpool FC, to care as passionately about its successes and weep at its failures, to value the name and the history as much as I do, to use the power and responsibility they possess thanks to their wealth to increase my club’s reputation, not to bolster their coffers, to respect the supporters and the servants of my club in the way they handle its affairs, to handle those affairs within the four walls of the board room rather than in the columns of the tabloids.
I want my club to be my club. Not Tom Hicks’ club or George Gillet’s club. I want my club to be a treasure, decorated with medals and trophies, not tarnished by back-stabbing, instability and public ridicule.
I want my club, Liverpool Football Club, to win every game, every cup, every league. I do not appreciate the way its name has been dragged through the mud in the last 18 months, by half-witted, money-driven, heartless owners, by some players whose words or deeds have belittled my club, and by the press who seek to turn a spark into a blazing inferno and to muddy once-clear waters.
Give me back my club. My Liverpool Football Club.
Milestones January 29, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in College, Human Nature, Life, Personal Favourites.Tags: College, God, Life, Memories, Mum, Poem, Poetry, Smile
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Snow outside my house in Milltown.
I’ll be finishing college very shortly – this June, to be exact. I will have turned 24 by then too. Some people say “God, how great to be young and entering the “real” adult world beyond college”. And I say “Hmm, not so much great as a little bit frightening and sobering”. There is that balance between the freedom to do anything you want and the rudderless sense of drifting without a focus. Sometimes you feel life could do with less structure, and then you find yourself totally responsible. You think you’ll always be in college and suddenly you’re finished, your friends have moved away or are working and you can’t see them everyday. The things you took for granted are no longer a given. The ingrained sense of regularity is replaced by an overpowering realisation that you need to start leading your life, not following it.
Furthermore, as the end of college looms, you find yourself reminiscing and resolving: Reminiscing about times you had almost forgotten, resolving to make a bigger effort to see friends and family or to do something new and exciting. Memories are keepsakes to be stored away for this sort of moment in your life, when they are needed to remind you of where you came from and what may lie ahead.
As you accumulate more and more memories, you also realise that perhaps you should treasure those you are creating right now. Last night I got a text from my mum saying she was in my house dropping some furniture up. I called her asking her to stay, telling her I’d be home in thirty minutes. We spent an hour, walking about the house as she outlined the plans she had for it – as I noticed she had made my bed and washed the dishcloths. We sat by the fire, cups of tea in hand, and I felt very happy to be spending this thin slice of my life with my mum, who did much of the talking, filling me in on the last few weeks in her world, leaving me to wonder at the power of family.
If you think I’m being soppy, well, who cares? We all get old. We all die. Sometimes it is important to be reminded of that – not to make us worry about the future, but to make sure we drink plentifully from the overflowing cup of the present, not to make us cry, but to make sure that we smile.
What I’ve just said in the last four paragraphs, allow me to sum up in a five line poem. Have a happy life, wherever you are.
Mortal
Simple ice-cream cone
Warm dappled breezes
Sunlight milked from heaven
I am reminded that I am dying
But so pleasantly
Sunrise, Surfers Paradise, New South Wales, Australia. One of the perfect moments in my life.
An Irish-American Dream January 27, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Human Nature, Ireland, Personal Favourites, Rugby.Tags: America, British and Irish Lions, Broadway, Dublin, Edinburgh, Fast Food, Girvan Dempsey, Leinster, New York, Obesity, RDS, Rob Kearney, Robert Burck, Rugby, Shylock, The Congress, The Merchant Of Venice, The Naked Cowboy, The Statue Of Liberty, The White House, Time Square, USA
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I was at the Leinster match against Edinburgh on Sunday – a dour affair, 12-3 victory, blah blah blah but the fact is that the team are through to a quarter final against an opponent who won’t scare them – Harlequins – which is still two and a bit months away. There were some bright sparks, notably of course my schoolmate Rob Kearney who looks better and better with every game. His catching under the high ball has been exemplary, his kicking has improved immeasurably and his eye for an offensive running line is unmatched among his teammates right now. This Leinster Lion is soon to be a British and Irish Lion. Girvan Dempsey has been a great servant to Leinster and Ireland but it’s time to face facts: The future’s bright, the future’s Kearney.
The weather was pretty rotten in the RDS so I was well wrapped up and doing my best to contain body-heat when I was presented with the unwelcome prospect of someone donating an portion of their own body-heat to me. Yes, it’s that “2 Seats On The Aeroplane” question: An extaordinarily fat – not overweight, genuinely fat – man sat down next to me. And by next to me I mean he very nearly succeeded in sitting next to me on both my left and right sides.
Now, I’m able to tolerate many things, but being unable to sit properly in a chair which you have paid good money for on an unready-uncomfortable day is pretty tough to bear. There is very little one can do, however, short of emergency liposuction or a “Merchant Of Venice” job. Shylock could have drawn his entire pension from this guy. And this isn’t a case of me being size-ist – it’s the same as someone standing on your toes, or sneezing on you, in that they have caused you to feel discomfort. The only difference here is that a stumble of ones feet or a sudden sneeze are slightly less controllable than a bulging waistline. Common sense and genuine health concerns are being increasingly overlooked in Ireland, as witnessed by the increasing number of Irish teens who are, well, increasing. We only live once – don’t try living for two people.
A neat segue links the question of obesity to America, the so-called Home of Fast Food. And we had a very American visitor to the RDS for our half-time entertainment on Sunday: Robert Burck, the world-famous “Naked Cowboy”, is a busker in Time Square, whose act consists of him playing his guitar wearing only boots, tight shorts and a cowboy hat. A wet and windy January in Dublin isn’t the best place to ply that particular trade and his song was both brief and forgettable. And weren’t the cowboys to be found slightly further west than New York City? And surely they wore more clothes than Mr. Burck – cacti can sting, after all!
But nevertheless, the image of the Naked Cowboy is iconic. He was heartily cheered on and off the pitch and there was an awe-filled gusto to the way the man on the tannoy introduced our special guest “ALL THE WAY FROM NEW! YORK! CITY!!!” There is life in the New World yet. There remains a worldwide, and especially Irish, fascination with America and the holy grail of New York, the epicentre of that culture of hope and possibility. The White House, Congress etc. may all be in Washington but it is the New York skyline, the Statue Of Liberty, Time Square, the Subway, Broadway, these legendary landmarks to freedom, adventure and human flamboyance, which ignite the imagination.
America is dictating world culture to an unbelievable extent at the moment. The world’s political tides are pulled to and fro by the orbiting American satellite. And on the evidence of Sunday in the RDS, America is the still the hottest ticket in town, still the band we dream of seeing play live, still the celebrity we all want to shake hands with, still the true land of hope and glory. Heck, I’ve written plenty of posts about America myself over the last few months. Maybe it’s our Irish inferiority complex, our historical link to the states, the fact that we’re a little nation and they are our big brotherly neighbours across the ocean, who knows? But clearly, in hard times, we still look to America, to its icons such as the Naked Cowboy, to reaffirm our belief in human endurance and the impossibility of nothing.
A Long Time Coming January 21, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Arts, College, Football, Ireland, Latest News, Personal Favourites, Politics.Tags: Anfield, Barack Obama, Comedy Store Players, Dell, DU Players, Improv She Wrote, Little Shop Of Horrors, Liverpool FC, Newcastle United, Pope Benedict XVI, The 44th President Of The United States Of America, Trinity College Dublin, Washington, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Yes We Can
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-The Inauguration of an African-American as President of the United States.
-The mid-season slump for Liverpool in the race for the Premiership.
Three events of varying importance, all a long time coming. I’ve been temporarily cut off from the rest of civilisation due to the untimely demise of my Dell’s battery, hence the delay in the latest post. I’m sure you were all desperately waiting for it. In between the death of the battery and now, I’ve been rehearsing for “Little Shop Of Horrors”, which I’m co-directing and which will be taking to the stage in the Players Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, from 17th to 21st February. Do come. And if you can’t, send money. Or flowers. Or both.
On top of that, I’ve also been onstage myself as part of Trinity College’s brand new improv comedy troupe, half-wittily named “Improv, She Wrote”. Comprising eleven members, we had our first live show ever in front of a packed house in the Players Theatre last night and, if the audience reaction was anything to go by, things went rather ok. Improv comedy is a really great form of entertainment, cheap to produce, fun, and great to watch when done well. It is a massive part of college life in America and, to a lesser extent, Britain, but has very few devotees in Ireland. But anyone has watched “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” or seen the Comedy Store Players in action will know how great good improv can be. We can only strive to be better. Thanks to those who came last night and do come again – after all, every show is different!
Liverpool, I’m afraid to say, have hit an icy patch this winter – as per usual. 6 draws in 9 games, if my count is correct. This habit we had of drawing games we should have won was one I thought we had kicked this year but sadly the addiction to mediocrity seems to be resurfacing. The goals need to start flowing at Anfield – the 5-1 rout of Newcastle seems to have been a flash in a very cold pan.
Finally, the tears were brimming again today. The sense of occasion was very obvious, even in a simple sitting room in campus rooms in Trinity College. I watched the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as America’s 44th President with a group of my friends. We clapped loudly when he was sworn in, felt for him as he stumbled nervously, and the silence was deafening as we hung on every word of his inaugural address.
I was aware of how unique a situation this really was. There are few moments in our lives when we experience a true moment of hope, an uplifting feeling of the world being, for a moment, good again, and say to ourselves “In the future, I will remember this moment. I will point to this instant and say, I was there, I saw this”. Some are personal, others very public affairs. One of these moments came when I watched the new pope, Benedict XVI, presented to the world – this was my faith remaking itself, renewing a sacred covenant.
Another of those moments occurred today. There was utter hope and faith in that room today as we watched the coverage from Washington. Today the world is good and right. Today America is better then it has been, thanks to one man and the millions who believed in his message, a message so simple and positive: Yes We Can. So, along with the country he now leads, let’s heed Obama’s call: Lift ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and begin to remake the world.
Advent Calendar Post #14: Moving House December 22, 2008
Posted by bazmcstay in Advent, Personal Favourites.Tags: DVD, Family Guy, Moving house, Mum, TV
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Yeah, as the title suggests, I’m moving house. Or rather, I’ve moved house. And, as befits such an activity, I have spent an inordinate amount of time making lists, opening boxes, musing over the colour of crockery, figuring out the best place on the kitchen counter for the kettle and shifting sofas slightly to the left. Myself and my mother have visited too many home furnishing outlets for my liking and we spent an hour this evening arguing with a television table. But now, at last, I’m sitting on a sofa. I am watching a “Family Guy” DVD on the new TV. The fire is burning quietly. I feel very, very comfy. And I get to go home for Christmas tomorrow. Sometimes, life feels very sweet.
Moments of Perfect Symmetry October 14, 2008
Posted by bazmcstay in Personal Favourites.Tags: Personal Favourites
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I thought I’d compile a wee list of little moments that raise a smile if only for the fact that they seem to indicate that, every now and again, life isn’t quite as arbitrary as we may think, that sometimes circumstances conspire in such a way as to make you feel lucky, happy, blessed or loved. Sometimes all four at once. Some may seem odd, or funny, or obvious, but they’re personal. I’d welcome any suggestions of your own, so please feel free to post a comment and I’ll add them to the list.
1. Crying with laughter.
2. Humming a song which then starts playing on the radio.
3. A couple holding hands and walking in step with each other.
4. Walking past a lamp-post as it flashes off.
5. A single shaft of sunlight through a hole in the clouds.
6. The first time you smell freshly-cut grass each year.
7. The sound of a stream.
8. Guessing something at the first attempt.
9. Reaching the pedestrian crossing just as the lights turn green so you don’t need to stop.
10. Finishing the sentences of someone you love.
11. A spontaneous hug.
12. Making someone laugh.
13. Remembering something you’ve been trying hard to remember.
14. Getting a joke before the punchline.
15. Finding unexpected common ground with a stranger.
