Guardian reply - very good!

mfield

Below is an article published in the Guardian on Wednesday and below it is
one e-mailed response defending the irish case

Remember the Guardian article lambasting the Irish and Robbie Keane -
here's a reply to it that they actually printed...



The Guardian article is first to remind you



Wednesday June 19, 2002
The Guardian

Immediately after scoring a goal against Saudi Arabia, those giants of
world football, Robbie Keane raced across the pitch and, directly in
front of the pitch-side camera, performed a mime of an archer firing an
arrow. He crouched down, drew one hand back and then simulated letting
go of
the bowstring and went kerpppowwww! I don't know what you thought about
that, if you saw it. I wanted to climb inside the television and smack
him
about the head. Or maybe respond with a real arrow. It was hugely
irritating, the sort of smug, dumb, self-aggrandising thing you might
expect
one of the Big Brother cretins to perform, or possibly Lulu. It made me
spit. Partly, I suppose, this is because I was cheering for the Saudis,
out
of a respect for their criminal justice system. Given a choice between
two
right-of-centre agrarian theocracies, I'll go with the more rigorous
one,
if that's OK. But I am well aware that I was almost entirely alone in
not
rooting for the Irish. Everybody in the world adores them, it would seem
- including the referee in their last game, who awarded them a total of
seven penalties (from which they managed to score three times) and
disallowed a whole bunch of Spanish goals. Perhaps he'd been mugged last
year on holiday in Marbella or something. But more likely he was just in
thrall to the Irish like everybody else. But who will the world cheer
for
now that the lovable leprechauns have been returned to their misty hills
and
treacherous bogs? Perhaps, like my friend and colleague John Humphries,
they
will occupy themselves by cheering for whomever England are playing,
even if
it's an al-Qaida Select XI, or maybe Germany. I hope so. England's
victories get more and more enjoyable as the whining about "English
triumphalism" grows within Great Britain.
========================================================================
==



The reply to what the journalist in the Guardian Newspaper
said about the Irish

With regard to your comments on Robbie Keane's celebration & numerous
little digs at Irish-ness in general, I fell you need a little reminding
of some facts that British people tend to forget for some strange
reason.
Firstly the Robbie Keane thing. Scoring a goal in the world cup is
something a lot of us dream of, for Robbie Keane it must have been a
dream for him too. I can understand his celebration, it was a sort of
follow
on from the goal against Germany when he drew two guns & start firing
away
only this time it's a different weapon. How this annoys you is
confusing.

What's the story with Beckham scoring & opening out his arms as if he's
an aeroplane about to take off?? Maybe he's trying to tell us he's from
cloud cuckoo land or something; he'd be right. Saudi Arabia may not be
any
great sheiks "get it?" But what do you call Greece when you struggled to
beat them & to be fair you mention the referee giving us a lot of dodgy
decisions. If it weren't for a terrible decision to give you a free kick
in the last minute against Greece you wouldn't have qualified. Short
memories. I have to agree with you in regard to the strange phenomenon
that
most people throughout the world seem to take to Irish people & admire a
whole host of different things about us. Now let's ask our selves why
this
is?

Is it anything to do with our culture of Music, Dance & the ability to
have
a decent conversation with a complete stranger? Is it anything to do
with
the fact that after about seven pints we tend to be a little happier &
start
singing? Is it anything to do with the age-old reputation of us been a
friendly race? Is it anything to do with the fact that where-ever Irish
people turned up in the world, we have blended in and had a lot to
offer?

For example in America it's generally known that we built the entire
infrastructure form the ground up. The influence of the Irish in
Argentina, Australia, Britain & Canada for example is shocking. The fact
that your people & country are hated, & I don't mean this to be
offensive
but this is fact. This hatred is simply because all of the above I have
mentioned in favour of my people is exactly the same reasons as to why
your
not liked, but in reverse. I mean your people are so diverse due to the
colonization of vast amounts of lands & cultures that you lack your own
cultural identity. The fact that after seven pints, there is a tendency
to
smash some bodies face in. The Fact that you have an age-old reputation
that
you are an oppressive race that took rather than contribute to any other
nation in the past. So you wonder why we support anybody but England?
Not
Wales or Scotland, only England. Were not perfect by any means and were
not
all friendly, but I can tell you that the old laugh about the
leprechauns
and misty hills and the bogs are starting to disappear. For a country
like
Ireland with a population of about four million & our own identity, add
the fact that our people are loved everywhere & that our economy is the
fastest growing in Europe, is it any surprise why were admired? Go on,
have
a dig at us ? sure we've taken a lot worse than that from you lot before
&
came out stronger for it. At this stage it's like water off a Duck's
back.
The worst bit about it is that it's eating you up in side & there's
nothing
you lot can do about it anymore!!! Mind yourself & answer me this simple
question. You own the English language, but why do the London folk
pronounce such words like THINK as FINK? Where on Earth did you get the
F? Like all things that originate from England, English people are crap
at
them. Is mise le meas "Irish"

John McGuinness

ps: in your bit below about the referee been mugged in Marbella, well
what's the chances that an English lout might have done it?

BKtje

i cant agree with everything he said in the reply but must of it i do agree with

glad some one responded to the twat

Moses

I read this reply this morning, and hated it.
I still hate it.

Ok, the English bloke is an idiot, that's obvious to the rest of thinking world. Why bother answering him? I think the initial shock was the realisation that these blokes exist.

And "Cloud Cuckoo land" ? Who says that? I know that we all wanted to answer him, but if you're going to choose to sit down and write a letter in reply to his, and in so doing become a literary embassador for your country, pleeeeeeeeeeeeease don't use the expression "Cloud Cuckoo land". That was just cringe-worthy....

Cake Fiend

Stupid reply, even worse article. He could at least have used decent fscking spelling and syntax.