Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Ewan McKenna on Irish Rugby- Time to Put up or Shut Up

  • 18-10-2019 10:53pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,687 ✭✭✭✭


    McKenna has another of those articles that will cause controversy. He's already stuck the boot into horse racing and now its the time of rugby.
    Full article here, its a long read but very interesting to read his views, even if many will not agree with them
    https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/rugby-world-cup-2019/ewan-mackenna-there-is-no-room-left-for-nearlymen-for-heroic-losses-its-time-to-put-up-or-shut-up-38605064.html
    Maybe they can together dredge up their finest of days and create easily their greatest. They say every problem is an opportunity in disguise. And there's one good way to shut up doubters, and it's a lot more convincing than merely ridiculing those doubts.

    But what we do know is there is no room left for nearly-men, for heroic losses, for hard-luck stories, for tears on the pitch, for homecomings celebrating failure, for oh-captain-my captain. This is elite sport, not Belvedere College.
    You perform and you are then judged on your results.

    We've had four years of noise since the last tragic episode, as if a lad dragging pots and pans along a cobbled street. We're gone deaf listening to the clank and the never-ending clatter.

    Finally it's time to put up or shut up.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,597 ✭✭✭✭Akrasia


    He's a sh1t stirring gowl

    Just ignore him


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 27,250 Mod ✭✭✭✭Podge_irl


    Muahahaha wrote: »
    very interesting to read his views

    No it isn’t. It’s tedious beyond compare.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    It's a typical MacKenna article. There is a point buried in there but he goes so big on emotive language but not so much on facts or context that it ends up a bit of nonsense.

    For example.
    Look at the horror over a not-fit-for purpose World Cup bid being rightly rejected.

    I don't remember this happening, if anything there was more annoyance at the thought that we could ever compete with France.
    Look at the anger when not everyone gets behind this team and won't accept the talk having failed to see the walk

    I don't remember seeing this anywhere either.
    Ronan O'Gara reduced to tears in 2011 would have been moving if that wasn't a pool game; Ian Madigan in 2015 overwrought by victory would have seemed fitting if it was a knock-out match.

    He really has no time for context does MacKenna. ROG's last RWC after playing for the team for so long, thousand of miles away from his young family, and I'm not sure how much game time he thought'd get. Madigan I'd imagine thought he'd never play in any big game for Ireland.
    The top teams all show up in the best shape with the highest expectations, but while we massaged ours egos in advance, it's interesting that since this tournament began we've spent the majority of the days winding our necks back in.

    Did he watch any of this years 6N or warm up games, I doubt anyone going into this tournament was expecting much. Hoping yes, expecting no.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Can this thread be closed please. That troll doesn't deserve the time of day or clicks to sustain his poisonous existence.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,063 ✭✭✭riemann


    Can this thread be closed please. That troll doesn't deserve the time of day or clicks to sustain his poisonous existence.

    Yes, please shut down any discussion I don't agree with.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 4,226 ✭✭✭ClanofLams


    riemann wrote: »
    Yes, please shut down any discussion I don't agree with.

    Reasoned debate is always welcome. Waffle from a guy who openly admits to hating the Irish team isn’t that. Especially when he hypocritically bangs on about elitism, his father being a senior Rté journalist must have been no help to him at all...


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    CatFromHue wrote: »
    It's a typical MacKenna article

    It's beyond me why people read MacKenna when he's on the topic of rugby.

    He has an incredibly childish approach to making his dislike of rugby as weel known as possible.
    .
    Best ignored.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    riemann wrote: »
    Yes, please shut down any discussion I don't agree with.

    I've read a lot of his stuff. Used to regularly check his twitter.

    At the bottom of it all, he hates Irish rugby. Absolutely despises it. He bends over backwards to try and make genuine points but it all stems from this hypoctrical, embittered stance. He makes a living off winding people up. Literally a professional troll. In this day and age, you get more clicks if you're outreagous and contrarian unfortunately. I don't bite anymore.

    In terms of rugby analysis, he's an odious waste of space. If you're an Irish rugby fan, you should despise what he's trying to do. Did you celebrate when England beat Ireland in the six nations this year? Well he did.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,818 ✭✭✭Fann Linn


    I've read a lot of his stuff. Used to regularly check his twitter.

    At the bottom of it all, he hates Irish rugby. Absolutely despises it. He bends over backwards to try and make genuine points but it all stems from this hypoctrical, embittered stance. He makes a living off winding people up. Literally a professional troll. In this day and age, you get more clicks if you're outreagous and contrarian unfortunately. I don't bite anymore.

    In terms of rugby analysis, he's an odious waste of space. If you're an Irish rugby fan, you should despise what he's trying to do. Did you celebrate when England beat Ireland in the six nations this year? Well he did.

    He has a gripe with most sports or sportsmen.
    Except McGregor.

    Says it all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,226 ✭✭✭ClanofLams


    Fann Linn wrote: »
    He has a gripe with most sports or sportsmen.
    Except McGregor.

    Says it all.

    Saw he’s doing a book on him. Is it with co-operation of McGregor?


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,818 ✭✭✭Fann Linn


    ClanofLams wrote: »
    Saw he’s doing a book on him. Is it with co-operation of McGregor?

    Ní thuigim.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,226 ✭✭✭ClanofLams


    Fann Linn wrote: »
    Ní thuigim.

    Just meant I thought he despised mcgregor too and presumed that’s what book is about but you seemed to suggest he likes him.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,034 ✭✭✭Yeah_Right


    Seems like a sad little man.

    I see another Irish journalist (Ruaidhri O'Connor) now taking shots at Sevu Reese because he got charged with DV. I really hate "journalists" like these two.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,818 ✭✭✭Fann Linn


    ClanofLams wrote: »
    Just meant I thought he despised mcgregor too and presumed that’s what book is about but you seemed to suggest he likes him.

    That's what I heard. Has a bit of a soft spot for him but compares Lowry to a Nazi.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    riemann wrote: »
    Yes, please shut down any discussion I don't agree with.

    He's an unreliable narrator.

    If you look at my post above for a few examples where he uses stuff that either isn't true or is lacking in context, You go through the article and find a lot more examples. For any of the articles I've read of his it's the same.

    He's a big fan of saying you can't criticise the rugby team but on the same weekend he'll say this you can open a Sunday paper and it'll be full or criticism.

    There's also the question of a journalist having such an awfully toxic twitter account.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,226 ✭✭✭ClanofLams


    Yeah_Right wrote: »
    Seems like a sad little man.

    I see another Irish journalist (Ruaidhri O'Connor) now taking shots at Sevu Reese because he got charged with DV. I really hate "journalists" like these two.

    With you on McKenna for sure. Wouldn’t be big fan of O’Connor either but domestic violence is a fairly solid reason to have a go at someone.

    I understand the argument of youth, mistakes, second chances, etc and would agree with for most crimes of a similar levels in terms of legal consequences but hitting a woman is despicable.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,458 ✭✭✭kuang1


    I was on the verge of asking to close this thread too.

    But on reflection, maybe it will serve to assist in the downfall of this hack.

    So long as no links are posted (and hence the troll himself doesn't benefit) , leave this open and let him be exposed for the failed, embittered human being that he is.

    Apparently OTB no longer employ him, and he has mentioned this in a tweet or video or something... So they're also on his hate list.

    Poor bastard.

    What a sad existence.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 359 ✭✭NeonWolf


    Fann Linn wrote: »
    He has a gripe with most sports or sportsmen.
    Except McGregor.

    Says it all.

    He despises McGregor


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,761 ✭✭✭Donnielighto


    NeonWolf wrote: »
    He despises McGregor

    Is there anything Irish he supports so?


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 359 ✭✭NeonWolf


    ClanofLams wrote: »
    With you on McKenna for sure. Wouldn’t be big fan of O’Connor either but domestic violence is a fairly solid reason to have a go at someone.

    I understand the argument of youth, mistakes, second chances, etc and would agree with for most crimes of a similar levels in terms of legal consequences but hitting a woman is despicable.

    I believe she was giving him a few digs as well , and she is still with him apparently . I think there is more nuance to that story but that’s for another day.


  • Advertisement
  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 359 ✭✭NeonWolf


    Is there anything Irish he supports so?

    Kildare GAA.

    he wrote a smashing book about Oisin McConville called the gambler.

    I think he has gone a bit too far but he’s a necessary voice in Irish media . He’s gone after farah,Salazar,Dublin gaa . And he has a point. Irish rugby fans and team are fairly sacred cows. This forum is one of the more inhospitable ones on boards . It really is a circle jerk at times.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,226 ✭✭✭ClanofLams


    NeonWolf wrote: »
    I believe she was giving him a few digs as well , and she is still with him apparently . I think I there is more nuance to that story but that’s for another day.

    I don’t think so.

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/107501255/waikato-rugby-star-sevuloni-reece-discharged-without-conviction-on-assault-charge

    In any case I would think Reece as a professional rugby player is strong enough to restrain a woman without hitting her. Edit - Being still with him is irrelevant. There’s lots of women who stayed their whole lives with fellas that hit them - not suggesting this is the case with Reece.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    They never really employed him in the first place.

    He was on maybe 3 times at the most? I can only remember him being on twice so he's been on very little anyway.

    He was never a regular contributor and I can't see why they would have him on again. He doesn't cover one sport in any detail and is nowhere as good or knowledgeable as the contributors they have already.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,458 ✭✭✭kuang1


    NeonWolf wrote: »
    This forum is one of the more inhospitable ones on boards . It really is a circle jerk at times.

    Just stood up there and got an awful fright...
    Drops of red liquid on the floor by my feet!

    No panic though, just my bleeding heart.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,485 ✭✭✭✭Exclamation Marc


    He's an echo chamber for anti-rugby and anti-private education and he just comes off as bitter. When you actually evaluate his content and read through the headlines, you'll see that it's unsupported, colloquial, misleading and pot-stirring anti-rugby ranting with no actual value.

    He made a point today of having a go at Brian O'Driscoll for wearing a Blackrock College jersey he received in the post asking what people's first rugby memories were calling it 'patronising bollōcks'. He also belittled a woman for calling back to the Chicago win a few years back for no reason. He's a lad with a potato farm on his shoulder never mind a chip.

    He always reminds me of someone rabbiting on about their ex years after they broke up.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,761 ✭✭✭Donnielighto


    NeonWolf wrote: »
    Kildare GAA.

    he wrote a smashing book about Oisin McConville called the gambler.

    I think he has gone a bit too far but he’s a necessary voice in Irish media . He’s gone after farah,Salazar,Dublin gaa . And he has a point. Irish rugby fans and team are fairly sacred cows. This forum is one of the more inhospitable ones on boards . It really is a circle jerk at times.

    Rugby forum defensive about rugby isn't that surprising, he rips on it unfairly imo. It does have strong roots in private schools but that doesn't devalue it, just something those schools chose to compete against each other in. He's hardly ragging on hurling for only being in the south (bar Galway and recently Dublin).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,935 ✭✭✭✭Tell me how


    NeonWolf wrote: »
    Kildare GAA.

    he wrote a smashing book about Oisin McConville called the gambler.

    I think he has gone a bit too far but he’s a necessary voice in Irish media . He’s gone after farah,Salazar,Dublin gaa . And he has a point. Irish rugby fans and team are fairly sacred cows. This forum is one of the more inhospitable ones on boards . It really is a circle jerk at times.

    I'm still of a similar opinion to yourself, in terms of McKenna (I don't frequent this forum enough to have an opinion on it).

    I've known his work since he started in the Tribune and think he has produced some excellent pieces. But, I don't see his current angle with the last year or so.

    I think he could have made some of the same points without being as vitriolic as he has been. It's a one way street, it doesn't leave him any room to praise someone later and he tars everyone with the same brush.

    Some of the rugby players are probably not too far from the Ross O'Carroll Kelly stereotype, (South Co Dublin, wealthy parents, Schools rugby was a milestone) but so what, that doesn't mean that they don't deserve to be supported or aren't deserving of their place.

    I agree with the poster above who says that there is a point in his work, but, it's like a joke, if you're explaining it, there's no point.

    Can't understand how a friend hasn't reigned him in on Twitter, he must be talking himself out of work there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,477 ✭✭✭✭cson


    The Eamonn Dunphy on RTE Soccer of written journalism. Saying stuff just to get a reaction. Majority of it baseless.

    Which is sad because approached in more reasoned manner there is substance to some of his points. As mentioned by others he does have some good work in the book and there's nothing wrong with being a contrarian per se, just the way he's gone about it is hard to respect.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,415 ✭✭✭Dave_The_Sheep


    cson wrote: »
    The Eamonn Dunphy on RTE Soccer of written journalism. Saying stuff just to get a reaction. Majority of it baseless..

    Far too complimentary to Dunphy to be honest.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,616 ✭✭✭✭errlloyd


    Yeah_Right wrote: »
    Seems like a sad little man.

    I see another Irish journalist (Ruaidhri O'Connor) now taking shots at Sevu Reese because he got charged with DV. I really hate "journalists" like these two.

    RO'C is a different league. He knows a lot about rugby and his journalism is quite balanced. His dig isn't at Reece, his dig is at the All Blacks "no d*ck heads" policy. We could go back and forth on this all day and it'd be wasting a special occasion. But I think he was right to point it out. Irish fans, reading the Irish media, should know that our union chose not to associate with a player with a history of domestic violence.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    errlloyd wrote: »
    RO'C is a different league. He knows a lot about rugby and his journalism is quite balanced. His dig isn't at Reece, his dig is at the All Blacks "no d*ck heads" policy. We could go back and forth on this all day and it'd be wasting a special occasion. But I think he was right to point it out. Irish fans, reading the Irish media, should know that our union chose not to associate with a player with a history of domestic violence.

    Personally, I think it's pathetic.

    He takes a stance that whether Ireland win or lose against the All Blacks, the IRFU operate on a moral high ground above NZ Rugby.

    The no dickheads policy is fundamentally about ego, it's not about people being punished unreservedly for indiscretions without a chance to redeem themselves.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Basil3 wrote: »
    Personally, I think it's pathetic.

    He takes a stance that whether Ireland win or lose against the All Blacks, the IRFU operate on a moral high ground above NZ Rugby.

    The no dickheads policy is fundamentally about ego, it's not about people being punished unreservedly for indiscretions without a chance to redeem themselves.

    Irfu might be more sensitive to such a thing after Paddy Jackson was ousted


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 14,124 Mod ✭✭✭✭pc7


    I can’t figure out if he’s a massive troll or unwell to be honest. There can be no joy on his life. Saw someone call him Ewan McGemma and I cracked up.

    I can’t and will never understand an Irish person hoping an Irish team lose.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,967 ✭✭✭✭The Lost Sheep


    pc7 wrote: »
    I can’t figure out if he’s a massive troll or unwell to be honest. There can be no joy on his life. Saw someone call him Ewan McGemma and I cracked up.

    I can’t and will never understand an Irish person hoping an Irish team lose.
    trying to say hes unwell is nonsense though
    He does have a point but like a lot of what he writes he goes too far and runs the good points with some rubbish
    The sport does have issues in some areas with dominance from fee paying schools and the numbers going people from these schools with what irfu are doing to counter that


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,239 ✭✭✭✭Hurrache


    Muahahaha wrote: »
    McKenna has another of those articles that will cause controversy.

    Only if you give him the oxygen of publicity and his own threads.

    You've fallen for his bait hook, line and sinker.


  • Advertisement
  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 359 ✭✭NeonWolf


    CatFromHue wrote: »
    They never really employed him in the first place.

    He was on maybe 3 times at the most? I can only remember him being on twice so he's been on very little anyway.

    He was never a regular contributor and I can't see why they would have him on again. He doesn't cover one sport in any detail and is nowhere as good or knowledgeable as the contributors they have already.


    can't be upsetting the ABC 1's. #teamofus


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,239 ✭✭✭✭Hurrache


    NeonWolf wrote: »
    can't be upsetting the ABC 1's. #teamofus

    True. The proles and commoners, there's no money in them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,300 ✭✭✭✭razorblunt


    I think Ewan isn’t alright. Seems to be on a massive tilt.
    Few of my friends don’t like rugby, they leave those who do at it.
    Ewan takes it way too far, it’s his only way of getting columns I think though.


    Also worth remembering if an account responds to him on twitter with the 12346x naming convention of a hastily setup account there’s a reasonable chance it’s actually him.

    He also had to have it pointed out to him that his initial title for the McGregor book was already used for a book on Don King in the 90s.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,287 ✭✭✭Niallof9


    Well sorry for posting it again but it’s in reply to guys like him

    We all know the Shankly quote, about life and death and sport. To people like him it was more important. To normal people its a flippant remark. To a sports person it is their life. It’s what he grew up doing, living, breathing. Marketing and the social media saturation and dour quotes have killed some of the mystery and the Shankly’s. Yet sport still stirs. Shankly’s abound.
    Rugby is a different gravy in some parts. Mistrusted, disowned, misunderstood. You may hate rugby, Breffni, the marketing, the rules, the jocks, Irelands call, sport or life itself. This Saturday sit yourself down, stir your tea. Sip your early pint or cool the porridge. Morning mindfulness. Turn on the telly, to the match. Watch a little. You’ll be better for it. Forget about the talk of elites, of posh people, of marketing taglines and teams of us. Drink in the joy of Irish people striving for their Island. Admire the game for what it is, a normal sport played by normal men. What makes them extraordinary is that they do it for you.
    For Its only our Island, North and South, sitting westerly in the Atlantic, cold and windswept, warmed by firesides and stories, throughout the rugged green lands, taking on another rugged small island , with their own different story. Green versus Black. Might versus Might. Gladiators at our disposal, but human beings beating underneath.
    First things first, rugby is not the people’s sport. It’s not even the World’s sport. It’s just a game followed and played by women, children and men in all the counties of Ireland. You can’t put jumpers down for goalposts. It has hard rules and hard hits. Neil Francis exists in a rarefied air. Never have i heard these words uttered in any club game or ground. There were bad periods. Greats like Ger Earls looked at like he had two heads for daring to live in one of Limerick's toughest parts, and at times even for Munster, and uncapped for Ireland. His son, also from Moyross plays for Ireland. Things have changed, more to go.
    Its only a sport, not a barometer of class or creed or faith. Tip, tag, touch, amateur, semi pro, professional. All with the same muck on their faces and fires in their bellies. Big people, small people, fast people, slow people. Its a distraction, a dollop of passion in a world where we spend more time in work than at home, pay the bills, fix the car, dream of summer breaks. Sport all across this Island enables people to dream. Locally, nationally. Sport isn’t for one or the other, it’s for everybody. While we erode it with marketing slogans and taglines, thousands of innocent children lace up their boots, and cheered on by the mammy or the daddy. It’s still too much centred around certain centres, there is no denying it. Yet a win on the World Stage would do wonders.
    The IRFU surely understand that St.Michael’s can not become a sole nursery. Yet James Ryan, a Michael’s man, his grandfather a man of the rising. Perceptions, cliches, contradictions of identity abound in Irish life. Names that resound through Irish history and modern life like Cusack, DeValera, Canning, O’Sullivan, MacCauley played the oval ball. Men like Richard Harris spoke in breathless terms of Irish rugby. His heroes were the rugby men of of his city of Limerick. Christy Moore propped and pored the porter up in Bective. People like Ewan MacKenna talk of elites. But i took the field with plumbers, bankers, foreign men, gay men, selfish men, selfless men, workers, slackers, jacklers, tacklers, talkers, moaners, wingers, singers losers and winners. I was a ruck inspector myself.
    Rugby, like hockey and cricket is played on an all Ireland basis. Its a building block to a brighter and better future. It’s shown that we can live and build in peace. North and South united in sport. Compromises, of course. But its worth it as it banishes the brexit blues and the awkwardness of partition. There may never be a United Ireland in name, but if there is, a Irish rugby team winning a World Cup would surely be at the heart of it. At least we will be united in passion and distracted at least for awhile.
    For me personally, rugby has got me through some very dark parts of my life. The camaraderie, the spirt, the suffering, the challenge. Tears shed as I questioned the very meaning of who I was. It was just luck that i played rugby no other reason. 80 minutes battle fare, changed the narrative, shifted the mood.
    There is more important things then sport, yes, but it is the great distraction. The dollop of passion and pride. And worth. One we all need at some time or another. Watch it with friends, loved ones. Roar it on. Cheer. Cry. Hug. Sing. Feel the passion of the Island come through your veins. Its only for a small while. Eighty minutes to put the talk of elites or society away. All that nonsense drifts away. These are 23 men fighting for their Island, for glory on the global stage. They chose nothing for their lives, only dedicated themselves since small children to one pursuit and passion. How does Ewan Mackenna, an avowed sports lover hate that?

    As Richard Harris said, these are our square jawed gladiators, taking to the pit with the green on their backs. They’d do it for free like some of their fathers before them, but they don’t and so what of it. Some of them will go out on their shields tomorrow, their bodies broken, their hearts and lungs burnt. I stand up for them, my fellow Irish man. Even though I use this imagery freely we all know deep down it isn’t war or battles, it’s sport and the human spirit.

    Hate it fear it, despise it. But know by doing so all you are doing is hating on your fellow Irish who strive to entertain us. Are you not entertained as the great Maximus once cried. There’s no pleasing everybody. That is ok. Don’t watch, turn off. Switch off. Nobody is forcing rugby on you. Its a sport. Just a sport. After the whistle, after the blood and guts, the hand shakes and the muttered words, us mortals will shuffle on our coil back to the taxes and the work. Win with humility, lose with dignity, or is it the other way around. Why cannot it be both. Tomorrow we will be better for it all.

    The Ewan McKenna’s of the World will sit in their dens, waitng and watching. For what , only they truly know. They don't see the hard work behind it all. They think they see it. Money and power, i I have no idea what that World is when it comes to the clubs i know. Its a world of mothers, brothers, fathers, uncles, families. Community, a sense of shared values. Its more than a game of ball. This isn't it a rugby trait this is a sporting trait. Built in clubhouses up and down, throughout the country, in fields, in sheds, in gyms, on boats and in one horse rooms with a dusty whiteboard and three cones.

    The old alikadoos who run a club, the volunteers who paint the pitches, the players who sweep the changing rooms. The captains and titans that inspire generations. Brown boards, perched on walls with names carved and etched deep in them. Names of long ago and just last week. When i walk into a clubhouse and look up and see those names it means something. I look around the walls to the pictures and ghosts of the past. It means something. You don't have to be a rugby man or a rugby woman to get in touch with that spiritual side of sport. You don't have to be Irish. You just have to dust the bitterness down and realise that sport is a gateway to a better self. That's a sportsperson. If anything, going back to those humble beginnings and tight communties can do wonders to block out the modern stresses of doubt, online anxiety, divisions and fears. You can focus on sport. It keeps our instincts honed and our spirits high. If you think thats a myth, try it. The Irish rugby didn't just arrive on a Vodafone festooned ship. It was built by these generations and brown boards of names and can now be enjoyed by anybody who wants to.

    Lets get behind Ireland as they take on the might of the Rugby World. As Brendan Behan once said if it was raining soup the Irish would go out with forks. If the Irish rugby team wins or loses many people would come out with their fork ready to carve soup. We are a curious stubborn people. Don’t listen to the Ewan Mackenna’s and the haters, the moaners, the gougers, the hypers. Listen to the call of your country and the passion it can provoke.Black versus Green. Island versus Island. We doff our caps at their successes and rugby prowess, but for us today its a new slate. Another hope to pin onto our hearts.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,115 ✭✭✭asteroids over berlin


    Not sure who the bloke is but his right, Irish rugby needs to move on from quivering over NZ. Show up on the big stage and do it or keep stung. We beat them in a test match, great, now lets do it on the big stage. If we don't we areno better than the soccer team given the ratio of nations who play rugby vs soccer. Rugby fans are intolerable at times when spouting delusional statements of grand expectations. Anyway cmon boys you can do it!!!!


  • Advertisement
  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 14,124 Mod ✭✭✭✭pc7


    trying to say hes unwell is nonsense though

    Not just on this article but in general. Why anyone would want to be so contrary for the sake of it, he seems to piss daily on cornflakes. That in my view makes them a troll or unwell.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,906 ✭✭✭✭PhlegmyMoses


    I just don't understand how he has managed to eke a career out of this. If it's clicks you are after, you can go to any online message board to find some contrarian who feels like he is the smartest in the room and sees te real truth unlike all of the sheeple. His writing skills are mediocre with long, meandering diatribes feeding into massive struggles to tie his points together to make a cogent argument. Fair play to the man I suppose, in the sense that he has turned his limited ability into a career.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,300 ✭✭✭✭razorblunt


    I just don't understand how he has managed to eke a career out of this. If it's clicks you are after, you can go to any online message board to find some contrarian who feels like he is the smartest in the room and sees te real truth unlike all of the sheeple. His writing skills are mediocre with long, meandering diatribes feeding into massive struggles to tie his points together to make a cogent argument. Fair play to the man I suppose, in the sense that he has turned his limited ability into a career.
    He hasn’t though, his career has been on a massive slide.

    It’s the Indo that give him the column inches but they just want the clicks as seen by yer one Hogan and Francis.
    If anything he’s beating this drum to try and build a profile again, he’s been the man in Brazil for too long.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,239 ✭✭✭✭Hurrache


    Does Matt Cooper give him airtime on his radio show anymore? That's the last place I heard him but Cooper has gone pretty tabloid anyway, especially on that awful Virgin TV show with him and Yates.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,721 ✭✭✭✭Squidgy Black


    I've no idea why MacKenna keeps trying to bang his "man of the people" drum.

    He's the son of an RTÉ producer, went to UCD, was brushing shoulders with politicians as part of Labour working as an aide, and by all accounts had a nice little cushy upbringing and was/is well connected in getting his start.

    His waxing lyrical about the likes of McGregor, attacking rugby due to private schools, it's all a play on him trying to portray himself as someone he's most definitely not and disheartening to constantly listen to as someone who comes from the opposite background of the stereotype he's trying to make out can only play rugby, a northsider who went to a CBS and grew up hearing that rugby was a posh sport that you couldn't play because they wouldn't accept gaa heads.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 277 ✭✭Danthemanhere


    In fairness, McKenna is right about some things. You can see by the personal attacks on this thread and elsewhere, the reason he's despised by some is because he calls out the uncomfortable truth. Dublin GAA for example, the financial doping charge is backed up by fact. That's why Dublin GAA supporters despise him. There's also some truth in what he says about rugby, it's backed up with fact. That's why he is despised by some in the rugby community. The truth hurts as they say.


  • Administrators Posts: 54,087 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    don’t think we need to give this individual the attention he so desperately craves


This discussion has been closed.
Advertisement