Many people I know have no interest in rugby or its arcane laws but become positively evangelical when you mention the word “Munster” to them. Rugby was an amateur sport until 1995 and as a minority sport in Ireland it only really attracted attention when the national team sporadically did well. Most of the time it was regarded as an elitist game played by the middle classes and urban professionals. This was only ever partially true in Munster, as in the rural based junior and intermediate clubs there was always a good cross-section of farmers, labourers and young students in each team.
December 24th, 2008
I visited Venice for the first time, earlier this year and found it to be an extraordinary place. It must be one of the most well known cities in the world and I was familiar with it from countless TV shows, films and magazine articles. Even though I had a very clear idea in my minds eye of how it would look and feel, I still found it breathtaking. So why do I say “I hate Venice”? Well it’s not Venice I hate so much as people like you and me and how we get in the way of the experience. When I got to Saint Mark’s square it was so crowded that not even the unseasonally warm April sunshine could soothe my crowd-hating soul. I couldn’t wait to leave the square and retreat to an uncrowded back street where dogs barked and the water from a nearby drinking fountain splashed on cool dark cobblestones.
November 29th, 2007
