Irish Examiner view: Brave Ireland go back to the future
In our hearts we are all still there on the pitch in Paris with Johnny Sexton on Saturday night. But we must look forward to contests including the next Six Nations campaign, the 2025 Women’s World Cup, not to mention Australia 2027. Picture: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
The Maori ritual of the haka, adopted by the All Blacks rugby team nearly 120 years ago, sends out a challenge to opponents. It has its detractors, a cheerless bunch of people, who complain that it confers some psychological advantage to the New Zealanders, and other critics who dislike the throat-cutting gesture which appears in some versions.
After Ireland’s brave — but ultimately doomed — attempt to get past their opponents in Paris on Saturday evening, there have been confected arguments, largely through social media or from writers looking to fill a few column inches, that supporters showed disrespect to the tradition by catcalling or singing ‘The Fields of Athenry’.
This is nonsense.
There is nothing to suggest that opponents should stand in admiring silence while the Kiwis do their crowd-pleasing thing. It is a matter for each team and their followers as to how they respond. It will be of interest to witness how the voluble Argentinean fans react on Friday night.
For us, the sense of disappointment is palpable and represents the end of another era in Irish rugby with senior players leaving the stage. That their departure was marked by a final, death-or-glory, 37-phase attack by the green shirts in an attempt to deliver a fairytale ending, brings a bitter-sweet conclusion to great careers.
Our correspondent, Brendan O’Brien, comments that the many thousands of Irish supporters who have turned France into a Sixth Republic with its spiritual headquarters across la mer d’Irlande have become a social movement rather than a fan base. As they return, a large portion of joie de vivre leaves the tournament. Australia 2027 here we come. And before that, England 2025, for the Women’s World Cup. Allons y.
Tomorrow represents a melancholy anniversary, Day 600 of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, a conflict which has spawned a sea of troubles for Western democracies and their allies, and one with no visible means of resolution.
What began on February 24, 2022, as a 10-day “special military operation” is expanding on three fronts into what could become an asymmetric world war, utilising irregular forces with loose collusion between Russia, Iran, and China. Beijing has the heft and influence to be a broker for peace, but is choosing not to use it.
Since Putin embarked on his personal crusade to re-establish the Russian Empire, there has been a ratcheting-up of regional tensions that had been subdued for years.
Recent examples include those between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Kosovo and Serbia, where resentment still simmers over the ethnic wars which followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. In Africa, there have been coups in Gabon, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Sudan is riven by conflict, and South Africa teeters on the edge of instability with a permanent energy crisis, a mounting challenge from the Marxist-Leninist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the lurking presence of deposed fourth president Jacob Zuma.
The sabotage of the Finnish-Estonian gas pipeline last week, for which Russia is the prime suspect on the old criminal principle of cui bono, takes the fight into Nato territory. Now we add the attacks of Hamas and Israel’s overwhelming response, producing scenes of mediaeval cruelty.
None of this appears coincidental. The West is depleting its military supplies in aid to Kyiv and multiple challenges are emerging at a time when the finances of most nations are carrying unsustainable levels of debt.
New superpowers are waiting in the wings. Of these, the most obvious is China which appears determined to remain on the sidelines of global crisis management, perhaps for its own ulterior motives. Saudi Arabia has been partly responsible for reducing oil flows, and the India of Narendra Modi was accused of assassinating a Sikh activist in Vancouver.
The rules are changing and geopolitics is becoming more uncertain. What impact this will have on globalisation is difficult to discern, but when the wind blows, it will include Ireland in its path.
On Day 600, the Kremlin still demands nothing less than Kyiv’s total capitulation — and that is not going to happen. Putin still thinks he can outlast us. The road ahead may be harder than that over which we have travelled.
If you were challenged to name some leading American brands, you would probably come up with many which have fallen by the wayside. Who now thinks of Pan Am and TWA, Alta Vista and Compaq?
When two brothers from Chicago, Roy and Walt, founded the Disney Brothers Studio 100 years ago today they could not have imagined the global empire that their “magic kingdom” would become. Pioneers in animation, technicolor, synchronised sound, advanced camera technology, full-length cartoon features, musicals, theme parks, and merchandising, Disney would go on to win 135 Academy Awards and acquire television networks, streaming media, publications, resort hotels, and cruise lines.
