Well it amused me...

Ryle Dwyer included this (probably apocryphal) story was included in his column in yesterday’s Irish Examiner .

Charles Haughey was Taoiseach (Prime Minister, pron. Tea Shock) when the Republic of Ireland team made its first appearance at a World Cup finals in 1990. He went to the Irish dressing room to congratulate the dejected players after their quarter final defeat at the hands of Italy.

Some of the players were eligible to to play through Irish ancestry and were not as au fait with certain issues as perhaps they should have been:

“Who the f*ck is he?” Tony Cascarino asked Niall Quinn.

“For God’s sake,” Quinn replied. “That’s the Taoiseach.”

“Who is it, Cas?” asked Andy Townsend.

“I dunno,” Cascarino replied. “Quinny says he owns a tea shop.”

Well I thought it was funny!

The (Cricket) world turned upside down

I will happily admit that not only do I fail Norman Tebbit's cricket test I don't even make it to the exam room. However, I couldn’t resist this result from the Cricket World Cup: Ireland 133-7 beat Pakistan 132 by three wickets.

Pakistan, one of the top cricketing nations beaten by minnows, are now out of the World Cup beaten by a nation where cricket is only marginally less popular than pro-am shove ha’penny! (in the Republic anyway, the team does represent the whole island).

I won't insult anyone by commenting on the match itself. Here are a couple of reports:

Irish Independent

BBC