Post by Wasp on Jun 27, 2011 21:31:42 GMT
Rory's flag master stroke is a defeat for eejitry everywhere
Declan Lynch: Rory's flag master stroke is a defeat for eejitry everywhere
www.independent.ie/opinion/an...e-2806073.html
Rory McIlroy's tricolour manoeuvre shows that he is a true champion,
writes Declan Lynch
Europe team members Graeme McDowell, left, and Rory McIlroy hold the
flag of Ulster as they lift the trophy after winning the 2010 Ryder Cup
golf tournament at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, Monday,
Oct. 4, 2010.
Europe team members Graeme McDowell, left, and Rory McIlroy hold the
flag of Ulster as they lift the trophy after winning the 2010 Ryder Cup
golf tournament at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, Monday,
Oct. 4, 2010.
Sunday June 26 2011
AS RORY McIlroy tapped in for his par on the last hole at Congressional,
I suspect that the vast majority were thinking about an article in this
paper which was published just a week after the Masters.
At that time there was grave concern throughout the media about the way
that Rory had thrown it away at Augusta, with many wondering if he would
ever be right again.
But there was one article which took a different line, arguing that Rory
would rise above the terrible events of Amen Corner, concluding with the
line that "he will win another Major before the year is out . . ." and
that "he will be as magnificent in victory as he was in defeat".
As the author of that article, perhaps I should be feeling the glow of
triumph. Yet I refuse to take the full credit for McIlroy's success, as
I am troubled by a minor flaw in the prediction -- yes, he would indeed
win a Major before the year is out, but I had added the words, "probably
the British Open".
Always we must strive for perfection, and anything less simply will not
make the cut.
Then again, he may win the British Open too, next month at Royal St
George's, and frankly at this stage I can't see anyone else winning it.
In fact, his father Gerry said last week that Rory would probably win
the British Open, to which one is tempted to respond: it's easy to say
that now, baby!
For those of us like Gerry and myself who have always believed in Rory,
and backed him all the way, that starting price of 16/1 for the US Open
was some small reward. Though it is tempered by the knowledge that for
the rest of his life, we have most certainly seen the last of the 16/1.
Yet by some accident of timing, the first thing I heard on Irish radio
on the Monday morning after Congressional was a complaint from a
listener who couldn't understand why we were celebrating the victory of
a British athlete.
Eejitry never sleeps. It is eternally vigilant, eternally virulent.
This particular outbreak was no doubt related to an especially
impressive piece of work on McIlroy's part, that moment just after he
had won, when he was handed an Irish tricolour, and he somehow managed
to get rid of it.
Here we saw an instinctive rejection of eejitry on the part of the
champion, a remarkable example of a man passing the first eejitry test
of his new life, under the most extreme conditions.
It was a defeat, not just for eejitry Irish-style, but for eejitry
everywhere. And the response to it, and to other aspects of McIlroy's
cultural identity, tells us much about the state of the eejitry game as
a whole.
For a start, it suggests a narrowness of attitude that would be
incredible, if we did not know that it exists out there in the hearts of
nationalists, jabbering away to themselves, sending anti-Rory texts to
radio stations.
Though they are obsessed with the right of the Irish people to
self-determination, it seems to completely pass them by that they would
deny Rory his right to self-determination -- that if he wants to
represent Great Britain at the Olympics for example, as athletes from
Norn Iron have always done, he is behaving in a perfectly normal way.
Indeed, it would only be abnormal if he decided to represent the
Republic, where he wasn't born, where he wasn't brought up, and in which
he has never lived.
Still, there are some who can't handle the truth that someone we admire
might have no interest in being a part of our crazy operation. We used
to jeer at Norn Iron as a "failed entity", but, coming from us, that
would be a bit rich these days.
Nor does it occur to the forces of eejitry that when they claim a Rory
McIlroy as one of our own, these supporters of a United Ireland are
inadvertently rubbishing that very notion -- if he's a "Catholic" we can
claim him a little bit, and if he's a "Protestant" we can't. If we
really did believe in a United Ireland, surely it would make no difference?
The truth is that many of us feel an affinity with McIlroy on the
perfectly reasonable grounds that he's definitely some sort of an
Irishman, that he lives just up the road, and that he learned some of
his golf on our fine courses. And we can feel that affinity without ever
needing him to drape himself in the tricolour, as others would insist
that he do.
People who are not eejits have always been able to make these
accommodations, even to reconcile any minor inconsistencies that may
exist there. So his father Gerry probably called it just about right
when he carried the flag, not of Great Britain, or the Republic of
Ireland, but of Northern Ireland, where he and his family have lived and
worked all their lives, and which as far back as the Titanic has not
exactly been supplying the world with happy endings.
In fact, in terms of natural justice and common sense and personal
safety and every other thing it was so right, it was bound to offend any
card-carrying eejit to the core of his being.
But here's another truth -- even they will be backing Rory to win the
British Open.
Declan Lynch: Rory's flag master stroke is a defeat for eejitry everywhere
www.independent.ie/opinion/an...e-2806073.html
Rory McIlroy's tricolour manoeuvre shows that he is a true champion,
writes Declan Lynch
Europe team members Graeme McDowell, left, and Rory McIlroy hold the
flag of Ulster as they lift the trophy after winning the 2010 Ryder Cup
golf tournament at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, Monday,
Oct. 4, 2010.
Europe team members Graeme McDowell, left, and Rory McIlroy hold the
flag of Ulster as they lift the trophy after winning the 2010 Ryder Cup
golf tournament at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, Monday,
Oct. 4, 2010.
Sunday June 26 2011
AS RORY McIlroy tapped in for his par on the last hole at Congressional,
I suspect that the vast majority were thinking about an article in this
paper which was published just a week after the Masters.
At that time there was grave concern throughout the media about the way
that Rory had thrown it away at Augusta, with many wondering if he would
ever be right again.
But there was one article which took a different line, arguing that Rory
would rise above the terrible events of Amen Corner, concluding with the
line that "he will win another Major before the year is out . . ." and
that "he will be as magnificent in victory as he was in defeat".
As the author of that article, perhaps I should be feeling the glow of
triumph. Yet I refuse to take the full credit for McIlroy's success, as
I am troubled by a minor flaw in the prediction -- yes, he would indeed
win a Major before the year is out, but I had added the words, "probably
the British Open".
Always we must strive for perfection, and anything less simply will not
make the cut.
Then again, he may win the British Open too, next month at Royal St
George's, and frankly at this stage I can't see anyone else winning it.
In fact, his father Gerry said last week that Rory would probably win
the British Open, to which one is tempted to respond: it's easy to say
that now, baby!
For those of us like Gerry and myself who have always believed in Rory,
and backed him all the way, that starting price of 16/1 for the US Open
was some small reward. Though it is tempered by the knowledge that for
the rest of his life, we have most certainly seen the last of the 16/1.
Yet by some accident of timing, the first thing I heard on Irish radio
on the Monday morning after Congressional was a complaint from a
listener who couldn't understand why we were celebrating the victory of
a British athlete.
Eejitry never sleeps. It is eternally vigilant, eternally virulent.
This particular outbreak was no doubt related to an especially
impressive piece of work on McIlroy's part, that moment just after he
had won, when he was handed an Irish tricolour, and he somehow managed
to get rid of it.
Here we saw an instinctive rejection of eejitry on the part of the
champion, a remarkable example of a man passing the first eejitry test
of his new life, under the most extreme conditions.
It was a defeat, not just for eejitry Irish-style, but for eejitry
everywhere. And the response to it, and to other aspects of McIlroy's
cultural identity, tells us much about the state of the eejitry game as
a whole.
For a start, it suggests a narrowness of attitude that would be
incredible, if we did not know that it exists out there in the hearts of
nationalists, jabbering away to themselves, sending anti-Rory texts to
radio stations.
Though they are obsessed with the right of the Irish people to
self-determination, it seems to completely pass them by that they would
deny Rory his right to self-determination -- that if he wants to
represent Great Britain at the Olympics for example, as athletes from
Norn Iron have always done, he is behaving in a perfectly normal way.
Indeed, it would only be abnormal if he decided to represent the
Republic, where he wasn't born, where he wasn't brought up, and in which
he has never lived.
Still, there are some who can't handle the truth that someone we admire
might have no interest in being a part of our crazy operation. We used
to jeer at Norn Iron as a "failed entity", but, coming from us, that
would be a bit rich these days.
Nor does it occur to the forces of eejitry that when they claim a Rory
McIlroy as one of our own, these supporters of a United Ireland are
inadvertently rubbishing that very notion -- if he's a "Catholic" we can
claim him a little bit, and if he's a "Protestant" we can't. If we
really did believe in a United Ireland, surely it would make no difference?
The truth is that many of us feel an affinity with McIlroy on the
perfectly reasonable grounds that he's definitely some sort of an
Irishman, that he lives just up the road, and that he learned some of
his golf on our fine courses. And we can feel that affinity without ever
needing him to drape himself in the tricolour, as others would insist
that he do.
People who are not eejits have always been able to make these
accommodations, even to reconcile any minor inconsistencies that may
exist there. So his father Gerry probably called it just about right
when he carried the flag, not of Great Britain, or the Republic of
Ireland, but of Northern Ireland, where he and his family have lived and
worked all their lives, and which as far back as the Titanic has not
exactly been supplying the world with happy endings.
In fact, in terms of natural justice and common sense and personal
safety and every other thing it was so right, it was bound to offend any
card-carrying eejit to the core of his being.
But here's another truth -- even they will be backing Rory to win the
British Open.
