Rooster Booster wrote:
Gutterfax. What constitutes being Irish. Are you Irish cos you're born there?
The Irish Diaspora is estimated to include close to 100,000,000 people, which is not bad considering the Island of Ireland has about 6.5 million people. Any one of these people could answer a question on a census questionnaire regarding "heritage?" with the response IRISH.
Irishness (sic) in a sporting sense is usually along grandparent rules, which Sir Jack Charlton, AKA God Almighty, used and abused to great effect getting "us" to Euro 88, Italia 90 and USA 94. Rumours of mothers only having to have drank Guinness were wide of the mark, but of the 22 players in those tournaments, there was at least 9 Irish born players involved. Other sports have also used the grand-parenting rule, including Union, but none of them have managed to compile an "International" team of 24 players not born in Ireland, to represent Ireland. Given the 5th place finish in 2008, the performance at RLWC 2013 shows the level of "legacy" in the last 5 years in Irish RL
Rooster Booster wrote:
And finally are you Irish born?
No I was born in the QEII hospital in Welwyn Garden City to Irish Parents. I was taken to Ireland aged 10 and placed in a Boarding School not long afterwards....leaving after 6 years to serve 3 years in the Dublin Licenced Trade as an apprentice before returning to the UK to run pubs. I moved to New Zealand in 2009 and am now a permanent resident here. I hold (and have always held) an Irish passport, am a full signed up member of ABE (anyone but England).I played Gaelic Football for Wicklow, basketball for Leinster and Rugby for London Irish and have 2 tattoos, one a Celtic cross on my left arm, the other, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish logo on my right arm.
I can confidently say that if I had been good enough to play for England or Ireland.....I would have chosen Ireland or nothing. I am a plastic Paddy....as were the 24 guys in the RLWC 2013 squad.........or the 22 Plastic Scots, 23 Plastic Italians, 16 Plastic Americans, 22 Plastic Cook Islanders etc.