Hello from the Sports Desk, where this week has been spent mostly amazed by Cian Healy’s ability to still scrum down with Leinster 17 years after his debut while we insist on waiting about the same length of time for an elevator to take us up to the third floor of the office.
Healy made a record 281st Leinster appearance on a cold Friday night in the Aviva at the end of a week when the first fingertips of winter touched Ireland. Hot water bottle season is upon us.
But so too is budget season, soon to be followed by election season. If Healy was setting records this week, the season of Irish politicians sounding like a broken one is also upon us.
Indeed, the announcement of the grants from the Government’s €230 million Community Sport Facilities Fund on Wednesday had politicians clamouring to smile for the camera to ensure their boundless generosity was recorded and acknowledged. But there weren’t quite as many prepared to pose at the swanky security hut at Government Buildings during the week.
What I Read This Week: A vital read on the origins of the Troubles and Boris Johnson’s memoir flop
What I Read This Week: Adventures in Airbnb, more closed restaurants, and one unlucky goose
What I Read This Week: A bizarre Dublin conference and the human cost of war
What I Read This Week: An explosive story in Poland and a surprise budget grenade
Still, the distribution of grants to the various sports always guarantees a decent round of sniping. The GAA and soccer get too much, lacrosse and orienteering don’t get enough. Orienteering? Figure that out.
But away from sport (mostly), here are some pieces I enjoyed this week:
1. Paul Howard’s wonderfully poignant piece about visiting the Falkland Islands/Las Malvinas stayed with me all week. His ability to bring places to life through words carries the reader to the island – from the imagery of the “sheer barrenness of the place – like the English moors” to the smell of “peat that will remain in your nostrils”. And just like that, you are there.
It is a fascinating piece about the island, the war between Britain and Argentina, and Howard’s lifelong fascination with a dot in the South Atlantic.
One line, more than any, superbly sums up the war: “The Argentinian writer Jose Luis Borges characterised it more memorably as ‘two bald men fighting over a comb’.”
2. Sally Hayden continues to provide exceptional, important journalism from difficult regions around the world. She travelled to Lebanon this week and has spent the last few days reporting from Beirut. This piece on the volunteer efforts in Beirut gives a real sense of the unfolding situation on the ground.
3. Okay, so this is about sport. At first glance, I immediately thought somebody on the desk had made a mistake with the headline: Eight deaths in first month of high school football season all part of the demented game.
What? That can’t be right. I scanned it a second and a third time. The words remained the same. My mouth remained open.
What follows is a harrowing, head-shaking, powerful piece of writing by Dave Hannigan about high school sport in the US. In the opening paragraphs he talks about the deaths of Jayvion Taylor (15) and Caden Tellier (16).
“Taylor and Tellier are just two of eight American high school students who went out to play gridiron in the first month of the new season and never came home. The only thing more shocking than the death toll was the understated national reaction to it. There has been no great outcry. Media coverage has been rather muted. Calls for reform barely audible.”
4. Ah yes, a hullabaloo over a ridiculously overpriced security hut at Government Buildings, just weeks after a hullabaloo over a ridiculously overpriced bike shelter at Government Buildings. What all this really needs now is a fantastic dollop of Miriam Lord.
5. Some of the best stuff in life comes completely out of the blue. Yes, I like The Cure, but I had no idea as to what they were or weren’t at these days. And then on Thursday Ed Power reported on the release of the band’s first new song in 16 years (nearly the entirety of Cian Healy’s Leinster career). Wonderful news.
“The Cure endure,” writes Power. “And how joyful it is to hear them sounding as thoughtfully miserable as ever.” Indeed. Somebody grab the black eyeliner!
ICYMI
The story of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, believed to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, who was acquitted in Japan this week. Mr Hakamada, was originally convicted of a quadruple murder in 1966 on the basis of what his defence lawyers say was a forced confession and fabricated evidence. Japan’s supreme court sentenced him to death in 1980. He was released a decade ago and granted a retrial that began last year, before being exonerated on Thursday.
Podcast of the Week
Is a new crop of Irish scrum halves coming of age?
Some really good stuff as ever this week from Nathan Johns, John O’Sullivan and Gordon D’Arcy on the Counter Ruck podcast to help stave off the winter blues.
