| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1112.1 | | EPIK::HOLOHAN | | Tue Aug 11 1992 16:14 | 10 |
|
Congratulations to Carruth and McCullough! The Irish
should be proud of these two.
Probably a good thing they didn't come up against our
man from East LA (Oscar de La Hoya) :-)
Toby (my nominee for the spit-turning gold), were you
able to grasp that?
Mark
|
| 1112.2 | Look at medals per head | MACNAS::TJOYCE | | Wed Aug 12 1992 05:40 | 26 |
|
The USA, USSR, Bulgaria and Germany all sent 12 boxers
to the Olympics. All these countries (plus Cuba) are the
"superpowers" of amateur boxing.
Ireland sent a team of 6.
Bulgaria came away with a bronze medal only. The
other countries above gained about a gold and silver apiece -
exactly the same as Ireland.
If medals per head is the metric than Ireland come second only
to Cuba. Ireland was one of two countries only that deprived
a Cuban of a gold medal - and the man beaten (Hernandez Sierra
outboxed by Carruth) was World Champion and unbeaten for the
last three years.
[Let me digress to mention our "secret weapon" - our Cuban
coach Nicholas "Paddy" Cruz. What Jack Charlton is to Irish
soccer, Cruz is to boxing.]
I would not be churlish enough to defame anyone's medal, but
the medals won by the small Irish team, from a country tiny
in population, represent a magnificent sporting achievement.
Toby
|
| 1112.3 | | BONKIN::BOYLE | | Wed Aug 12 1992 09:23 | 21 |
| I'm confused here. Which 'side' does NI go with during the Olympics ?
In soccer -> On it's own
In Rugby -> With the Republic
In the eurovision song contest
-> with the Brits
The team in the Olympics was called Great Britain, therefore there was
no NI, right ?
The Irish team was called Ireland, i.e. North & South, right ?
re.0
> few, the world champion (like Barry McGuigan) is valued highly
> by everyone.....
Not quite everyone. Mr. McGuigan carries a British passport. A strange
thing to do for an Irishman.
Tony.
|
| 1112.4 | Athletes from Northern Ireland | MACNAS::TJOYCE | | Wed Aug 12 1992 10:11 | 40 |
|
Nationality is a matter of private choice, Tony.
A sportsman from Northern Ireland has the happy choice of being
able to choose either the British or Irish team. Usually it would
depend on the structure of the sport, and what opportunity will
the Olympics represent. For example, a Belfast lady won a bronze
medal in women's hockey. Now for her the choice was easy, because
there was no Irish hockey team in the Olympics. If there was,
she would probably have went with it. The "British" team was an
amalgam of the Scotland, Welsh and England teams, plus eligible
players from Northern Ireland, who would usually play on the
Ireland team.
What the athletes are saying is "When it comes to sport, we put our
SPORT first, and politics is secondary." In McCullough's case,
there is an All-Ireland structure for the sport (with a
subsidiary body in Northern Ireland itself) so he will go
within that structure, as the Rugby players do. In soccer it
is different, unfortunately. Politics led to a division of the
sporting bodies which has lasted to this day.
It was Irish money that was put up to train and prepare McCullough
so it would have been pretty low for him to go with the British team
in the end. The case was different for Mary Peters of Belfast who won
gold at the Munich Olympics (Pentathlon). All her funding and
preparation was British-backed so she opted for the British team.
All in all, Northern Ireland athletes are pretty canny and pragmatic,
looking at what suits their progress in their chosen discipline,
and leaving politics aside. I would say just about everyone on the
island agrees with that attitude.
No matter what passport he carries, Barry McGuigan was a good
champion and a credit to us - I think most Irish people (North
or South) would feel it mean-spirited to criticise him for a private
decision. Don't ask me about the most boring jamboree of the year, the
Eurovision Song Contest. I guess its the same as for Athletics.
Toby
|
| 1112.5 | Barry McGuigan | GIDDAY::NOLAN | | Thu Aug 13 1992 22:47 | 17 |
| I was of the imtression that Barry McGuigan was the British Light
weight champion, the reason being ,there is no profesional boxing in
Ireland. So for Barry to have a boxing career ment he probably had
to hold a British passport. He most likley has both in any case.
In my travels, all the Northern Irish persons I have
met carry both passports (whether they were kicking with the right or
left foot).
It was annoying to here him refered to as the British champion(When he
was at the height of his career I lived in London) but then again if he
did not have the opertunity to box for Britian he could not box
professionally, a situation the Cubans are in hence their dominance in
Olimpic boxing and whats wrong with amature boxing? nothing but it does
not put alot of bread on the table.
Tony,
|
| 1112.6 | | MASALA::GMITCHELL | Siol Nan Gaidheal | Sat Aug 15 1992 16:42 | 5 |
| Tony,
You know how it is mate. If they're English and good, they're English.
If they're Irish or Scottish and bad they're Irish or Scottish but if
they're Irish or Scottish and good, theyre British...
|
| 1112.7 | Dual Nationality | CRAIC::DFALLON | For a lie to become a rumour, It must be printed by a newspaper | Mon Aug 17 1992 07:01 | 13 |
| It is possible to be a professional boxer in Ireland. Barry McGuigan's
decisions on who to represent were commercial decisions. British
champion gave him a higher profile and enabled him to move to bigger
things. His ambiguous Nationality also enabled him to draw support from
all parts of Ireland. The business of not using a national flag (he
used the UN peace flag I think?) or having an official anthem played
(he used Danny Boy) were all designed to remain between stools.
I support any amateur sportsperson using all opportunities to get exposure
at the highest levels. When it comes to professionalism no one can
complain since the sportsperson's first duty is to his own paypacket.
Daith� Fallon
|
| 1112.8 | sporting choice | MACNAS::JMAGUIRE | | Tue Aug 18 1992 13:53 | 24 |
| As mentioned earlier, Barry McGuigan's decision to take out British
nationality was a "boxing" decision rather than a political one. There
are few professional boxers in Ireland -- McGuigan was the Irish
champion because he was the only one! As far as I know, only Stephen
Collins and Dave "Boy" McAuley are boxing.
When you consider it, most sports in this country are organised on an
All-Ireland basis. Soccer is the most obvious exception to this and
it was only in 1948 or so that the Republic/Northern Ireland teams came
into being properly. Up to that, players could play for both! Actually,
an interesting situation is coming up with the Middlesboro centre-half
- I think his name is Alan Kernaghan. He was born in England, has a
grand-father was born in Belfast and he wants to play for the Republic.
As regards hockey, the northern players had to declare one way or the
other two years ago, before the Olympic pre-qualifying series. Before
that, we did not enter a team for the Olympics so that the Northern
players used to try out for the British team. Two of the men were in
the British squad that won gold in Seoul so Michael Carruth was not the
Irishman to win gold since 1956. Of those two, incidentally, one
declared for Britain and the other declared for Ireland this time
araound.
Jimmy
|