O’Conall Street

There has not been a post on Slugger O’Toole, Ireland’s top political blog since yesterday (Sunday) at 6.24pm which is most unusual. I am presuming this is a technical glitch but have not had this confirmed.  Everyone on O’Conall Street hopes this influential and informative site is back in business soon.

What a day to go down boys.

O’Conall Street is going back to its roots and heading for Europe tonight. Venice is the destination and the excuse are the SABRE Awards, Europe’s PR Oscars, which Weber Shandwick is the only Irish agency shortlisted for. All will be revealed on Thursday night.

Elsewhere the turkey is for the oven. Dustin is out of Europe. His talent rejected at the first hurdle. That is the end of that one. Tonight the island of Ireland will unite in its rejection of Chelsea Football Club. From the Ballymoney to Bantry Bay the red army is our army.

Alex Ferguson has a selection dilemma. With all 24 players fit and ready for the game of the year he will have a job picking not just his first team but also his substitutes.Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Heaton, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Brown, Neville, O’Shea, Silvestre, Pique, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Hargreaves, Anderson, Fletcher, Park, Nani, Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, Saha, Welbeck are the current inheritors of the great red shirts. This is their night to make history.

Paul Scholes has already been promised a place in the starting line-up after missing the 1999 European Cup victory through suspension while Ryan Giggs is poised to overtake Bobby Charlton’s record of 758 appearances for the club.

According to SportingLife.com, Diego Maradona is backing United tonight. Maradona will support Manchester United in Wednesday’s Champions League final against Chelsea because of Carlos Tevez.

The former Argentina great admitted he will turn into a United fan for one day because he wants Tevez to win the Champions League in Moscow.

Speaking in Cannes, where Maradona is promoting the film ‘Maradona’ by the Bosnian director Emir Kusturica, he said: “I think Manchester will beat Chelsea. My friend Carlitos (Tevez) plays there.

“I think Manchester win tomorrow, even though I have quite a lot of friends in several teams.”

With the hand of God on our side we can’t go wrong. Do us proud lads.

I’ll wake in Venice and let you know what I think.

The Belfast Marathon is today. I ran it in 2005, the year they added the extra mile but never told us. I busted my gut to make up what I thought was lazy running on my behalf to make the target time. It was a beautiful May morning, foggy to start, sunny in the end. Just like today. Great for the spectators, not so cool for the 26.2milers.

This is a big friendly marathon which is only slightly organised. Some 15,000 will set compete but only 3,000 or so will run the whole race, the rest are running in relay teams of four. Apart from the ‘diversion’ my year, I’ll always remember the traffic cops handing out water as the organisers did not have enough volunteers to cover the less scenic water stations. That’s whats special about the Belfast race and God’s speed to everyone I know who is running today.

The legs will be sore later but the satisfaction, and the inner pride, will last all week.

Tonight is the Annual Chartered Institute of Public Relations Press and Broadcast Awards, sponsored by Coca Cola. As this year’s CIPR Chair it has been a busy week with final arrangements and all that. Speech is written and the stage is set for now for the only press and broadcast awards on these islands organised by the public relations profession. If you are interested in all the results I will post them here at about 10.15pm tonight (Friday).

 I’ll also post a copy of my own remarks late this afternoon.

Meantime there is a tux to be collected and shoes to be polished. Can’t wait for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The recipient has no idea he is going to be the man of the night. He was the unanimous choice when the editors met last November and a man who can quite literally claim to have seen it all.

Three weeks ago a man was left for dead in Belfast city centre after being randomly attacked by a group of men who were reported to be wearing ‘Stone Island’ jackets. The hooligans were using the cover of an old firm derby and a Cliftonville - Linfield games to launch a spree of violence across the city centre. Press reports have linked them to Combat 18.

Last night there was trouble in Dublin when a tiny minority of Northern supporters got violent before the Setanta Cup fixture with St Pat’s in Inchicore. The front pages of all the local papers are plastered with the bloodied face of a man being arrested by Gardai. He is wearing a ‘Stone Island’ jacket.

This morning Linfield’s chairman did himself little favours on the radio when he came across confused and even contradictory. I have a lot of sympathy for anyone in that position, however this only underlines the need to consider carefully what you want to say and how you are going to say it before giving interviews, particularly live ones.

Another casualty of all this is the ‘Stone Island’ brand which is marketed as a premium brand on this island and available only in the best menswear shops. This small group is engaged by design or by accident in brand assassination. The likelihood of well to do men choosing a clothes brand which has become the uniform for a group of football hooligans reportedly associated with Combat 18 is zero.

I had a good bit of sympathy for Edwin Poots MLA, the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure, when I read today’s papers. He was left defending the proposed Maze stadium all on his own in the Assembly yesterday.

There seems to be no chance of the stadium progressing unless a decision is taken before the current First Minister leaves office in early June.  Peter Robinson is known to be rather cool on the idea and could block it as a way of appeasing the TUV elements on his right.

Only time will tell. If the plans are shelved sport will be the big looser. There is no other proposal on the table which will bring the three major codes together in a shared space.    

It has taken David Ford and the Alliance Party to ensure the Assembly gets a full debate on the outcome of the Varney Report today. His motion is the first parliamentary response to arguably one of the most important and potentially damaging reports to the Northern economy in the past decade. It’s good to see the Alliance showing some leadership on the issue but only highlights the collective failure of the big two political parties to deliver on a lower corporation tax which bodies like the ICAI have worked so hard to keep on the agenda.

Another bad week for Bertie Ahern looms. The most successful Taoiseach in modern time risks loosing it all if proper explanations are not provided. Weekend reports of senior cabinet colleagues including Brian Cowen meeting with him over the weekend will fuel speculation that we are at the beginning of the end. I hope for the country’s sake Ahern and Fianna Fail move quickly to ensure their is a proper and orderly transition. Nobody wants to see a popular Taoiseach run out of office in scandal and the only way of preventing that may well be to leave early.

Celitc - Rangers and Clifonville - Linfield do not enjoy a huge following on O’Conall Street. When news emerged on Saturday afternoon of a sectarian attack by a bigoted mob on a young catholic man in Belfast city centre the shadow of the ‘old firm’ inspired assault crept over the city. It should be a thing of the past. Like the posting of a live bullet to the Cliftonville manager earlier in the week it reminds us all of the generations of work ahead to rid this island of sectarianism.

The Dubs were denied their big day in Crossmaglen yesterday when the match was called off just thirty minutes before throw in. The referee left nine thousand fans to turn around at the very last minute. Sometimes these things are unavoidable but surely Croke Park will be thinking today that things can surely be done better.

Have to run out the door to lecture some District Policing Partnership Managers on marketing now. Before I go I wanted to express an official protest at a poor budget for Northern Ireland.

No incentives, in fact only significant relief for business will be on capital gains which has the perverse effect of benefiting those who invest for a living rather then those who create jobs or produce something. Great news if you are a developer or a hedge fund manager but pretty crap if you are just about anyone else. That’s the thing with Mr Darling’s approach. It’s designed to keep the home counties happy and frankly stuff the rest of the UK.

Rant over. Was involved in a lively debate about the future of communications last night with Queens University Students here in Belfast. There was a lot of discussion about the impact of social and digital media.

The racing post says the greatest two days in racing history start today. After yesterday’s abandonment, 65,000  can be expected at Cheltenham for the serious business of world class national hunt racing. Chris is off to the bookies with our kitty. I hope he remembers there is a thing called an each way bet.

Finally I watched Austin O’Callaghan’s lovely documentary about the Irish Cricket team’s journey to the Super Eight stage of the World Cup last summer on the BBC last night. Big Weber Shandwick connection. Our Ali’s fiance Iain Knox is the team physio and made a number of notable contributions to the documentary. Check it out on IPlayer.

I turned to the blogs for some consolation after the defeat to Wales in Croker today and found Mick Fealty on Slugger O’Toole had a gem. He has posted a video of Down’s 1960 victory over Kerry. It’s all there in wonderful technicolour. What day it must have been when the two ancient Kingdoms went head to head.

It’s all way before my time and anyway I’m a Jack. The first big game I can remember was the Dublin - Kerry semi in 1977. My Da brought me to the Hill and I spent much of it on his shoulders. They say it was the greatest game of Gaelic ever played. I was way too young to know. All I cared about was Tony Hanahoe and fatso Keaveney and the sea of blue which I was a tiny part of. Tom Humphries chronicles the summer well in his Dublin - Kerry book published last year. The video below is a beautiful summary of the game. You won’t get bored but even if you are not a huge Dub’s fan, and lets face it most O’Conall St readers are not, there is a big movie star and some Thin Lizzy at the end which is worth waiting for. For the record Dublin lifted the Sam Maguire that year defeating Armagh in the final.

Congratulations tio Amergin2006for a lovely bit of editing. Croker has come a long way since then but remains the finest sporting stadium in the world. I am sure every Welshman alive will agree on that one today!

Murphy, O’Gara, Trimble, Bowe….. Try!

Then Bowe again in the Canal - Hogan apex for number five.

Eddie O’Sullivan got his answer from the benches. His forced deployment of Murphy and Bowe consolidated a new look Ireland team which defeated Scotland today at Croke Park, keeping the hopes of another Triple Crown alive.

O’Sullivan got his victory despite his questionable skills. Enough to hang on for another while but a tragedy as the most talented Irish squad in recent history squanders its opportunity of greatness.

Croker looked wonderful and from an Ulster perspective Rory Best’s arrival gave the province a much needed boost and the national squad added depth. With ten minutes to go Eddie dumped the old guard from the bench on our hallowed soil. Typical of a one trick pony who by the way picked an Ireland A side that went down 67 - 7 in Perth last night.

The roar went up when Jordan Murphy was named man of the match. Oh Eddie, how wrong you are.

As Barack would say its time for change we can believe in.