You will never beat the Irish

It strikes me that many people in the media do not understand the cultural significance of singing Y,I'll never beat de oirish.

The words seem to be what's causing most commentators to get confused. They seem to think the words refer to the result of the game, (and sometimes it does). But, on most occasions of soccer matches, we do not win very often, but we do draw, and thus we are not beaten, hence Y,ill never beat the oirish is a statement of fact on the occasion of a draw.

On the occasions when we are actually beaten, Y,I'll never beat the oirish culturally means that, ye can shuv the result, we don,t care about the match now, and the real competition is about to start. This competition however will have many many many more players than the eleven aside that are permitted on the soccer pitch. I an referring to the spectators game known as the singsong.

It is widely acknowledged by media commentators all over the world, that following a soccer match in which Ireland are one of the teams, you can count on the singsong after the game. And I never heard anyone ever say that the Irish singsong participants were ever beaten.

So hence the words,now, do act as a statement of fact, and it's true, they will never beat the oirish when it comes to the singsong, and culturally no matter how down we might be, we all know there is another metaphorical fight to be fought, and thus our call to metaphorical arms is on, thus we all participate in that particular battle.

We also will never show the world publicly how down we really feel, no matter what they throw at us, sure didn't we put on a brave happy smiley face on things for 800 years, while we fought the English, and they could never understand that particular trait. So fighting a few European countries on the soccer pitch is really a walk in the park, in that context.

So in reality the context of the Y,ill never beat the oirish, is what matters, and sometimes it is a statement of fact, that refers to the after match competition.

So all media commentators should get over their lack of understanding of the Irish Sports fans propensity for singing, You will never beat the Irish. And for the record when the game is on, it bugs the life out of the opposition and sometimes helps to unsettle the opposition. And even if we don,t win the game, we will definitely win the SINGSONG.

My opinion on Roy Keanes comments are that he was clearly aiming his comments at the players and the FAI, and as a proven professional soccer player, he is quite entitled to demand higher standards from other paid professionals. He has always put the supporters first, and I suspect he always will.