‘My father’s entire working life was spent in a factory. It was a tough existence ... he and my mother sacrificed so that their four sons could ... get the type of high-quality education that Irish immigrants so value’
Over a family lunch recently I was informed that, as a member of the baby boomer generation, my mob was responsible for climate change, outrageous house prices, rocketing cost of living, polarisation of politics, rise of the political strongman and other disasters ranging from deforestation in Borneo to the rise of the anti-vaccination movement.
Jack Kyle, outhalf from Ireland's 1948 Grand Slam-winning team, at the Wales v Ireland Six Nations match in 2009. Photograph: Alan BetsonWhere do they get this stuff from? I could not see any problem with doing that ‘rugby stuff’. If someone was silly enough to pay me to do something I love, I was silly enough to take the money and long may it continue“You” the eldest said accusingly, “have simply never grown up and just done that rugby stuff you love all your life”.I could not see any problem with doing that “rugby stuff”. If someone was silly enough to pay me to do something I love, I was silly enough to take the money and long may it continue.
Why had I not foreseen that by providing education, shelter, food, clothes, holidays, driving lessons, orthodontists, laptops and a thousand other things from piano and saxophone lessons, to paying registration fees to sing in the chorus, acting in amateur musical productions, playing water polo, GAA, soccer, rugby and sailing that I was actually being a selfish male and perpetuating the patriarchy?With my enlightenment suspended, we all gathered to break bread around the ancient wooden table...
Two world wars, the Great Depression, the floods, droughts and bushfires that had cost them their family farm. Rugby is trivial in such circumstances.
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