CHAMPIONE CHAMPIONE GRAND SLAM CHAMPIONE

Now its not often we can say that.Oireland beat Wales on Saturday in a traumatic game to win the grand slam for the first time in 60 odd years.We in Ireland do not get a huge amount of sporting success though we are a nation of sports mad people so whenever we get it and it realy does not matter what sport it is the whole country men women and children get behind the team and shout and scream like lunatics until they lose as they invariably do,on almost every occasion but on some momentous occasions the light shines on us and we win something.It could be a World Cup cricket match against Pakistan when the whole of Ireland discovered cricket which before then would have been considered a strange game,not by me, i have felt the full force of a cricket ball and know to my cost how dangerous a game it can be,but also how wonderfully skillful it can be,or it could have been Sonia O Sullivan missing out on Olympic Gold,or Michael Carruth winning Olympic Gold,or Eamonn Coughlan missing out by inches on Gold,Silver and Bronze but years later winning the World Championship 5000 metres Gold or Barry McGuigan winning his World Championship Boxing in London on that famous night.You can see from that list the variety of sports we become experts on and no one will ever forget the Charlton years in Irish Soccer when streets were deserted and pubs were full to overflowing as Ireland did battle in the World cup,oh what a time that was with mountain women coming to the cities to discuss sweepers and strikers and Irelands chances.We can get interested in any sport if someone has a chance of winning something.So when our Rugby team took to the field they took with them the hopes and dreams of many millions of Irish all over the world who will have been watching or listening and hoping for a bit of success.Because in a deep recession there is nothing succeeds like success.And boy it feels good,for a week or two.