The Irish Nation and the Olympic Dream

[vagga]

the best thoroughbred horses, the best trainers and the best jockeys in the world

Would we continue to have all of them if they had to pay tax I wonder?

[DOD]

Hopefully we can get a medal this time without drugging a horse.

[cropbeye]

A friend of mine who does a lot of Athletics training and coaching

told me that between 1890 and 1940 something like 48 Olympic medals were won by Irish born people

either competing for Britain or Canada or The United States or Australia a large portion of which were gold.

Can we perhaps look into using the granie rule.

[BodyofEvidence]

Hopefully we can get a medal this time without drugging a horse.

I used to love watching hte Tour De France and the olympics. Now, couldnt be ar$ed. Who wants to see the 100m hypodermic, or the Relay EPO stakes...

[The OD]

The Olympics - come see whose performing enhancing drugs are better all under the watchful eye of the authorities of the '(Anybody but the ************************in') Peoples Republic Of China.

I'd rather watch paint dry than watch the sickening spectacle that will be Beijing nor the spinning that will try to convince us the communist party arent deserving of anything other than lenghty prison sentences for crimes against humanity.

[Tomas Mor]

I see that Michelle De Brun's father is livid his many medal winning daughter is not included to carry the torch here on its way to London.Personally i think it is a good decision. He was on Liveline about it yesterday.

[Analyzer]

To be honest, I think it is more important that we fix the economy than succeed at the Olympics.

I mean India has 1 billion people, and what does India win at the Olympics. Do they even give a toss about the Olympics ? The whole thing has descended into a farce.

Better off staying out of it, and not wasting money.

The entire Bertie Ahern shows that wasting money on sports, is idiotic and causes pain down the line.

Can we not do like the Indians, and concentrate on producing more medical students, or more engineers ?

Instead of producing so many useless phucking lawyers, architects, media studies graduates, real estate auctioneers, etc....

[Ribeye]

I see that Michelle De Brun's father is livid his many medal winning daughter is not included to carry the torch here on its way to London.Personally i think it is a good decision. He was on Liveline about it yesterday.

Has the displeasure if hearing that, are these people insane or something, deluded isn't the word,

And why in the name of cats is the flame even coming here, are we host some events that I'm not aware of,

Is there a new event to see who can burn piles of taxpayers money the fastest, we would dominate

[Polaris555]

There's only 23 or so days left until the 2008 Olympics open stall. Vincent Hogan had a very good article in yesterdays Irish Independent stating the plain and unfortunate facts that we probably won't win anything at the games. He goes on to say that there will be an uproar for about a week afterwards as we complain about the tax money spent and the poor performances but what I want to know is will we even do that?
At the last Olympics Ireland finished bottom of the table with no medals after that whole horse affair. This meant that we finished below Mongolia who won a silver medal, I'm not sure what in. The point is that from the 1920s to the late 90s it had been illegal in Mongolia to have a surname. However the dropping of the ban was ignored until identification cards were introduced in 2004.I know surnames have nothing to do with Olympic titles but for all our economic success (at the time), for all the money John O'Donoughe (at the time) was putting into sports, with all the 'centres of excellence' that have been set up you'd think we would have been able to manage at least one medal if a nation with the economic background of Mongolia could manage one.
Has Ireland lost its drive to present itself on the world stage as a great sporting nation, or indeed, did we ever have that drive in the first place? Are we content to listen to the drivel that John Tracey comes out with, that we are a small nation of untalented inbreeds, destroyed by famine and civil war and sure isn't a wonder we can even qualify to the Olympics? Second last place finishes are our gold medals. Is Ireland at the Olympics turning into Ireland at the Eurovision?

Ireland should concentrate on horses and boxing and build academies.

The republic has terrible sporting facilities, other countries have talent spotters to spot kids with potential.

Its not going to happen, its not a go getter nation, its more a whats the point nation.

[Tomas Mor]

To be honest, I think it is more important that we fix the economy than succeed at the Olympics.

I mean India has 1 billion people, and what does India win at the Olympics. Do they even give a toss about the Olympics ? The whole thing has descended into a farce.

Better off staying out of it, and not wasting money.

The entire Bertie Ahern shows that wasting money on sports, is idiotic and causes pain down the line.

Can we not do like the Indians, and concentrate on producing more medical students, or more engineers ?

Instead of producing so many useless phucking lawyers, architects, media studies graduates, real estate auctioneers, etc....

I agree with you to some extent, maybe it is a diversion, and we have not great hopes like in soccer for Euro 2012. Interesting about India, i heard yesterday on radio where some foreign ambassador from Asia said the problem with Ireland and Europe in general is that we not not competitive. We like to celebrate though, and think we are popular on the world stage. As reports from Australia suggest we are anything but. Heard some Irish girl say on MF show to day that when you ring up there looking for accommodation or a job, when they hear you are Irish they just dont want to know you.