Wednesday 19 January 2022

Motorsport in the 1920's and 30's - a memoir

This memoir presents a summary of my late father's career and involvement in motorsport with images and words.  As a young man in his teenage years a century ago and into his mid-20's, my Dad's abiding interest was motorcycling.  

Michael Francis McSorley, Mick to his colleagues and friends, was born in Omagh County Tyrone in August 1908.  His father, John was a "motor agent" who had opened the business in the town centre in three years earlier.  Among other merchandise, the shop sold bicycles as well as guns and ammunition for sporting use.  

MF McSorley aspirant motorcyclist outside the family business at 3&5 Bridge Street Omagh circa 1929
 

In subsequent years the business diversified to include sales of petrol, records, gramophones, radios, televisions, musical instruments, wet batteries and, at Hallowe'en - fireworks.  What a stimulating place for any child, for me, to grow up in during the 1950's and 60's.

Mick took part in motorbike races across the country, in both jurisdictions of the newly partitioned Ireland, in the first half of the 1930's with a modicum of success.

Thanks to the contents of a metal box in which he stored memorabilia of racing events he attended to learn about his sport either as a spectator, official, pressman or motorcycling competitor, I can attempt to narrate his sporting life and achievement in the inter-war decade from the late-1920's to 1935. 


In contrast with the modern age when sport is a prominent daily event, organised largely by and for full-time professionals and involving substantial revenues and incomes, the 1920's and '30's was the early era of derring-do amateurs.  Yes there were some expert works teams even then, but the enterprising pioneers balanced motorcycle racing with work and family - and paid for the personal privilege of competing. 

Their commitment and ambition meant having to buy all of their own equipment.  This would have included key essentials such as motor bikes as well as the associated kit, race entry fees, travel to and from events plus food and accomodation, and maintainence of their racing machines. 

Motor Cycle Union licences

From his fastidious record-keeping, it is clear that my Dad's father John was a founding member of the home-town Omagh Motor Cycle Club.  Mick was the club's inaugural treasurer in 1927.  John, sadly, passed away on December 5 of that year leaving his young son to run the family business from the age of 19

Membership of a motor cycle club was a prerequisite of applying for a racing licence; likewise, receipt of a licence from the parent body was a prerequisite to race.

1927 is also the year when as a member of the Omagh MCC he received his first licence to compete from the parent body, the Motor Cycle Union of Ireland.   Interestingly - whether this is significant or not - his final licence dated 1935 declares his club as Ulster Motor Cycle Club. 

Race licences of M F McSorley - examples 1927-35

In 1928 he had also become a member of the Enniskillen and District Motor Club. The first record of his entry as a race competitor shows him listed in June 1931 to ride a Zenith in the Enniskillen 100 mile race. That was 91 years ago, so long ago that it's almost like pre-history in motorsports terms. This event had been inaugurated in 1929.  

From his records, it's clear that my father's motorbike of choice in all of his subsequent racing was a 1931 Rudge 249 cc.  The Rudge was shared between him and his friend Jim Woodside from Belfast.  In 1932 Jim had raced it in the Cookstown  Enniskillen and Carrowdore 100s and the Temple 60; and he raced it to victories in the 1933 North West 200 and the 1933 Temple 100.  Jim and he remained life-long pals. 

My Dad's papers include evidence of the sport's regulation.  In addition to the licencing system, events were controlled with a system of rules governing all manner of specifics.  These ranged event jurisdiction, entry requirements, motorbike specification, fuel to be used, medical certification, and the compulsory use of helmets.     

His archive includes, for example, a copy of a 21 page booklet of detailed regulations relating to the 1933 Ulster Grand Prix with the phrase "The Worlds Fastest Race" emblazoned on the front cover, like a salutory reminder of the need to observe the rules.  The use of metal-studded boots was expressly forbidden.

Just as in the modern era, however, everybody knows that regardless of how exactly regulations may be drawn, the potential for misfortune and accidents will always exist especially in dangerous high-speed sports.

1933 highlights

Before returning to the County Fermanagh course, my Dad's first ever racing victory took place at a County Tyrone race, the Cookstown 100.  He won the 250cc race there on 24 May 1933 riding the Rudge 249.  In that effort, he also set the race's fastest lap in a speed of 59.49 mph. 

M McSorley (no. 8) starting his winning ride at the Cookstown 100 on 24 May 1933
 
In the paddock in race leathers + celebratory cig after 1933 Cookstown100 win with J Vincent who came 2nd

At the Enniskillen 100 the next month, he delivered his second victory (as no.26) on 28 June 1933.  Again this was in the 250cc event on the same bike. The prize was the Derby Cup, he recorded the race's fastest lap, and set an average speed on the course of 64.11 mph. 

 

Taking the chequered flag Enniskillen 100 June28 1933
 

Ten days later on 8 July 1933 he marked his first racing foray across the border when he won the 250cc at the Dublin 100 in Phoenix Park (no. 21).  That meant three wins in three races.  A creditable start for a 24 year old in his first full year of racing.  He set a course record speed of 70.5 mph on the Rudge.  His notes record that his fastest lap time for the 250cc class was only 40 seconds slower than the fastest lap by a 350cc bike ridden by T.G. Burn.

M McSorley (no.21) leads 3 competitors around zoo corner (Source: Irish Times embossed photo of the 8 July 1933 Dublin 100)

 

Two I.P photos, one with EG Kelly leading M McSorley (winner); other (rhs) a close-up of MMcSorley (surrounded by adoring fans) winner of the 1933 Dublin 100 (newspaper unknown)


M McSorley (lhs) post-race with T Walsh on his 490cc Norton

Previous Winners of the Dublin 100 including 1933 - from the July 1934 Dublin 100 official race programme

Dublin 100 July 1933 race report (newspaper unknown)

Note the reference in the first paragraph of A Deserved Success to his being smashed by another rider, and yet he remounted and went on to finish first.  The report adds that only 8 of 30 starters finished the race.

The next month saw him ride in Northern Ireland's oldest race, the Ulster Grand Prix, first run in 1922.  He had attended the 1929 1930 1931 and 1932 races as an official and/or observer.  On 19 August 1933, he attended as a competitor (no. 50)

Ulster Grand Prix 1933 20.5 mile lap race course

He achieved a podium finish, being placed third in the 10-lap 250 cc event and winning a gold medal and a silver cigarette case. 
He set an average speed of 71.39 mph.

M McSorley's handwritten notes on the 12th International Ulster Grand Prix programme August 1933

 

1934

His first outing of 1934 was on 2 April, the event being the Red Brae Hill Climb in Carrickfergus.  His notes record that it involved four runs.  He set the fastest time, 57 seconds, for a machine below 250 cc.

The North West 200 first took place in 1929.  My Dad's first outing there took place at its fifth staging on 12 May 1934 having attended the race in 1931 and 1933 as an observer/official. His friend Jim Woodside had won the 250cc race in 1933 on the Rudge.

Map of the 11 mile NW200 course. A is the Portstewart start, B Coleraine at bottom of map, D is Portrush at top rhs. Anticlockwise route

His notes on the 1934 programme record that he came first in the 250 cc class scratch (no. 44) and a record speed of 66.69 mph.  In second place was N Robson from Blackpool riding a Dunelt, with Jack Duncan from Aberdeen riding a New Imperial in third place. 

Photo of the1934 250cc NW200 race - from 1935 NW200 programme
 
1934 NW200 race results - from 1935 NW200 programme

Nine teams competed in the 1934 NW200, five of which were from different parts of England, one was from Scotland, one from Leinster, and three from Northern Ireland.  Mick was a member of the winning club team, Ulster Number 1, consisting of Rusk Taggart and McSorley.

In the June 1934 edition of the Enniskillen 100 (no. 17), while he may not have won the race, he took the prize for setting the fastest lap on the day in a time of 65.59 mph.

And in the Dublin 100 on 21 July (no. 38), he finished second clocking an average speed of 68.34 mph.

1935

The North West 200 took place on 11 May that year.  On this occasion he came second in the 250cc class (no. 42)In addition,  he won the Ballymoney Cup for setting the fastest lap in that class. He was one of the same three members of an Ulster Motor Cycling Club team (Rusk Taggart and McSorley) that retained the team prize which they had won in 1934. An impressive double.

Eleven days later on 22 May, he raced again (no. 18) in the Cookstown 100.  While placing fourth overall and first in the 250cc class, he recorded the fastest lap in the class at a speed of 62.5 mph.  The 24 May 1935 edition of The Tyrone Constitution glowingly reported that 

    "his time was 1 hour 41 minutes 57 seconds and his average speed was 61.8 mph. Mr             McSorley was first in the 250cc class and won the prize for the fastest time in his class the     speed being 62.5 mph. Mr McSorley had a big handicap and his time was much better than     the winner."

Victory beckoned once more on 26 June when he won the Derby Cup for the second time at the Enniskillen 100(no. 26), setting the fastest lap in the process, and averaging a speed of 66.27 mph.  

On 13 July, less than a month before his 27th birthday, he lined up again in the Dublin 100.  Despite being labelled as the "hot favourite,"  calamity struck as this race ended his career.  He collided with a farm animal when travelling at 90 mph.  He ended up in hospital with serious injuries.  Fortunately and thanks to attentive medical care he survived (living for another 25 years).

Daily Express report on the July 1935 Dublin 100

Pre and post-racing activity

Based on the archive contained in the metal box, I have evidence of my father attending motorsports events both in the lead-up to competing himself and also after he was forced to retire.

Apart from returning to the race tracks where he had competed as a motorcyclist, he also made journalistic trips to the Isle of Man for the Senior Tourist Trophy Race in 1934,1935 and 1936 with a press pass.  What adds interest to his cv, however, is to see evidence of his interest in car racing over the years.  

For example, he attended the 1929 and 1930 editions of the RAC International Tourist Trophy Race.  The great event took place over a 14 mile lap North Down course.  Its stage was over the Dundonald, Newtownards and Comber triangle originally in 1928 (There is a revelatory 4 minute silent film of the 1928 race to see on YouTube).  

When I look at the list of drivers, I see names from all over the UK, Ireland and Europe; and in amongst them Viscount this and Lord that.  Now you know how the Roaring 20's were really made to roar.

 

Exotic cars which would fetch enormous sums today such as Bugatti, Alvis Bentley, Mercedes-Benz and Daimler featured.  This must have been the high-point of motor racing anywhere ever in Ireland.

1929 RAC International TT course map


Further evidence of my father's interest in racing cars comes from this photograph below.  Here he is in or around 1930 on Omagh's Courthouse Hill, with clipboard in hand, standing next to large sports cars.  It suggests the officiating at a car rally.  Anyone who can identify the make/models of the cars is invited to get in touch.


And almost twenty years later in 1949, a report in one of the local newspapers about the Circuit of Ireland car rally presents a photograph of my father as one of three Omagh drivers trialling for the rally.  So when I was about three or four months old, my Dad was charging about the leafy-green lanes of Ulster in a rally car.  I have a copy of the cutting somewhere in my belongings.

And even before he competed as a motorcyclist, he officiated from the age of 19 at various race events in various support roles, including race marshalling, as illustrated below.


Restoration of the Rudge

Before closing, I can confirm that his 1931 Rudge was acquired back in the 1960's by Albert Clarke from Ballygowan.  Albert has meticulously restored the bike to excellent condition having gradually scoured half the country over many years, successfully sourcing many original parts.  The Belfast Telegraph dispatched their veteran motorsport correspondent Jimmy Walker to record my meeting with him in May 1994. 

249ccRudge restored by Albert Clarke (lhs). (Source:Belfast Telegraph 1994)


Just as clinical scientists and archaeologists publish the results of their fact-based and painstaking work in journals for peer approval, Albert has set out the motorbike's history and provenance in two issues of Radial (Issue 149 Autumn & 150 Winter 1994).  It is the journal of the Rudge Enthusiasts Club. 

Journal entries written by Albert Clarke, Ballygowan about the 1931 250cc Racing Rudge
 

Legacy

To conclude, the family of Michael F McSorley is quietly proud of his racing legacy, modest as it is in comparison with those of today's stars.  Whereas I hope that this essay does justice to his achievements, I regret that his early passing when I was 11 deprived me of the opportunity to learn more - direct from the man himself about his racing career.  

I suspect, however, that perhaps his hand was on my shoulder when composing this memoir, helping to correct mistakes and to fill some of the gaps in my knowledge. 


 

 

©Michael McSorley 2022

Tuesday 29 May 2018

Walking


Compared to most other forms of physical exercise, walking must have a sound claim to be the least complicated, the most spontaneous and best value for money. 

To go out for a walk, all that is needed is a reasonable pair of walking shoes (or, depending on terrain, sturdy boots) and, at this time of year, shorts and a tee-shirt.  
Whereas to go out cycling, I have to search for a panoply of kit including specialist jersey and shorts, sun visor, water bottle, supplies like a spare inner tube and related tools.  In addition, before setting out, it’s necessary to run mechanical checks on tyre pressures and brakes.  This preparation uses up precious time and effort.

In the recent process of recuperating from injuries sustained when knocked off my bike in a hit and run accident, I added walking as an activity to my regimen of rehabilitation during the spring.   
Ambling along at will is so joyful and so simple, safer too and closer to nature because of the more sedate pace.  A green gym without entrance fees.  And what a pleasing way it is to begin the day when spring dawns bright, it is invigoratingly cool and birds are singing in full voice.

Recommendations for good walks all across the UK are a regular and a favourite feature to read in my Saturday newspaper.  They usually follow a theme, such as 20 coastal paths in diverse parts of the country, upland walks, mid-summer danders – all of which sound enticing and interesting without fail. 

As far as I am concerned, a good walk should satisfy certain criteria.  
It should provide a reasonable challenge sufficient to raise the heart rate and also allow for recovery; it should have a variety of terrain and pleasant scenery; the route should be mostly away from road traffic instead using paths, greenways and public rights of way; and, ideally, it should include features of interest both natural and archaeological or historic.

Arising from my plodding about in recent weeks, I want to trumpet a beautiful walking route not far from where I live – conscious of the need to minimise one’s carbon footprint.  Whereas the distance that I normally cover is approximately 4.5 miles and takes me 65-70 minutes from start to finish, this is a walk which has options aplenty either to extend or reduce distance-wise. 
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Route map screenshot from GPS tracker Endomondo, starting & finishing at the Crowne Plaza (or adjoining car parks)

For the most part, it falls within the 4,200 acre Lagan Valley Regional Park, Northern Ireland’s top designation in the hierarchy of public open space (as, unfortunately, it has no National Parks).  
A remarkable feature is that this particular route is close to Belfast city centre, being only 2-3 miles away at its closest point.  Its naturalness and rural tranquillity, however, completely belie the frantic urban context.

The first feature of interest a short distance from the starting point is a reminder of Victorian engineering at its inventive best. This is a set of lock gates across the disused eighteenth century Lagan Canal[i].  
It was originally a 27 mile transportation link from Lough Neagh to the east coast. The site includes a restored lock-keepers cottage and a barge. The latter structures are manned by volunteers and fitted with information panels explaining the rich industrial legacy of the canal as well as its natural surrounds.

Proceeding northwards across the nearby River Lagan, a look upwards to the right will reveal an archaeological structure known as a rath.  The word rath is an Irish Gaelic term meaning a circular enclosure surrounded by an earthen wall.   
The enclosed space is usually 25-50 yards across.  Raths are the most common ancient monuments to be seen in the Irish countryside, dating back to the Iron Age and early Christian eras.  They would have been used as dwellings and strongholds.   
This example at Clement Wilson Park is sited next to one of the city’s busiest roundabouts and arterial routes into the city centre.

From this northerly point, the route continues southwards through Clement Wilson Park and across the River Lagan to Shaws Bridge, a popular local beauty spot and the scene of various water sports including white water rafting.  
The next two miles brings a diverting contrast.  It takes you away from the active exercisers into an almost meditative and relatively more peaceful trek continuing at first on flat terrain along the river’s edge. 

At approximately a mile and a half into the walk, a new sign points leftwards away from the river in the direction of the Giants Ring.  This is the start of a steady upward climb which could be situated anywhere rural apart from actual its urban setting.

After a series of twists and turns the path narrows considerably – part of its charm - emerging eventually at the gated rear entrance to this five thousand year old monument.  The Giants Ring[ii] consists of a circular enclosure as the route-map displays, it is 200m in diameter, it is surrounded with a 4-metre high earthwork bank with 5 entrances, and it contains a dolmen which is a Neolithic passage grave.  
It was built at the end of the Neolithic or beginning of the Bronze Age around an earlier Neolithic passage grave.  The tomb is believed to date from about 3000 B.C. and the bank slightly later.  

Whatever about these fasts and figures, this site has the unmistakable aura of a sacred place and, mysticism aside, it is just the most pleasant place to visit, perhaps for a picnic. When I used to train as a marathon runner, this was a frequent place to include with the options to run round the raised banking or alternatively to track round the inner lower and flatter ground level.  Inspiring for both body and soul.  

The exit from the Giants Ring is the main public access to the site by public road.  The next section of a few hundred yards leads to a stile and a short walk across a field leading in turn to a laneway access to Minnowburn Terrace Hill Garden site.  It was originally developed in 1936 by one of the city’s leading retailers at the time (Robinson and Cleavers, famed for its Irish linen products) as the garden of the adjoining family home.  This site is about three and a half miles into the route.  It is meticulously maintained by the National Trust and its volunteers.  The garden commands a beautiful view across the valley to one of the city's finest properties, Malone House[iii].  This building is owned by Belfast City Council and serves as a popular venue for weddings and corporate functions.

 
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Malone House (in white) is set in the extensive parkland of Barnett’s Demesne[iv] with its own extensive walking paths and mountain bike trails.

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One of the modern wood sculptures in the Minnowburn park area.
The exit from the garden involves a descent along a series of steep steps.
At the bottom exit turn right onto a short stretch of public road with a subsequent left turn across a narrow bridge. 
This leads back to the lock keepers complex along the opposite side of the canal compared to the outward trip.

Here a previously unmentioned asset awaits. 
Beside the Lock Keeper's cottage and the offices of the company which looks after the Regional Park[v] sits the Lock Keeper's Inn. 
It sells a delectable array of cakes scones among many other edible delights, a suitable reward after an exhilerating hike.


©Michael McSorley 2018


[i] A Guide to the Lagan Canal, Lagan Canal Trust
[ii] https://voicesfromthedawn.com/giants-ring/
[iii] http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/tourism-venues/malonehouse/mhhistory.aspx
[iv] http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/leisure/parks-openspaces/Park-6606.aspx
[v] http://www.laganvalley.co.uk/

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Best of Six Nations



The UK’s resident party of Government is synonymous with two themes.  
One is its advocacy of free markets to ensure economic growth and wealth; the other is its espousal of One Nation as a means to foster community cohesion.

It was the occurrence of the final round of matches in this year’s Six Nations rugby tournament, of all things, which prompted me to consider the wisdom of these two pillars of socio-economic philosophy.  
The prospect of Ireland playing England in London on Saint Patrick’s Day so whetted patriotic instincts that the possibility of attending the showdown in Twickenham stadium was an imperative that had to be considered.

Unlike in England whose media expect their sporting teams to win everything, the task of taking Europe’s premier rugby competition and beating all comers has almost always eluded Ireland.   
That is apart from the year before my birth and on one other occasion.  This once in my lifetime feat occurred as recently as 2009. It had taken 61 years of trying.  On that occasion, I managed to get a ticket at the very last minute in Cardiff after a day and a half of shameless begging on the city’s streets.  

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This social media post from a Worcester Warriors fan three weeks before England played Ireland says it all
In the penultimate round of matches this month a week before our encounter with England, Ireland had done enough to win the Six Nations tournament regardless of the final day’s results. 
The bigger prize, the Holy Grail, was to achieve a clean sweep - a grand slam - defeating all five other countries.

The rarity value for us of such an achievement heightens anticipation significantly.   
And having been in the shrine of Welsh rugby on the one available opportunity nine years ago, symmetry was compelling me to attend the London showdown.

I began attempts to find tickets by contacting friends in Britain about five days before the game.  
As I waited impatiently for replies, a newspaper article[i] reported a predictable sequence.  This is the inevitable consequence of demand outstripping supply, resulting in a black market for tickets. 
The article quoted England’s Rugby Football Union as urging people not to buy tickets on offer at well above face value.  Free market economics takes full rein, I thought, in spite of RFU words.

According to the article, “the RFU...is doing everything in its power to curtail unofficial sales... as well as internet sites such as Viagogo, eBay, Seatwave and GetMeIn.”  
I wondered what sanctions or other authoritative actions they might be taking, if any.  
The newspaper gave an example of tickets priced at £3750 on a site called Stubhub. 

Despite warnings of this kind from the sport’s governing bodies, buyers might feel confused and perplexed.   These sales outlets are legally constituted companies and seem to be tolerated by the regulatory authorities.   
They are witness to the untrammelled working of the free market.

Six days before the game, I had discovered that I could fly over and back for about £80. Not extortionate and an argument in favour of travelling.   
Exasperated by the lack of progress from approaches to various friends and contacts, I decided to think about examining the ticket sales websites myself.  This was against my better judgement but out of curiosity.  
Eventually, four days before match-day I succumbed to have a sneak peep at the ticketing websites.  

The first one I examined was e-Bay.  
It showed two tickets with a face value of £124 each.  Quite expensive, but probably worth it in the circumstances.  Their resale and somewhat inflated asking price, however, was for a total of £2400 (“free postage” included, presumably to lessen the severity of the knock-out blow).  
In response to the site’s invitation to make an offer, I posted a bid of £300.  An instant reply declined the offer with an invitation to make another offer.

Rather than react instantaneously, I sat down with a cup of tea and read some chapters of a crime fiction thriller novel in an attempt to think rationally and to restore my faith in human nature.  
I also wanted to avoid giving the impression of being very ready to yield easily to a seller’s greed.

Before going back onto eBay, I looked at GetMeIn website which advertised tickets from £605.  However, when I clicked on the actual purchase price, it displayed a figure of £988.  Worse still, when I proceeded to the check-out stage, the total price for two £988 tickets (with the addition of unspecified fees) became £2326.94. 

Disappointing can be used as a polite word to express masterly understatement.  
I know well, however, that free market advocates will defend the exploitation of supply and demand by arguing that that is how market forces (and apparently Government) work. 

Ninety minutes after having an initial offer rejected on eBay, I increased my bid from £300 to £500 for the two £124 tickets.  At almost four times their face value, this constitutes a generous bid by that yardstick.  
In a message aimed squarely at the seller’s social conscience, I wrote in a helpful textbox that I am classified as elderly living on a pension.  
For extra pathos, I added that I am recovering from hip and pelvic injuries sustained in a hit and run road accident.

Almost before I had pressed send, another instant rejection message came back.  It slapped me in the face with such alacrity that I slumped in shock, stunned.  
It would have been impossible for the seller to have read and considered my circumstances. The reply did, with magnanimous fairness, invite me to make a third and final offer.  

Despite being urged to bid again, I did wonder if there is any point in dealing with a mercenary seller even if his feedback rating is perfect with, somehow, a 100% positive rating.  This is further empirical evidence of the free market’s truthful working.

The one other site I examined was called StubHub as it offered tickets at £875. 
Going through the same process, the total for a pair worked out, not as £875 x 2, but rather as £2126.25.   
Hardened in attitude against this free market, and forewarned by the advice from the toothless RFU, I declined this further opportunity to deal with extortion.   
Meanwhile flight prices remained dynamic but reasonably constant, with minor daily variations.


Despite the signal failure to repeat doing my patriotic duty, this is a story with a happy ending, as everybody knows.   Our team achieved the clean sweep; national pride, civic pride, rural pride, gay pride - every pride you can think of - all were restored.  
I was left wondering if it is too much to suggest that this sporting occasion might be a metaphor for how things could be.  Is it fanciful to think that elected representatives could learn from the sporting model? 

All of this coincides with the uncertainty of a time when seemingly irreconcilable differences deprive Northern Ireland of regional governance for well over a year.    
And it’s also a time when questions continue over Westminster’s policy to implement the popular campaign-winning, if oxymoronic, pledge to take back control of its borders which it wants to be invisible. 

In numbers, the rugby grand slam victors in 2018 are the one of the Six Nations teams which accumulated the most points (26), an island (quoting its anthem) of “four proud Provinces” partitioned into two constitutionally distinctive jurisdictions.   
And despite adversity, such as years of disappointment and underachieving in the quest for success, it has succeeded as One Nation on the field of international play.

Best of the 6 Nations
This is not a romantic idyll to be dismissed lightly.   
The publicity and boost for our image internationally goes a long way to counteract pictures of division and recidivism.   Success has come off a modus operandi which has been developed patiently over time.  
This method is based on solid principles of life and on standards for diplomatic behaviour. 

These include developing a specific strategy for each encounter, moving forward from past failures and building on progress, adoption of a positive and can-do mind-set in the interests of the greater good, co-operative working across seamless borders without friction, players united in taking risks calculated to achieve a big objective and, crucially, employing creative leadership which inspires.

On the eve of the St Patrick’s Day fixture, this very example of sport providing a role model bringing people together was eloquently envisaged by “Northern Ireland’s daily newspaper.”[ii]    
Happily on this occasion, our team delivered[iii].  
Don’t say there are no parallels or lessons to be learned.


©Michael McSorley 2018


[i] Belfast Telegraph 13 March 2018 page 3 Ian Begley:  https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/rugby/six-nations/tickets-for-irelands-grand-slam-bid-on-sale-for-4k-36698954.html
[ii] Belfast Telegraph 16 March 2018 p 12 Martin O’Brien:   https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/tomorrow-ireland-will-come-together-as-never-before-for-st-patricks-day-and-the-rugby-wouldnt-it-just-be-great-if-it-was-like-this-all-the-time-36710160.html