PTSD

Rankings? what rankings?

Been a while since I discussed my addiction lately so here goes. Yes, it's footy. And, yes, in a way it's related to PhD-ing since Northern Ireland, ranked 116 in the world, beat the much-favoured English team (with David Beckham as captain, for those non-footy followers here) 1-0 yesterday. It was the first time in over 30 years that NI beat England. And, my granddad was a toddler when the same thing last happened at the same place (Belfast, 1927). Fantastic news, by the way, since almost anyone beating England is good news as far as I'm concerned (Yes, I do support Liverpool, who are an English club but that's one of the many oddities that regularly occur in football. Or so I say). The good news about England's defeat was especially nice since NI is a tiny region (I can't call it a country, obviously) with players playing in reserve teams in lower divisions while England's stars cavort around in Premiership teams.

In more NI news, the Maze Prison, the place where Bobby Sands died, where the blanket and dirty protests of the 1970s happened, the Hunger Strikes of the early 1980s occurred, where loads of prisoners were held, some for over a decade, is perhaps about to have a new life: as a football stadium. Or, as a museum. Or as both (try to imagine this). As seems to be usual when deciding what to do about “contentious sites of history”, local and state officials and private investors are still trying to decide whether the Maze should be a stadium or not. If it’s decided that a sports stadium should be made (and that seems to be where the popular vote’s going), would the future Northern Ireland team be able to match the exploits of this one which beat England yesterday? Maybe all the Northern Irish team needs is the Maze-turned-footy-stadium to make such results a regular occurrence.

posted by Priya @ 4:41 PM