IRISHMEN'S POPULARITY

New Zealand Tablet, 21 April 1921, Page 23

IRISHMEN'S POPULARITY

From London, -under date February 24, Mr. John Hughes writes to the Sydney Beferee as follows anent the England j. Ireland Rugby football match played at Twickenham. There are still some English 'sportsmen! Watching the Irish match one could not help being struck by the popularity of the Irish fifteen. __ There was a great crowd of 40,000 English spectators; with their sympathies, naturally enough, resting with their own players; but they gave the Irishmen a tremendous reception j and no one who was there could fail to understand the motive underlying such a generous and friendly gesture; One dislikes touching- in a sporting article, even in... the slightest degree, on politics, but that the great mass of Englishmen are genuinely grieved at the tragedy of their sister isle, and are out of sympathy'with the reprisals, at present being carried on in Ireland by the British Govern-: ment, no detached and impartial observer can for a moment doubt. ; ..' All through the game at Twickenham Ireland was cheered; two or three times, indeed, when 1 the Irish forwards swept impetuously towards the English line, the cheering could not have been greater had the English and not the Irish team been the subject of it; it is indeed a thousand pities that moderate men from • both sides of the Channel cannot get together and get the Irish and English-nations to settle their political affairs as they settle their athletics; sport is the greatest of all solvents when feelings run high and quarrels have to be settled. English and Irishmen can play the game on the Rugger field; surely, surely, they can play it in other fields, too! That, at any rate, was the unspoken thought of thousands of Englishmen at Twickenham a fortnight ago, and lay at the back of the warm applause that greeted Erin's footballers when they took the field, and when the King shook hands with them all before the kick-off. The air was eleptrical —surcharged with emotion—one could not help, feeling that it was self-evident. ...-?.--.