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Showing posts with label Boyne Rover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boyne Rover. Show all posts
Boyne Rover answers 13 questions in a Booker's Dozen.


 TPQ: What are you currently reading?

BR: Sir They’re Taking The Kids In. I came upon it when looking online for something to read. It’s about squaddies on the ground in the early days of the Northern conflict. It’s a decent read so far.

TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read?

BR: Best -  Sophia’s Story. It’s truely a horror story that happened in Ireland in the 80’s about a young girl and her family who were abused by a very angry paedophile father. Worst - The Compassionate Terrorist by Brian Godfrey. Didn’t finish it.

TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?

BR: Can’t remember the name of the book but it had a poem in it called “Lake Isle of Innisfree". I can remember reciting it at school many times.

TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?

BR:  Louis L’amour. Simply because those were the books my father read so they naturally fell into my hands. Cowboy books were popular currency amongst rural communities in times past so there was always a plentiful supply

TPQ: First book to really own you?

BR: I’ve no idea what the name of the book was but I can tell you it was about children shipped off to New Zealand for whatever reason. Some were taught by the Christian Brothers but most of them were put to work and met with the most horrific abuse. I was about 15 at the time. This was my first introduction to human trafficking and slavery.

TPQ: Favourite male and female author?

BR: I really don’t have any preference for any author male or female.

A Berlin Book Tower in memory of the Nazi book burning.

TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?

BR: Fact. Only I think as it’s mainly because of the amount of fiction I read growing up.

TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?

BR: Páidí. It’s about a Gaelic footballer from Kerry. He was a great character both on and off the field.

TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?

BR: The books I refuse to read are the autobiographies by current sports people. I always felt short changed so stopped reading them. At least wait for their careers to be over and retired so we get the full story.

TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?

BR: I don’t understand myself most times so picking a book …

TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?

BR:  Dessie Farrell's Tangled up in Blue. I gave it to a friend who’s a Dub. Seemed appropriate.

TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?

BR: My Father’s Watch, The Story of a Child Prisoner in 70’s Britain. By Patrick Maguire. It’s about the terrible injustice that was visited upon Patrick at 14 along with the rest of his family - the Maguires living in London at the height of the PIRA’s bombing campaign. Their story should be told to the world simply to show how the corrupt legal system and police in England treated innocent people.

TPQ: A "must read" you intend getting to before you die?

BR: Hopefully when Michael O’Leary of Ryanair retires, he will write his autobiography.

⏩ Boyne Rover is a long standing patron of TPQ

Booker's Dozen @ Boyne Rover

Boyne Rover with his take on how Rule Britannia is not really ruling Covid-19.

For many years we have had this age-old problem - 800 to be precise - with England and for all of those years we have fought them; and fought them to reclaim complete Irish Unity and not what we ended up with “some for you and some for them”. 

The Rule Britannia brigade roamed the world for many years laying claim to other people’s land for whatever reason I for the most part fail to understand. Most of these lands offered very little in the way of wealth: few of them had actually anything to offer the world except perhaps Kangaroos, Tea curries and coconuts. We had spuds - it’s not exactly like wining the lotto. And then they brought the beautiful bunny rabbit to Aussie land which posed such an enormous problem the Aussie’s have since spent trillions trying to eradicate them, not exactly forward thinking. The Americans had enough of them as well - they kicked them out a few years back and Gandhi talked the talk and walked the walk to clear them out of India. 

What always amazed me was the fact that these ex-colonies all wanted to remain part of The Commonwealth. So what have England got to offer the world? Some maintain we would have been under Nazi rule only for them. I think the Americans might have something different to say on that subject. Anyway, enough of that rant - let’s get on to where we are now in this horrible nightmare with a virus that is sweeping throughout Europe. Some countries have handled it better than others. The Italians and Spanish are being hardest hit. Ireland has adopted a system called social distancing which seems to be working - the number of fatalities’ are nowhere near what most people had thought at this stage.

England, oh mighty England, what are you at? After watching China, Italy, Spain and ourselves adopt to some type of system ye have come up with a brilliant plan: Boris decided on Herd Immunity, having no idea what that really meant. Only problem with that system is the virus doesn’t see wealth, poverty or borders and can infect everyone and anyone in its way. Herd Immunity is the survival of the fittest used in the wild by all animals. If disease hits a pack or herd they will be isolated from other animals and then let nature take its course. This is what Boris wanted to do having no idea what the outcome would be, and the English people followed blindly behind. Then suddenly he realized that maybe he wasn’t the fittest and maybe he wouldn’t survive so hence the massive turnaround. Boris and his Health Secretary and his Chief advisor have now contracted the virus. Are they fit enough to survive? Only time will tell.

Back in 17th century when a certain plague visited itself upon your land, quarantine was the way to treat the virus. This meant the closing of towns or villages that had the virus and let it take its course. So why did the English who have such a love of their history and culture not adopt this tried and tested method from the beginning of the outbreak?

Maybe after this horrible nightmare is over we should really look at England in a different light because for all their huffing and puffing through the years they really don’t know anything. They don’t seem to have the capacity to take on board common sense. Boris is so consumed with power that he can’t ever see wood for the trees and that goes for lots of English citizens. They are stuck in a different place from the rest of world. They keep regaling us of with their stories about how, with their Bulldog, spirit they have survived two world wars won, something in 1966, got out of Europe and with that same Bulldog spirit they will take this virus head on.

Oh, where next for Rule Britannia?

⏩ Boyne Rover is a long standing patron of TPQ

The Bulldog Spirit Old Chap

Boyne Rover is not at all sure that Matt Treacy has called it right with his characterisation of the current Dublin team as "the Greatest."

The Greatest ... Not Sure

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