So Irish people have an incredible amount of team spirit. I first saw this when I watched the Munster vs. Biarritz Rugby League final here (I think I wrote about it in a previous entry). Not being one to miss a final Matt, Oisin, Watsy and his mate Miriam and I went down to Mulligans to watch the hurling final on Sunday. Hurling is a uniquely Irish game that is a cross between field hockey and lacrosse. Guys run around with long wooden sticks called "hurleys" trying to hit a small leather ball, called a "schlitter" (that's a phonetic spelling) either into a goal for 3 points or above the goal for 1 point. The final game was Cork vs. Kilkenny and two of Oisin's mates who showed up were the only 2 Kilkenny supporters in the whole pub. Sadly, Cork lost (I think the score was 1-13 to 1-16). But the real point of my writing this entry is not about the game itself but what was painted on the pubs windows in support of the game--a confederate flag. So we got to talking about it during halftime and Osh told us about how he and his mate brought a confederate flag to Oxygen last year and got a lot of stick for it. His explanation was that it is just a sign of rebels, not a confederate flag. To be honest, I was flabbergasted. He saw nothing wrong with waving it around. Cork, for those who don't know, is considered "the Rebel county" as being the home of Michael Collins and was considerately more difficult for the British to police as it's further away from Dublin. In any event, he barely acknowledged that this flag was the same flag that was created and flew in support or racism, slavery, states rights and oppression. I tried to reason with him saying that I understand people who use the swastika as a symbol today because it was a pagan symbol long before the Nazi's stuck it on their arm bands. But the confederate flag's roots are in the freaking Civil War. In the States today i know people who fly it to show their support for the values that it was created in honor of. It did not exist before that and the naivete of the Irish people just astounds me. Matt and I talked about it on the way home and I looked it up on the net and found a really interesting article talking about how some people are calling for the GAA (that's the Gaelic football and hurling association) to ban it and are facing loads of opposition. You can read the article here: http://www.flagwire.com/index.php?doc=28&aid=263