Cricketers were our best ambassadors

ON St Patrick’s weekend we had the usual exodus of politicians on so-called promotional trips around the globe.

But it turned out that the butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker were the real ambassadors for Ireland over the national holiday weekend.

Ireland’s amateur cricketers, along with their small army of supporters, put the country on the world’s sporting stage. It is marvellous to see a modern, multicultural country far removed from de Valera’s dour Ireland of 50 years ago when the Catholic schools’ sports curriculum offered us Gaelic games only and those of us who managed to get our hands on cricket balls were regarded with contempt by many priests and teachers. A mortal sin, to be sure.