International Rules: now there’s a real game

WE snaked our way along the North Circular road, into a part of Dublin I was not very familiar with.

I lived here for a year in the mid-1990s but the rugby scene revolves around Donnybrook and Lansdowne, the heartbeat of the worst excesses of Dublin 4. Unfortunately, I rarely had occasion to cross the river into what strikes me as a more genuine part of the city.

“Bleedin traffic, ‘tis terrible wha’?” said the taxi driver. I nodded my assent and tssked sympathetically.