Seasonal skills: How to go camping
THE TENT
Lately, lots of us have been popping up to the shops, popping pop-up tents into our cars, then popping off to campsites. And these tents are truly poptastic until the buyers try to pop them back in their bags and find it would be easier to put a jumper on an alligator. They then realise they’ve been sold a pop-up pup. Get a normal one.
THE SIZE
It’s nice to have a bit of stretching room, but Ireland is not famous for its balmy summer nights, so you have to balance your love of not getting poked in the eye with your desire for some body heat.
THE LUXURY OPTION
Glamping – “glamorous camping” – is where music festivals charge an arm, a leg and a kidney to put you in a brightly painted shed, a gypsy caravan with a stove, or a yurt with a composting toilet. If you can afford these, you can probably afford a trip to the Caribbean. Which is it going to be?
SLEEPING
Yeah right.
THE EXIT STRATEGY
Camping needn’t involve a long trip. In fact, in the event of a leaky tent, there’s a lot to be said for exiting with a dignified: “I’m just going outside. I may be some time,” and marching out of your back garden and into your nice, warm house.
THE MORNING AFTER
Don’t force conversation. They don’t want to talk to you either. Around lunchtime, you could suggest booking a luxury yurt with a double bed and an Xbox for the second night. Nobody will disagree.
- Conor Goodman
On the Rovers bandwagon
Now that Shamrock Rovers have returned victorious from Tallinn and are gearing up for their next Champions League outing against Copenhagen FC, it’s time to rev up the bandwagon. Here’s our guide to knowing your Rovers facts and becoming an instant fan.
Hooperman
No, not Brian O’Driscoll’s wife, but the mascot of the club’s junior supporters, prone to cheerleading and amicable pitch invasions.
Famous players
John Giles, Eamon Dunphy, Jim Beglin and even rugby international Tony Ward have come through Rovers’ ranks. Feel free to boast about the club supplying more players to the Irish squad than any other.
Number 12
That’s you, new Hoops fan. The jersey with the number 12 on the back is never worn on the pitch by a Rovers player because it is chosen to represent the club’s supporters.
Booo-hemians
Try not to wear a black and red jersey to any of the matches. Rovers biggest rivalry is with Bohs, although Shelbourne and St Pat’s are up for grabs too.
Who you shout loudest for
Gary Twigg and Stephen Rice remain the most popular players.
Do say
“Take me home, Milltown road, to the place, I belong, Tallaghtfornia, Stadium Rovers, take me home, Milltown road.”
Don’t say
“I thought you guys played in the RDS?”
- Una Mullally
Why the Irish are ace at poker
IRELAND HAS managed to shine at the unlikeliest sport of cricket, but now it’s a slightly different game we’re excelling in.
Irish poker has been going from strength to strength since Dubliner Noel Furlong won the World Series of Poker in 1999. Now a young Irishman, Eoghan O’Dea (pictured left) has secured a place at the final of the tournament in November.
O’Dea, 26, from Dalkey in Dublin, beat 6,865 other players to reach the final nine who will contest the title three months’ time. O’Dea currently holds 33 million chips in the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold ‘em competition.
So why are the Irish so good at poker? Leon Blanche of Boylesports, which holds the Boylesports Irish Poker Open every October and also sponsor various Irish poker players, believes our talent at the game has more to do with national personality traits.
“The Irish are very good at reading people,” he says. “You’ve got to have a lot of patience, too, and I find a lot of the Irish players have that. But there’s definitely a key skill in reading your opponent, and Irish players do that best.”
Eoghan O’Dea is the son of Irish Olympic swimmer and professional poker player Donnacha O’Dea who was the first player to be inducted into the European Poker Players’ Hall of Fame.
While some may question whether poker playing prowess is in Irish blood, it’s certainly in young O’Dea’s.
- Una Mullally
