Well known “Sinn Féin athlete” Gerry Adams wants all the puckers in Leinster House to go to Belfast, capture Edward Carson and repatriate him to Dublin.
Last year, Gerry hosted the first poc fada at Stormont to celebrate Carson’s prowess at hurling. The founding father of Unionism played for Trinity College Dublin when he was a student there, and he was mentioned in a sporting journal at the time as having “distinguished himself on the field”.
Last year’s event, which was attended by representatives from unionist and loyalist communities among others, was such a success that the Sinn Féin leader is organising another one for this year. He is asking members of the Oireachtas to join their colleagues from the Northern Ireland Assembly and swing a hurley in Stormont on Saturday, August 6th.
“I will be competing along with other Sinn Féin athletes,” he said. “I am sure there are other puckers in Fine Gael, Labour, Fianna Fáil and the Technical Group who would love a poc ar an chnoc.”
Mattie McGrath was the only TD to represent Leinster House last year. The BBC’s Mark Sidebottom won the celebrity contest, beating such celebrities as boxer Bernard Dunne, Bairbre de Brún and RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey, and walking away with the Edward Carson Memorial Shield.
Party sources tell us that Martin McGuinness will be fit to take part, if his schedule permits. We hear he has just had knee surgery, although a Sinn Féin spokesman tells us he is unaware of this.
“He had knee surgery about 10 years ago, all right.”
He’d be familiar with the operation, so.