Agreed, Seán, but sometimes we Irish and our hibernophile friends overcompensate, and I think that's what gets up the nose of people who haven't had to put up with what we put up with for years, e.g. in British sports commentaries. Apparently even this week, one of the British TV commentators was referring to the Irish soccer team as "we", but he was ribbed about it by his colleagues and now we can laugh it off.

Isn't there some saying about being magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat (or words to that effect)? Let's be honest and admit that there has been an awful lot of cultural chauvinism around in Ireland for much of the last century, and now that we are getting recognition let's not claim more than our due.

In a forum like this, a light-hearted tease or self-deprecatory throwaway remark is too often seen as flaming or provokes a flame, so it would be helpful if people tried not to over-react. Peace, man (Oh me heart is livin' in the sixties still).