Former champions Ulster are making an unexpectedly strong bid to return to the top-flight of sectarian-based violence, as the 2012 season reaches its climax.
Syria and Egypt may have captured the headlines over the last few months but protestant loyalists are confident that they can recapture the glory days of Ian Paisley in the 1980s and 90s “Not the current mini-me MP, he’s not fit to tie his father’s boot straps,” said Bobby Wright, a grizzled H-Block veteran “but when it comes to arson and mayhem, arguing over a rectangle of cloth hanging from a flagpole, there’s nothing to touch our boys.”
Wider afield there are others keen to stake their claim to a place at the bigotry top table with only three weeks of the season to run. However, speaking on lighted-match- of-the-day, pundit Alan Hansen was dismissive of the much-fancied Israeli settlers in Palestine. “Granted, the history of that derby match goes back much further than the Battle of the Boyne; but you’ll never win anything with yids.”
