The 'Laochra' celebration to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising captured the attention of most of the nation and earned approval from most viewers. It split opinion among the Sunday Game panel, however, as Joe Brolly and Colm O'Rourke had differing views on the spectacle in their respective Sunday Independent columns this morning. O'Rourke fully approved:
The Laochra show was brilliant too. The sound was not great high up in the Hogan Stand but the costumes, music and dancings were superb. The quality was best demonstrated by the numbers who stayed right to the end. Well done to the organisers. This and other 1916 ceremonies have added greatly to a deeper respect for our flag and our national anthem. That has been the real value of our commemorations.
Joe Brolly, however, was less than impressed. Fresh from a fairly magnificent Alan Partridge impression on Newstalk's Off The Ball a couple of weeks ago - ending the paper review with an evocative 'Kiss my face' - Brolly refers to this famous Partridge scene with Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews in discussing the 'laochra' celebration:
Partridge's toe-curling stereotyping struck Brolly when watching Laochra at Croke Park:
With Laochra, the GAA went for a mix of Braveheart and The Quiet Man. Croke Park was full of toothless simpletons with whiskers on their faces wearing dresses, scowling and waving swords. We also had a cailín with long red hair singing. To cap it all, there was Bono, as Irish as a Luxembourg tax haven....
The most disappointing features of the Croke Park parody were the fact that the King of the Leprechauns didn't make an appearance and grant everyone in the audience three wishes, and that Alan Partridge wasn't asked to narrate it.
Elsewhere in the column, Brolly argues that while Dublin are unstoppable, Tyrone may well be the second best team in the country. The column has yet to appear online, so you can read it in today's Sunday Independent.
