The Farrelly Brothers directed ‘Dumb and Dumber’….

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Surely Hugh Farrelly should be in there somewhere, second from the end I think!
Surely Hugh Farrelly should be in there somewhere, second from the end I think!

…can anyone think of another sentence containg the words ‘Farrelly’, ‘Dumb’ and ‘Dumber’?

On a completely unrelated point, I see that Hugh Farrelly, the Irish Independent’s nativism and anti-immigration correspondent (and occasional rugby writer), has entitled today’s effort ‘Ulster Victory Would be Bad for Ireland’.

Now I have read this a number of times, and while a number of the old usual Farrelly tropes are present and correct – the word ‘indigenous’ (as an aside, the only other group of people that I can think of who use this term are the BNP); disdain towards Ulster, albeit a little more naked than ususal – I think what is worst about it is that, having presented a provocative thesis in the title, nowhere does the article come anywhere close to backing it up, or making a case!

The innacuracies, misrepresentations and logical fallacies are legion – but the fundamental canard that underpins the article is that Ulster have more ‘non-indigenous’ players than Munster. The fact is that Ulster have exactly the same number of NIQ players as Munster, and if Howlett was fit, exactly the same number would be selected in a first choice XV – or, the way Farrelly sees it, ‘blocking indigenous players’ – its just that Ulster’s are better. Here are some other facts – Munsters 4 front-line NIQs have started 62 matches this season; Ulster’s 4 front-line NIQs have started 60 matches this season.

The idea that Ulster are more reliant or ‘over-reliant’ on their NIQs is (a) subjective, and (b) highly questionable. For example taking du Preez and Botha out of a Munster match-day squad would affect them to at least as great an extent than removing any two of Ulster’s NIQs, in fact arguably it would completely torpedo them.

He also commits the logical fallacy of confirming the consequent – Ulster have lots of NIQs, a number of Ulsters players don’t get picked for Ireland; therefore Ulster players don’t get picked for Ireland because Ulster have lots of NIQs! (Although even he has to concede that the ‘vagaries’ of the coach’s selection policy may have something to do with it).

It’s a classic case of a journalist starting out with a conclusion that he wants to reach, and then filtering and contorting the content of the article in order to reach that conclusion. So talking of Ulster being ‘over-reliant’ on NIQs, for example, while highly questionable in its own right, is simply a skewed and roundabout way of conceding that Ulster’s NIQs are better than Munster’s.

Anyway,  if Ulster fans needed another reason to hope for an Ulster victory this weekend, the thought of another bitter article on Monday morning from ‘Dumb and Dumber’ does the trick nicely!!!


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