southall-sham-n[Brendan Doherty with sudents from Feartherstone High School, Southall, London]

The Southall Shamrocks.

Made up of FOREIGNERS.

Southall Shamrocks was established after Irish geography teacher Brendan Doherty ran several football sessions last summer as part of National Sports Week at Featherstone High School in West London, where almost 99 per cent of its 1,500 pupils are from an ethnic minority. Now, the team are braving the cold winter evenings twice a week as they train ahead of their three-day tour of Ireland’s GAA hotspots during the school’s half-term break.

Is this a first for the illuminati GAA anyone?

Meet the all Asian, Somali and Pakistani London GAA team (Nemesha Balasundaram, Irish Post)

Picture: Malcolm McNally

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[Rory O’Neill/Miss Panti on Channel 4 News last week]

And they’re magnificent.

But that’s not important right now.

What’s it been like out and about?

…What is also enjoyable about the last week though is the fact that regular Dubliners are making their support for him known on the street. Between being stopped for conversations with “Dublin blokes” who have gay children or by those who just want to lend their support and pose for a photo, O’Neill firmly believes that ordinary people are on his side; “in the first few weeks, unless you had seen the broadcast people probably thought ‘there’s no smoke without fire, he must have said something awful’. But now they’re being super nice and that’s lovely”.

“They’re trying to paint a picture that it’s some Dublin 4 media concern, which is total bullshit because I know from walking on the streets and into Tescos that ordinary people do care, ordinary people have a sense of justice about it and ordinary people know gay people in their families. Ordinary decent Irish people are not ideologues and they saw my side of the story as a real human story that affects real human people.”
Rory O’Neill in conversation with Matthew Mulligan of Trinity News.

PantiGate: An Interview With Rory O’Neill (Trinity News)

Why the world is talking about this Irish drag queen (Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press)

 

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