Originally Posted by
Spudulika
CD, the Irish attitude towards failure is deep rooted and is evident in our bankruptcy laws. We've been conditioned through centuries of being told to keep our heads down to just survive, anyone who's having a go is watched for when they'll go belly up. As Rovers were qualifying for the EL groups there were posts on here that decried it, and just as they played their last game the Indo (admittedly not a beacon for Irishness) rubbished the achievement. How many people are waiting for Rovers to blow up and waste their money to say - see, told you they'd do it. It's not begrudgery, it's not like in Russia where you envy your neighbour so you wreck his house to make it look like yours, it's just not a mix of not wanting to see a neighbour go bust, not wanting to be left behind and also being forced to lift yourself to compete. Abroad the Irish work hard, and at home we work hard, we just are a little mental.