Originally Posted by
Sheridan
One has to chuckle at synchronised knuckle-dragging being compared favourably to the infinitely nuanced sport of cricket. If you don't like cricket it's because you don't understand it, and if you don't understand it it's because you're stupid.
That hurling-as-culturally-significant-pastime which the Irish establishment has attempted to fashion into a truism has really done a number on the populace if even people intelligent enough to appreciate football believe it. Let's have a look at the cold, hard facts.
Football
Origin: England (codified 19th cent.)
Export vectors: Emigration, industry, empire.
Coverage: Universal.
Cricket
Origin: England (codified 18th cent.)
Export vectors: Empire, military, diplomacy.
Coverage: Advanced post-colonial societies in both hemispheres.
Gaelic Games
Origin: Ireland (codified 19th cent.)
Export vectors: Mass emigration on biblical scale, military, industry.
Coverage: Monosyllabic farmhands called Ger on small, rainy Atlantic island.