Whatever happened to the luck of the Irish?
As an Englishman used to the cruelty of international football, I could share the pain the Irish felt on Wednesday as the previously respected Frenchie, Thierry Henry, picked the ball up and practically threw it into the net.
It brought back painful memories of that short-arsed Argentinean punching the ball into the England goal in 1986, and that looping deflection from a German free kick that cleared Peter Shilton's despairing hand four years later.
And as for that dodgy Brazilian cross that found its way past David Seaman in 2002 and the Beckham penalty that cleared the stands in Portugal - need I go on?
But it's not just football where the luck of the Irish has gone walkabout - farming too it seems has lost its guardian angel....
In the same week that DEFRA posted a provisional 25% increase in UK farmer's incomes, the Irish Farmers' Association is predicting a fall in its members' incomes of at least 20%. This comes on top of last year's 13% decline, with further falls forecast for 2010.
Official figures will be out next week, but there is no doubt that the combination of depressed global markets, cuts in government support, a relatively strong euro and the generally appalling weather have taken their toll.
This week the leader of the IFA, Padraig Walshe, went to see the country's finance minister, Brian Lenihan, to plead for clemency in his impending Budget. In particular, he called for an exemption from the planned carbon tax, no cuts in personal tax credits and the restoration of Rollover relief.
The IFA's demands are fairly predictable and may help in the short-run. But Irish farming needs more than just a few tax breaks if it is to see a sustained reversal of its fortunes. It needs increased scale and improved efficiency.
Having visited Ireland on numerous occasions, it is clear that the farming sector faces numerous structural problems, including an ageing population, uneconomic farm size and declining infrastructure.
Recent government figures reveal that over half the farming population is over 55-years-old and the trend is upwards. There are about 128,000 registered holdings and the average farm size is just 32ha. Some 44% of Irish farms are less than 20ha.
Family farms may be the backbone of Irish rural society. The uncomfortable truth is that there are still too many of them.
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