A day when a sporting event tells you a lot about a country and its people
Today is one of the great days of the year in Ireland.
A day when a sporting event can give us an insight into the psychology of a nation.
The Irish Grand National takes place at Fairyhouse.
Here's a little about what happens.
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In horses, Ireland has one of the greatest reputations.
It goes back hundreds of years, the combination of British landlords and Irish land creating a powerful mix of money, ambition, culture, skills.
Today, the Coolmore breeding operation rivals anything in the world.
But Coolmore (and the world-class Ballydoyle training stables of Aidan O'Brien) are about Flat racing.
For Irish people, Flat racing is a bit posh and a bit strange and a bit foreign.
For Irish people, real racing is jumps racing: 2 to 4 mile races with obstacles in the way.
Jumps racing started in Ireland.
The pinnacle of jumps racing is the "steeplechase" – a race over large fences.
The first steeplechase was in 1752, literally a chase between two steeples, St John's Church in Buttevant and St Mary's in Doneraile.
Messrs Cornelius O'Callaghan and Edmund Burke were the two men who challenged one another, and legend has it that the prize was a perfect Irish prize: 600 gallons of booze.
We don't know who won the prize (or if they survived it!) but we do know that jumps racing was born.
Today at Fairyhouse, about half an hour north of Dublin, the richest jumps race in Ireland celebrates its 150th anniversary.
After two COVID years, the Irish Grand National is back in front of a crowd for first time since 2019.
The purse is €500k, with €270k to the winner.
But the best horses rarely win it. In fact they rarely *run* in it.
The best horses typically run in what's called "open company" – all horses running off the same weight.
But the National is a handicap: all horses carrying different weights, depending on their handicap rating.
And here's where it gets interesting, from an Irish psychology point of view.
All things being equal, the handicapper would have a clear sense of all horses' ability, and all horses would be given a fair rating (and therefore a weight to carry) depending on their ability.
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But that's not what happens at all.
It doesn't really happen in handicaps in other countries, but it *definitely* doesn't happen in the richest race in a country like Ireland.
Why?
Well this is what makes us Irish so glorious and maybe, sometimes, eccentric and insane.
To understand the Irish Grand National, you have to understand something of Irish history and what it's done to the Irish psyche.
Ireland is a wild land. Thousands of years of pagan and Celtic spirituality. Fairies and púcas and banshees are the source of Halloween.
On top of that history, we had a thousand years of invasion and bloodshed: first the marauding Vikings, then the colonising British.
Those 1000 years, added to the wildness in the earth and the air and in our minds, created in us a soup of conspiracy and craziness and rebellion.
This comes to a head in the Grand National, which takes place at Fairyhouse every Easter Monday.
Owners and trainers all over the country, trying to keep a possibly top class horse out of sight for a year or two or three before unleashing its full potential in the richest race.
With 22 fences over nearly 4 miles and 30 runners, lots of them capable of better than they've ever shown, the only certainty is there will be lots of hard luck stories.
But for one team there will be one great story, when the plan of a lifetime came together on the biggest day.
For many Irish people, the "plan of a lifetime" is the one that carries the most mischief and trickery.
There are no leprechauns, but the leprechaun mindset – sleight of hand to get one up on the overlord – has always thrived.
The "cute hoor" is an Irish folk hero.
(Even the two big owners who together own more than half the horses in today's race represent this class of hero.
JP McManus – 8 runners – made a fortune currency trading, has invested millions in racing and GAA and golf. He likes few things more than seeing Limerick win All-Irelands, playing a round of golf at Adare Manor, and having a good punt on one of his own horses in a big race.
Gigginstown House Stud – also 8 entrants – is owned by Michael O'Leary, who through Ryanair's mischievous disruptive business model revolutionised air travel for a generation.
McManus and O'Leary have much more in common with the sheep-farmer than with royalty.)
The race starts 5pm Irish time.
Between on course bookies and online betting, millions will be gambled.
My advice: pick one at random for a bit of fun.
Or just enjoy the spectacle and what it says about Ireland and our wild, beautiful, rebellious and ungovernable Irishness.