If I was to type away in my best Irish for the next couple of minutes, it would come out as pure and utter gibberish. That's largely because I've personally forgotten almost everything I learned in my formative years. Many may say I'm a disgrace in that regard but the truth of the matter is, I'm part of the vast majority.
Even if all this was written in perfect Gaeilge, it would be largely pointless given that the number of people who could understand it would be minimal to say the least. It's a fact of life in this country that more of us can speak the Queen's English than Peig Sayers' Irish.
We've come to terms with that. It happened and it's not changing anytime soon. Nonetheless, you'll do well to find anyone who's overly proud of the fact that we have a language that we don't speak. As such, criticising someone for being in a similar situation would be largely unthinkable particularly when you're speaking about 'learning the language of your oppressor'.
So when it came to Conor McGregor's latest taunt in the ongoing war of words with Rafael dos Anjos, you can do nothing other than laugh at the ludicrousness of a proud Irishman criticising (in English) a Brazilian for speaking English which it also must be pointed out, is not the language of Brazil's oppressors. Going back far enough, that would probably be Portuguese.
We fully get that McGregor's tactic has nothing to do with universal truth. It's about shouting the loudest and watching it eat away at his opponent. Nonetheless, Dos Anjos really missed a trick when it came to this little exchange. If anything, it's probably a glowing endorsement of his ability to get under his opponents' skin that the lightweight champ wasn't even able to offer a decent retort. (Continued below)
It must be said that McGregor did in fact go to a gaelscoil. His standard of Irish is better than most of the country. However, judging by this video taken in Dublin last year, we're willing to bet that Dos Anjos can speak Portuguese significantly better than McGregor can speak Irish. (Continued below)
Having said all that, leaving aside the 'language of his oppressor' moment, the rest of that exchange is pure gold. While we can easily criticise the featherweight champ over some dodgy historical references, he hit the mark in every other regard. That hotel reference in particular was the kind of thing that will be played on repeat for the next month or so. He's an intelligent man, regardless of what his detractors say, so you'd have to think that the irony of the rest of the comment is not lost on him. In reality though, if it gets everyone's attention and sells the fight, it really doesn't matter.
