Finally, a bit of good news! And, of course, in this upside-down year it just had to be a steely, come-from-behind win for Mayo.
There might be some who are asking why a lot of Irish people raised a glass to Ballina’s Joe Biden this weekend, but it’s really very simple.
Sure, he’s stopped that Orange Spanner, that useless, lying conman from doing more damage to the world.
And yes, Joe’s a real Irish-American, a great friend to our island, a stand-up guy who cares deeply about his ancestral home and won’t just fly in for 24 hours to do a photoshoot with a pint of stout.
But there’s a Biden Bonus for Ireland that could help us see out this cursed year with yet another win.
And you might have noticed it was not Putin, or North Korea or the Saudis who were raging the most about Don the Con getting his arse handed to him.
No – it was the Tories and the Brextremists who know they are now in a world of trouble – bigly.
They were losing their minds as the votes crept up for Biden and with good reason.
Joe seems like a nice guy but you don’t survive in US politics for four decades – and finally win the White House on your third go – unless you’ve got a bit of steel and a lot of bite in you.
And lads, Joe don’t like Boris Johnson and his cronies. Not one bit.
He remembers Boris calling his good buddy Obama “half-Kenyan” and he remembers all of the lick-arsing the Tories did when Trump was trying to bully the world.
He’s on the record calling Boris a Trump “clone” and as one of the Biden camp insiders said this weekend when asked about Ireland, the UK and Brexit: “Joe has a long memory.”
The Brexit loons have just seen a bully who backed them to the hilt replaced by a guy who truly believes the security and prosperity of Ireland and the EU trumps any crappy trade deal Johnson is absolutely desperate to sign.
When one Tory MP – chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Tom Tugendhat – was asked yesterday which world leader Biden would call first, Merkel or maybe Macron, he replied: “Micheal Martin”.
Biden has a long friendship with the Taoiseach – and also counts the SDLP leader Colm Eastwood as a great friend in the North.
Biden has a monumental task to turn things around in the US and it may be a while before we see him in Connacht. But the Brexit talks reach a climax over the coming days, the message has gone out loud and clear.
Buckle up Tories, there’s a new sheriff in town. And he’s from Ballina.
