I've only ever written about 3 posts here on this blog but I felt compelled to write my thoughts on the match today. Not sure why. Just wanted to critalize my thoughts on a very sad day for the game.

I love United and always love the banter with Liverpool fans. It's a very intense rivalry between the 2 clubs but today things went to an unacceptable level. Here is my take on it...

1.Luis Suarez is a racist. He is also a nasty little piece of work. I've only ever seen him play in about 5 games and he has done something disgraceful in them all (his efforts in the Quarter final of the World cup being the worst of the lot. Not the hand ball but the celebrating on the touchline after being red carded and the Ghana player missing the penalty). By the letter of the law you couldn't ban Suarez or give him any punishment or even a yellow card but any human being can see what he did today and it was the lowest of the low. He degraded somebody over their color in front of hundreds of millions of people in a manner that he knew would hurt and provoke a reaction. People will say "it was only a handshake" but this was so much more.

2.Evra handled the situation brilliantly for 90 minutes as I would personally have knocked Suzrez's head off and taken my red card. After the match Evra was a disgrace though. I can understand his reaction as many would have done the same after bottling up that anger but it shouldn't be accepted. Evra should be given a 3 match ban for inciting the crowd. Bar some superb work from the ref and stewards those actions could have started a 50 person brawl at the end of the game. Evra could have walked off the better man and would have been lauded by the fans and media today. He didn't and he let himself down.

3.I couldn't care less about the score of the match today. That is highly unusual for such a big United game. The sport died a little in my eyes. I've been seeing it change for the worse (no more real tackles, diving, imaginary cards, John Terry, Tevez etc etc) for the last 4 or 5 years but today the football was average and the worst side of human nature possible was seen by kids all over the world. When you don't care about going top of the league and beating your biggest rivals something serious clearly happened.

4.I have banter with Liverpool fans. It really hurts when they beat us. Last week was horrible. Out of all the teams they are the biggest rivals. Beating them is always nicer than beating anybody else. I hate Gerrard, Carragh etc etc. Liverpool fans are not racists though. They are good fans who love their team as much as I love United. United and Liverpool fans have been going at each other online and I saw people nearly getting physical today over the match but this isn't about rivalries. It's natural to stand up for your team just like United fans did with Cantona and Keane. There are as many scumbag racist United fans as there are Liverpool fans. I lay 100% of the blame on Luis Suarez as a person and not Liverpool football club.

5.Whoever manages Liverpool's PR should be sacked. The incident grew legs and tarnished Liverpool as a club when the team and managers wore the T Shirts. Suarez should have been ordered to shake Evra's hand today and restore their image around the world. The incident has been very badly managed. Chelsea have had to deal with similar situation and they are still smelling of roses as a club despite Terry's actions. For the whole club to be dragged down to Suarez's level is poor PR.

6.Fergie needs to come out tomorrow and speak the truth. Call it all a disgrace and explain where United went wrong in it all. United fans, fellow managers and the media hang off his every word and he has huge stature on the game. He needs to throw out the biggest olive branch ever to Daglish and sort it out before it all turns in to something even uglier. The easy thing for him to do would be to say nothing and let Liverpool take all the heat but his knowledge of football and how much more than a game this was will hopefully mean he addresses it properly and fairly.

7.If I owned Liverpool I would sell Suarez. He is a good player and you would get £30 million for him. It would send out the message that there is absolutelty no room for racism. He will also have every single action he ever does scruntinized going forward. He will get blamed for everything even when not his fault. Players will target him and he doesn't have the head to handle it. Players up and down the country will leave the boot in that little bit longer when they know they are playing him.  Liverpool could reclaim the moral highground and replace him with somebody just as good who would be doing the club less damage.

8.I'll still watch football. I'll watch it less often though. I don't know if it's the money involved or the fact that I'm getting older but the dream is gone. It had been coming in my own mind for a while and I still long for an Italia 90 or Champions league 99 moment but I don't think about it the same way any more.

I tried to be fair in this post and call it like I saw it but I'm guessing it will probably read pro United. I don't mean it to be but once a fan always a fan I guess. What United fans don't tell you is that they hate Liverpool because they are the only club as big as United. Chelsea and City had loads of money and Arsenal win the odd title but in terms of a "pure" football club with passionate fans who demand great football and a huge team spirit only Liverpool will ever come close. The reason Liverpool and United fans hate each other so much is that they are the same thing just with different logos. A day like today is not a day for name calling or provoking (I may have provoked people in the heat of the moment on Twitter and for that I apologize) but instead a day for coming together and condeming everything that happened today. Today was about hatred, gloating, insighting and belittling. Those things have no place in the game and I suppose I'm writing this because I fell out of love with the "beautiful game".

Given the hatred I've seen today and the rawness of it all I full expect people to start name calling in the comments here. Wouldn't it be great to get some positive thoughts though?

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I've been meaning to write this post for a while. I eat out a lot because I like good food and I am lazy. Most of the food in Dublin is rubbish. Same old same old. Sick of constantly getting disapointed by places not being able to do the good things right I've started sticking to the same places that I always know will be spectacular, good value and deliver consistantly. So with that in mind and having enjoyed so many good meals and service in both I thought it was time I highlighted them and hope others can benefit....

The Exchequer (Website)

This is simply one of the best gastro pubs I have ever been. The food is amazing and wholesome with Sundays being a speciality. You can order whole roast chickens, Roast beef for 2 or 4 and a whole bunch of other great food. Cocktails are amazing, tons of beers by the bottle, great wine list and some of the best staff in Dublin. I love it for the free Wifi, comfy couches and relaxed vibe at the weekend. Always very very busy and you won't get in without a booking during peak times. Only a pub in name as the food is probably the best in Dublin in my opinion.

The Paris Bakery (Website)

I only discovered this a month ago after a tip off on Twitter but I've been back 5 times already because I am so hooked on their food). When the person who told me about it said it was on Moore Street (Traditionally one of the roughest in Dublin) I laughed and said no way was I going there. I was convinced to though and this is one of the real treasures of Dublin. It's the only exact replication of a French Bakery I have ever seen outside of France that is 100% accurate. Their bread is simply stunning and they make the best sandwiches in the country. It's cheap as chips to eat there and their desserts (the coffee eclair in particular) transport you straight to France as you eat them. There is another one of them opening soon on the south side of the city but I can't recommend strongly enough that you make the trek to the unique Moore Street to this most unliquely of settings for an experience you simply won't forget.

We make videos in the day job at Simply Zesty but it's not often you get given a brief to make something that you actually believe in and are passionate about. This video about getting more people working for indigenous Irish software companies is something I believe in a lot. It's great having Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Dell here in Ireland but Irish companies in the IT sector literally can't complete or hire quality staff. Hopefully this video helps young smart Irish people understand the great Irish companies that are here. Dublin looks well doesn't it! Claim to fame is that is my bike in the video :)

I've cried 3 times in the last 9 months. I'm a guy and I very rarely cry. Once every couple of years at most. I cried at the end of Barack Obamas speech in College Green. I cried when Darren Clarke held back his own tears when winning The Open last week and I cried when watching Vincent Browne one night when I saw somebody with real passion stand up for his country and call bullshit on somebody serving their own interest over that of the country. None of those occasions were especially sad but for some reason I think emotions are running high in our little country at the moment and it doesn't take much to get us going.

Nearly every citizen in the world is proud of their homeland. We all feel a sense of attachment to the land where we come from. Yet to be Irish is so much more. A tiny country with only 4 million people has achieved so much. One of the biggest bands in the world is U2. Some of the best actors, comedians and writers. 3 Major golf champions in a year. A national day that is celebrated around the world by millions. Some of the world's biggest multi nationals basing their European HQs here including Google, Facebook and Apple. An iconic beer. Our culture has deeply influenced great countries like the USA, UK and Australia.

I've walked in to bars in Melbourne, Hawaii, New York, Havana, South Africa and Sicily and instantly been welcomed like no other simply by stating where I am from. That's not luck but hundreds of years of decent people going before me setting the expectations about our great little country. In modern day marketing language it's positive word of mouth and Ireland has been doing this for 100s of years. People arrive on this island as tourists but leave as advocates heading off to tell 100s of friends about the amazing welcome and the insanely warm people they found here. From the moment you get in to a taxi at Dublin airport until you order your first pint people treat you like royalty. We aim to please.

The only time we lost it was for about 10 years when we got carried away with ourselves. We rode a wave of luck, good timing and starting from a low base to experience one of the biggest booms an economy has ever seen. We all got carried away. People bought houses they couldn't afford. We drank €10 cocktails like they were going our of fashion. It felt so good because we never had anything material before then. It was like a free bar at a party where everybody in the country was invited. We thought we could buy a Land Rover and remortgage our house and that we had to get one up on each other. Ireland wasn't a nice place during those years but the good times are on the way back. I can feel it in the air. People have lost their airs and graces. Camaraderie is back.

Even our leaders are standing up to the scourge that was the catholic church. Nobody is scared to say what they think. It's as if after a brief adolescence we have found out who we really are. There is no need to hide any more or be ashamed. People are back to being friendly. People are innovating again simply because they have to in order to survive. All the bad businesses and overpriced rubbish is getting swallowed up. Who cares if a few businesses go broke because plenty of them were ripping us off and the cream always rises to the top anyway. People are singing traditional songs in bars, drinking pints and letting their hair down rather than sipping champagne, snorting cocaine and paying €10 in to a poncy club. Money no longer determines how much fun you have. We were the best entertainers in the world for centuries but a little too much easy money made us throw away everything that was good about us. Thank god we are all broke again.

So where do we go from here? Well we go backwards. Back to where we were 10 or 15 years ago. We've learnt our mistakes and we won't make them again. You are judged in life not by what happens when things are going well but by how you react when the shit hits the fan. There have been times when we didn't have any food to eat or were shooting each other on this little island so not having a few quid to shoot off to Marbella is not going to kill us. For many the biggest challenges still lay in wait. Not having a job or money for rent is never easy but we will fight this like no others. Look at Big Darren Clarke. A millionaire golfer who has faced every challenge and been written off long ago. He has had his ups and downs but only an Irish man could warm the hearts of the world and be applauded every step of the way to a victory. We all need to adopt that spirit. The spirit that we've had on this island for 100s of years. Great things have come from here in the past and great things will continue to come from here because you can't keep a good dog down.

It might not feel like it now but many of us will look back on this period as the defining period in our lives. We'll remember what we did when everything was stacked up against us. We are all in this together though and it's important that we start laughing again and helping each other out. Lose the attitude. Smile when you see a foreigner. Help people when you can in any way possible. If you have plenty give a little to those who have less. Fight a little harder and do whatever it takes to turn the corner. Innovate. Don't be scared of failure. Tell somebody you love them and sing at the top of your lungs.

It might rain a lot here and we are paying huge taxes and you probably don't own your own house but it's our job to stay positive. It's what we do best.

It's great to be Irish