Five ring circus

There are days when one sees the wisdom of historian Norman Davies' decision to call his brilliant history of Britain and Ireland The Isles, given his belief that the more standard designations for those two large land masses on Europe's continental shelf are so loaded. We already had an inadvertent theme for the week of those uppity (O)Irish meddling in England's affairs, and Wednesday's Irish Times brings word of a new dispute.

When Ireland was partitioned in 1922, sporting and cultural organisations took different approaches to how to realign with the split jurisdictions; the Irish Rugby Football Union continues as the representative body for rugby throughout the 32 counties, while the soccer bodies correspond to the countries: the Football Association of Ireland for the Republic, and the Irish Football Association for Northern Ireland. It's not well-known that the situation with the Olympic bodies is even more complicated, and has come to wider attention because of a dispute between the British Olympic Association and the Olympic Council of Ireland. Athletes from Northern Ireland have had the option of declaring for either association, for example:

Wayne McCullough from Belfast historically boxed to a silver medal for Ireland in the 1992 games, while Belfast's Mary Peters won gold for Britain in the 1972 Olympic pentathlon.

But a document prepared by the BOA for Athens is seen as encroaching on this agreement:

The final draft of the BOA's Team Members Agreement refers to the Athens Olympic team as Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In the OCI's eyes, this is an annexation of Northern Ireland

While the BOA claims that the inclusion of Northern Ireland in its Athens team name is merely a technicality, the OCI fears that sometime down the road, the BOA would try to lay exclusive claim to athletic talent from Northern Ireland. The main weapon being threatened by the OCI in response is to lobby against London's 2012 bid. Britain's tabloids have generally kept the anti-Irish jingoism at a low level in recent years, but with "Sir" Alex Ferguson, the hand-painted periwinkles, dirt-cheap universities, and an Olympic bid all under threat in one week due in part to the Other Island, can they restrain themselves for much longer?