Banishing the snakes from Ireland

We haven't wanted to test the patience of our non football-fan readers with excessive Man Utd postings but it's getting hard to resist. Incidentally, there must be some kind of message in having both the club and its sponsor be the centre of huge takeover speculation at the same time -- though in the latter case, Vodaphone would be the predator whereas the club itself looks like prey. In any event, let's indulge in amateur Marxism for a second and speculate that the most interesting thing about the battle for control of Man Utd is how it made visible the dialectic between the Republic of Ireland's crony capitalists and their carefully cultivated populist image. JP McManus and John Magnier have always enjoyed a certain esteem amongst hoi polloi, or at least amongst hoi polloi who follow horse racing (which granted, does restrict things a bit).

McManus was the average punter who just applied the same skills to...well, actually we're not sure what he applied his skills to, but he has a house in Geneva to show for it. And Magnier participates in the sport of kings from his lair in County Tipperary. Sure shouldn't we all be proud of them, and of their pal Dermot Desmond too, the biggest shareholder in Glasgow Celtic FC?

This logic was always rather dubious, but something about the country's small size and indifferent economic fortunes perhaps made us prone to a VIP culture. So full credit to manager Alex Ferguson for being instrumental in helping the man on the Drumcondra omnibus see that in at least one instance, he has divergent interests from the home-grown tycoons. As we posted about earlier, Magnier and Fergie are feuding over the breeding rights to a horse, and McManus and Magnier are using their now 30% stake in the club to force through financial management reforms, seemingly aimed at Fergie's traditional modus operandi. Pro-Fergie fans have already mounted peaceful protests at one meeting where the Oirish pair had horses running, and they want to do a similar protest at next month's Cheltenham race meeting on the St Patrick's Day holiday weekend.

Amongst the embarrassed onlookers will be the bulk of the Republic's Cabinet who in the past would never have passed up a chance to schmooze with the equine plutocrats. Schmooze, and discuss any pressing tax affairs the two might have, such as the continuing tax exemption of breeding income and the technicalities of maintaining tax exile status. It was always such a nice synergy for Fianna Fail at these race meetings -- get in the social pages and do the lobbying at the same time. With one eye on the Republic's enraged Man Utd fans, it won't be quite so easy any more. Doubtless the Fianna Fail solution will be to have the meetings behind closed doors. It's pretty difficult to find out much about McManus's Geneva operations, so look for a sudden surge in pressing Irish government business in Switzerland over the next few months.