I've heard enough about soccer

It is probably notable that people in Ireland talk about soccer as much as they do — though sport has likely been a topic since the pub's invention. On the 24th of March, 2007, Ireland hosted Wales in the first-ever soccer match in Croke Park, the national stadium. Soccer was illegal in the venue until that date.

I really am tired of hearing football talk. It's gotten to where I've reached a kind of threshold, a point of saturation, a critical mass of football (soccer) in my head — and it pisses me off to sit there as the boys launch into some "can you believe the result," and they're off....

I used to be a good sport about it, so to speak. I'd sit, think about something else, wait.... Maybe I'd be fortunate and there would be a woman present, or some other form of non-football-head. I'd make an attempt at comment, on occasion — finding it amusing (now I just find it unnerving) that lads can speak about any one subject for the hours that will pass while football is on the table.

And it has really gotten to be an irritant. I've heard enough of it. It's a waste of my time, and an annoyance to my sensibility.

So, there it is, from the heart. It's not that I have anything better to talk about, even... I'm just irritated, in the truest meaning of the word. And, nor do I begrudge my friends for doing something that they enjoy. It's just them being themselves, and they clearly get some great fun out of talking about football. I'm not angry with them.... Just pissed off listening to it, over and over and over again.

— 18 August 2007, Kilkenny Ireland