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Response to Irish Cup glory portrays xenophobia and paranoid insecurity

Joseph O'Brien celebrates after winning the Melbourne Cup with Rekindling
Joseph O'Brien celebrates after winning the Melbourne Cup with RekindlingCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

“If anybody knocks on your door who has an Irish accent,” Australia’s minister for consumer affairs Marlene Kairouz warned her country’s citizens last Tuesday week, “automatically ask them to leave.”

A week later, The Age’s Greg Baum wrote of the Melbourne Cup after Rekindling led home that spectacular 1-2-3 for Irish-trained horses: “Some days, it feels that the Melbourne Cup has become the race that bypasses a nation.

“Perhaps this became inexorable when another Irish horse, Vintage Crop, won the race 25 years ago, blazing a trail. This day, for the first time, none of the placegetters was Australian.

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Ireland editor

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