This winning and losing is such a silly measure in my mind. We all have our place. We all have our work to do and we do it as best we can.

Millions – can it have been millions? – rooting for their teams in yesterday’s big contest wore that certain sweater or sat in that certain chair, convincing themselves that they could influence their favorite team’s fortunes, even knowing how unlikely it was that their actions would have any effect. It made them happy and I hope they all had a great time watching.

I guess half of them are happy again today, with bragging rights guaranteed for the next 12 months. But I hope even the fans whose team didn’t win are happy enough as well. It’s only a sort of make-believe in the end, these contests. It’s as that aging magician Prospero says near the end of Shakespeare’s last play: We really are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep

Well we’ll all sleep again tonight at the end of another day’s efforts and feel ourselves part of that great big chorus Bill Staines was thinking of when he wrote his song, here sung by Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy.