Author Archives: Jimmy Burns

Barca’s Sad Night

Posted on April 20, 2017 in the Blog, Football category

Compared to the heroism of the ‘Remontada’ against PSG,last night’s defeat at the hands of Juventus was sadly a much more mundane affair. It was huge of Barca fans in the Nou Camp to wave their flags and chant for the team as the final seconds ticked away, but the occasion did not really warrant it. Barca was crushed i their own stadium.You don’t expect that in the Nou Camp, let alone in the Champion’s League. Last night’s match showed Juventus magnificently resilient in defence and Barca less that heroic …

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El ejemplo de Churchill

Posted on March 23, 2017 in the Misc category

A pocos pasos del terrorismo que ayer sacudió la ciudad de Londres esta una estatua de Winston Churchill,  corpulento en su abrigo de trinchera,  y con una mirada  enfocada y resuelta, toda una imagen de un pueblo que ha conocido  y sobrevivido, con orgullo  y victorioso , momentos  más amenazadores de  su historia. En el momento que el terrorista empezó su paseo endemoniado a través de Westminster  Bridge, camino del Parlamento, me encontraba a cuatro cuadras después de haber almorzado en mi club cerca de Trafalgar Square con un amigo …

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Miracle in the Nou Camp

Posted on March 9, 2017 in the Blog, Misc category

  It was the kind of night when the Virgin of Montserrat, San Jordi,  Messi’s granny and the spirit of Catalan pride past , present and future converged on the Camp Nou. Asked before the match how he saw his team’s chances of making up the 0-4 goal deficit against PSG, Neymar  rated it at one per cent, while Luis Enrique said, “If they can score four, we can score six.” As it turned out Neymar proved one of the team’s  defining players, and Luis Enrique it’s most unexpected disciple …

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Warsaw Diary

Posted on March 3, 2017 in the Blog, Football, Football Writing category

      There was a long queue at passport control at Warsaw’s Chopin airport  on arrival from London. ‘Never happened before’ said a young polish lady. I and another British national   looked at each other with the thought passing through our minds- is Brexit already with us? It turned out there were a couple of police officers who had turned up late for their shift and in the end we all swept through the EU lane relatively smoothly- but for a few minutes it  did make one think, how …

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Barca’s Disgraceful Night

Posted on February 15, 2017 in the Blog, Misc category

Watching FC Barcelona crashing to defeat in Paris last night gave me  a distinct  feeling of déjà vu. This was no ordinary defeat, but an abject surrender by a team with some of the best players  in the world and Messi representing  a club that prides and markets  itself  on the basis of its  integrity. Not since the Allianz Arena in April 2013 had  Barca been more humiliated by a better European team and its own total lack of moral fibre. There is a justifiable   sense of desolation if not …

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La Sra May: Entre patriotismo y nacionalismo

Posted on January 18, 2017 in the Misc category

  La perspectiva de la otra ribera  escribe Jimmy Burns Marañón     Escribo declarando al principio mi ‘status’ de ciudadano Europeo, nacionalidad  británica, nacido en Madrid de una madre española y padre británico, educado en el Reino Unido, que desde 1953, cuando naci,  he pasado  la vida compartiendo  culturas,a  nivel personal, profesional y políticamente. Por lo tanto, desde esta posición por lo menos  híbrida, permítanme intentar formular algunos pensamientos personales sobre el discurso de la señora May, y lo que podría producirse para el futuro de las relaciones entre …

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Mrs May between patriotism & nationalism

Posted on January 18, 2017 in the Misc category

    I  write as a British national, born in Madrid to a Spanish mother  and British father, educated  in the UK,  bit  who since 1953 has spent is life straddling two cultures, personally, professionally, and politically. So from this hybrid position , let me attempt to formulate some personal thoughts on Mrs May’s speech, and what it might auger for the future of UK-Spanish relations. As an exercise  in political speech making and delivery, May’s rhetoric and poise  appealed to  a British sense of identity rooted in  history with …

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‘Silence’: A film worth discernment

Posted on January 3, 2017 in the Blog, film, Religion, Religious Affairs category

I am grateful to Father Nye,  a wise old Jesuit friend for advising me to go and see and make my own mind up about Silence which arrived at my local London movie house on New Year’s Day. ‘Only don’t expect  humour. It doesn’t have any’, ‘he added. Up to that point a reading of some reviews  had led me to thinking I might avoid it.  The suggestion was  that this was an overlong and dark  film, with a somewhat leaden dialogue, a miscast central character, and containing scenes of …

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Cristiano vs Messi: An imagined rivalry?

Posted on December 19, 2016 in the Blog, Misc category

Cristiano vs Messi: An imagined rivalry? When it comes to sport, there is nothing like an iconic rivalry to fuel  the global popularity of football. This past weekend, Cristiano  Ronaldo and Lionel Messi fought their latest battle to  be considered the world’s best player  in war of attrition that has lasted more than a decade. But this was no gladiatorial duel  consciously played out in a  frenzied colosseum,  but  a commercial construct which had the two star players separated  over   a distance of thousands of miles and playing in  different …

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The UK in three halves

Posted on October 18, 2016 in the Misc category

    By any standards of the UK’s collective diary, Monday of this week was a day worthy of popular attention-and reflection. Three events between them seemed to define the noble  and the less worthy of the UK nation, and humanity generally. It began with news that young victims from Syria and other conflict zones stranded in Calais were to be reunited with their families across the Chanell. It developed with live coverage of the celebration of the team GB Olympic and Paralympic teams. By day’s end  millions of football …

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