Place, passion & politics

BY

MATT TREACY

I didn't get to see the Women's All-Ireland finals, but congratulations to the Juniors of Armagh and the Seniors of Cork on their victories over Sligo and Galway. The Cork victory was notable for the fact that four of the panel are also part of the Senior Camogie panel that won their All-Ireland two weeks ago. That makes them unique as the first women dual players to win All-Irelands in both Senior games. It would have to be Cork women of course!

With the end of the inter-county championships, a number of people have been asking me what I intend to write about over the winter. Some have even dropped hints about possibly writing about "other codes"! Which is shorthand for soccer of course.

Well I am happy to report that there will be plenty happening on the GAA front over the next few months prior to the restart of the National Leagues in February. Most counties are now near the end of their club championships and following that the provincial and All-Ireland club series begin. Plenty to keep us interested.

We had a long debate about this over the weekend. Personally speaking I like to write about what I've seen myself so on any given weekend I am almost certain to be at a hurling, football or camogie match. Watching people playing their heart out, in the words of Charles Kickham, "for the credit of the little village" or the credit of the large urban village, is far more interesting than Wayne Rooney's tantrums.

The thing is you can get accused of being some kind of anti-soccer bigot. To be honest, I don't like watching it but sometimes matches or teams bring a different dimension that makes it interesting. I know a good few people who go to see Bohemians for instance and the misery of Dalymount Park on a cold Friday night in November has obvious attractions for those of us more likely to be found in Parnell Park!

It's about place and passion and knowing that the people on the pitch wearing your jersey are not living in some parallel universe of salaries large enough to run a school for a year. The same applies to those involved in playing soccer for a local junior team or running kids teams. That is what sport should be about.

But I would be less than honest if I said that there was not an ideological element in support for the GAA. People will say oh that's nonsense and that sport and politics should be kept separate. That was the argument about opening up Croke Park to soccer and rugby, and getting rid of the ban on members of the British forces.

There are still current political issues; the occupation of grounds, the stopping of people going to training and matches and the physical threat to members of clubs in certain parts of the Six Counties. There is also the fact that the GAA was founded with an overtly political aim; to foster distinctively Irish games in order to create an anti-colonial consciousness and ultimately to promote a desire to break the political connection with Britain. Hence the involvement of the IRB in the Association's founding.

It can, and is, argued now that that battle has been fought and won. That the GAA has to shed itself of the old ways of thinking and move on. It was interesting indeed hearing some of those arguments rehearsed during the debate over Rule 42. There were many people in the GAA who genuinely held that view but many of those arguing from the outside had a different agenda.

For them the GAA epitomises everything they hate which can encompass an eclectic range of stereotyped hate figures: shinners, people who don't read the Irish Times, and Christian Brothers. The fact is that the GAA is anathema to people who are basically pro-British in outlook and who see the destruction or denigration of the organisation, or rather the whole ethos behind it, as part of their self-appointed mission to modernise the Irish peasantry and their urban cousins.

I can remember the days when the GAA was saved in Dublin. Had Dublin not produced the great team of the 1970s it is possible that football and hurling in the city would now enjoy the status of cricket and hockey. Glamour then was Leeds United and Liverpool. The Dublin skyline prickled with television aerials that beamed Match of the Day to thousands of small impressionable boys.

The alternative was being sent into the bunker that was the dressing room in Galtymore Road to wear smelly old jerseys down to your knees and break your toes on a ball that seemed to be filled with liquid cement. 'Gah' was not fashionable. My Da and uncles might as well have been talking about Cu Chulainn when they told us of the Dublin teams of the 50s and 60s and the past glories of the club. Admitting to your school friends that you played hurling or football was like telling them you liked the Bay City Rollers.

Then came Heffo and Keaveny and Mullins and walking up the steps in Croke Park to be mesmerised by the sound and the colour and to be amazed that the uncles actually knew these chaps and had played with them! It was like arriving home and finding George Best sitting in the armchair. After that Match of the Day never had a chance.

There is no onus on republicans to be GAA supporters and it certainly does not make you any less if you have no interest or, horror of horrors, actually prefer soccer or rugby or cricket. I do, however, believe that it remains part of the republican vision to promote Irish culture. So no reports on the Premiership then. Could be persuaded of the merits of Dalymount however!