28 May 1998 Edition
Television: Football crazy
By Sean O Donaile
The Truth about Footballers (UTV)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Radio One)
Prime Time (RTE 1)
Tony Doran was my first hero but when Liverpool's Craig Johnson came along he stood no chance.
Tony's freckles, missing teeth and Leo Yellow fertiliser ads were no match for Craig's permed hair, ear ring, blonde wife and Ferrari.
After that I switched my allegiances to the big ball, until I remembered it was a foreign game and went back to hurling. These days they're all playing the colonial game and with the rash of soccer about to envelope us in the upcoming World Cup, I decided to find out what all the fuss was about.
Angus Deayton informs us in UTVs ``The Truth About Footballers'' that footballers are high up ``on the list of shaggibility'' as football provides heroes and icons, a commodity we're in short supply of in this age of materialism.
``Kiss and Tell'' page 3 girls still appear outside the dressing rooms, but according to George Best's ex-wife, ``it was horrible....I was a nothing who walked ten paces behind like a loyal lap dog'', and these feelings would no doubt be substantiated by Cheryl Gascoigne.
Woman are often looked on as trophies in the same way that £50,000 Ferraries are paraded at the training ground. Hurlers stick to the twenty pints and the twenty five stitches, although this is arguably not as popular down the nightclub.
The lives of footballers as portrayed in this light hearted documentary seem pretty vacuous - if you're a Gary Lineker type you'll ``put on a Pringle sweater and yellow trousers at the local golf club, which is really quite disturbing'' Then again, if you're the Gazza type you'll swill twenty pints with Tommy Five-Bellies and sport plastic boobs for the tabloids.
In fairness to ordinary plebs catapulted into £20,000 a week wages and instant fame by an increasingly money orientated league, it's quite easy to fall for the old reliables - sex, drugs, rock `n roll...... and golf!
In Clare some of us used to sleep with our hurls before big games, but had to discontinue this practice, following seedy insinuations.
Still we didn't roll over kissing and crying every time we scored or took a knock.
More mature-type footballers buy wax jackets and ``sit on rainy mud flats for hours on end'' or buy mock-Tudor homes for half their relations and even appear in ``Hello''.
There don't seem to be many scholars among them, which explains the hard time Graham Le Saux and Steve Heighway got in their time for reading or visiting museums instead of the pub.
The final damning indictment on this sorry lot comes from the increasing number of women (12% of all season ticket holders), who find these men no more sexy than hod carriers with cement in their crevices.
One can't but agree with the sentiment that 72,000 women will never fill Wembley or Croker on their own to see 22 others running after a piece of pigskin, because at the end of the day ``they see there's more important things in life''.
Marcus Erude was one of many Brazilians imprisoned, tortured and exiled by their dictatorship, due to their efforts to liberate themselves through the power of education.
Not the type where the teacher bellows from his elbow-patched domicile, ``Flanagan you clown, you know nothing, is it a toe in the hole you want?''
Erude's belief in the renowned Paulo Friere alternative ``Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' was highlighted on Radio One recently following his progress from West Africa to Sandinista Nicaragua of the 1980s where there was a huge increase in literacy programmes.
Opposed to the ``teacher knows all'' ideology, Erude began the process of consciencisation through education, where students, young and old are encouraged to think for themselves and develop increased self empowerment, self confidence and self esteem.
The biggest obstacle to this liberation has proved to be the alienation and self inertia in individuals, ostracised by generations of a political and education system not suited to their needs.
This can readily be applied to many working class estates in Ireland today where our system has alienated large tracts of our population, who see no relevance in education. This can only be overcome by an alternative education system, relevant to people's lives, and where all are encouraged to think for themselves and develop their confidence.
But one suspects the powers that be feel threatened by this, as they have been by the new Relationships and Sexuality Education Programme being introduced in schools in the 26 Counties, as featured in RTE's Prime Time last week. The idea that primary school children know all the correct terms for their body parts, be familiar with menstruation and aware of sexual intercourse, is seen as a threat by some, including elements of the church, who have sought to undermine it.
Principal Gerry Doyle questions children's need to know ``these words'' (ie ``penis and vagina''), opting presumably to stick with such educational terms as willy, winkle and wadgery woo!
The RSE programme in fact is 95% based on the development of self esteem, relationships etc. but this has been disregarded by the fundamentalists.
Imelda Tobin ignores ``the startling lack of knowledge among Irish youth of sex'', which leads inevitably to increased teenage pregnancies and abortions, in favour of ``the tradition of the Ten Commandments''. That is, ignorance is bliss.
Unfortunately and unbelievably this view has held sway in a number of quarters, with a number of schools refusing to implement much needed state policies and they have been allowed to get away with it.
Which begs the question, who still controls our society?
The Truth about Footballers (UTV)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Radio One)
Prime Time (RTE 1)
Tony Doran was my first hero but when Liverpool's Craig Johnson came along he stood no chance.
Tony's freckles, missing teeth and Leo Yellow fertiliser ads were no match for Craig's permed hair, ear ring, blonde wife and Ferrari.
After that I switched my allegiances to the big ball, until I remembered it was a foreign game and went back to hurling. These days they're all playing the colonial game and with the rash of soccer about to envelope us in the upcoming World Cup, I decided to find out what all the fuss was about.
Angus Deayton informs us in UTVs ``The Truth About Footballers'' that footballers are high up ``on the list of shaggibility'' as football provides heroes and icons, a commodity we're in short supply of in this age of materialism.
``Kiss and Tell'' page 3 girls still appear outside the dressing rooms, but according to George Best's ex-wife, ``it was horrible....I was a nothing who walked ten paces behind like a loyal lap dog'', and these feelings would no doubt be substantiated by Cheryl Gascoigne.
Woman are often looked on as trophies in the same way that £50,000 Ferraries are paraded at the training ground. Hurlers stick to the twenty pints and the twenty five stitches, although this is arguably not as popular down the nightclub.
The lives of footballers as portrayed in this light hearted documentary seem pretty vacuous - if you're a Gary Lineker type you'll ``put on a Pringle sweater and yellow trousers at the local golf club, which is really quite disturbing'' Then again, if you're the Gazza type you'll swill twenty pints with Tommy Five-Bellies and sport plastic boobs for the tabloids.
In fairness to ordinary plebs catapulted into £20,000 a week wages and instant fame by an increasingly money orientated league, it's quite easy to fall for the old reliables - sex, drugs, rock `n roll...... and golf!
In Clare some of us used to sleep with our hurls before big games, but had to discontinue this practice, following seedy insinuations.
Still we didn't roll over kissing and crying every time we scored or took a knock.
More mature-type footballers buy wax jackets and ``sit on rainy mud flats for hours on end'' or buy mock-Tudor homes for half their relations and even appear in ``Hello''.
There don't seem to be many scholars among them, which explains the hard time Graham Le Saux and Steve Heighway got in their time for reading or visiting museums instead of the pub.
The final damning indictment on this sorry lot comes from the increasing number of women (12% of all season ticket holders), who find these men no more sexy than hod carriers with cement in their crevices.
One can't but agree with the sentiment that 72,000 women will never fill Wembley or Croker on their own to see 22 others running after a piece of pigskin, because at the end of the day ``they see there's more important things in life''.
Marcus Erude was one of many Brazilians imprisoned, tortured and exiled by their dictatorship, due to their efforts to liberate themselves through the power of education.
Not the type where the teacher bellows from his elbow-patched domicile, ``Flanagan you clown, you know nothing, is it a toe in the hole you want?''
Erude's belief in the renowned Paulo Friere alternative ``Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' was highlighted on Radio One recently following his progress from West Africa to Sandinista Nicaragua of the 1980s where there was a huge increase in literacy programmes.
Opposed to the ``teacher knows all'' ideology, Erude began the process of consciencisation through education, where students, young and old are encouraged to think for themselves and develop increased self empowerment, self confidence and self esteem.
The biggest obstacle to this liberation has proved to be the alienation and self inertia in individuals, ostracised by generations of a political and education system not suited to their needs.
This can readily be applied to many working class estates in Ireland today where our system has alienated large tracts of our population, who see no relevance in education. This can only be overcome by an alternative education system, relevant to people's lives, and where all are encouraged to think for themselves and develop their confidence.
But one suspects the powers that be feel threatened by this, as they have been by the new Relationships and Sexuality Education Programme being introduced in schools in the 26 Counties, as featured in RTE's Prime Time last week. The idea that primary school children know all the correct terms for their body parts, be familiar with menstruation and aware of sexual intercourse, is seen as a threat by some, including elements of the church, who have sought to undermine it.
Principal Gerry Doyle questions children's need to know ``these words'' (ie ``penis and vagina''), opting presumably to stick with such educational terms as willy, winkle and wadgery woo!
The RSE programme in fact is 95% based on the development of self esteem, relationships etc. but this has been disregarded by the fundamentalists.
Imelda Tobin ignores ``the startling lack of knowledge among Irish youth of sex'', which leads inevitably to increased teenage pregnancies and abortions, in favour of ``the tradition of the Ten Commandments''. That is, ignorance is bliss.
Unfortunately and unbelievably this view has held sway in a number of quarters, with a number of schools refusing to implement much needed state policies and they have been allowed to get away with it.
Which begs the question, who still controls our society?