Leitrim’s day to savour but worries ahead
FOUR THOUSAND were in Páirc Sean Mac Diarmada in Carrick-on-Shannon yesterday. In the days between now and March 30, when they play the Division 4 final against Derry in Croke Park, that number will swell to GPO proportions, with volunteers eager to force themselves into this rousing story.
The 2016 census put Leitrim’s population at just over 32,000, and it is officially the most rural county in the country, with nine out of 10 of its people living in a rural area.
Stories like Leitrim’s promotion from Division 4 for the first time in 11 years teeter on the platitudinous: the plucky county, forever off-Broadway, getting noticed early in the year for an achievement that will be forgotten by the time the 2019 reviews are churned out in December.
Leitrim’s promotion, and their return to Croke Park for the first time in 12 years, is undeniably heartening.
The official Leitrim GAA twitter account posted a clip that lasted a little under four minutes yesterday evening, and that took in the closing seconds of the action and the celebrations that followed the last whistle of the game.
It was a classic GAA scene, with players celebrating, kids bouncing onto the field and older supporters ambling on to acclaim their heroes.
It should be a good month in the county, and their brilliant form in the first five rounds of the league should not be taken over by those who will try and convince Leitrim, and counties like them, that they could feel this good a lot more often.
A two-tier Championship seems a favoured scheme of the GAA president.
But John Horan has yet to provide any convincing evidence that the lower-tier counties who would be forced into this secondary summer, are interested.
What Leitrim achieved yesterday was, in a way, a very traditional kind of glory.
In a league, successful counties climb, and in the GAA good league form is rewarded with titles or promotion.
But that is for the spring: come the summer, counties prepare for the provincial series and an AllIreland most of them will have no chance of winning.
It doesn’t dissuade, them, though. Leitrim still enter the Connacht competition, Wicklow show up for duty in Leinster, Antrim will be there for the Ulster football series.
Just because Leitrim compete against teams of broadly similar ability in the League doesn’t mean they want that all year round.
The Championship is, according to the ads and the marketing, a part of what we are.
Well then, history shows we are about more than a competition that seeks to stream teams and divide them according to ability.
The football Championship is riddled with problems, but the solution does not lie in banishing counties like Leitrim to a soft play area.
And what they have done over the past two months should not be used as a way of justifying such a move, either.
Their League has been outstanding, their Championship will likely be brief.
But at least it matters.