Miller’s tale has shown yet again how political Irish sport really is
BERTIE Ahern looked up from the scrap of paper he was carefully studying and engaged in some banter with a group of journalists. We were in a small hotel in the Portuguese resort of Santa Maria da Feria, just about half an hour from the city of Porto.
It was a Monday night and, thanks to those online lists of EU summits, I can pinpoint the exact date: June 18, 2001. Naturally, we were curious about what was on the scrap of paper which had held his total interest.
By upside-down reading, a vital skill for anyone engaging in journalism or politics, we could see columns of figures. “Not yet another opinion poll?” this writer ventured.
“No, it’s not a poll. It’s the attendances at all the key hurling and football games yesterday,” the then Taoiseach said.
“I make it nearly 120,000 people – and we’re not even near the provincial finals. That’s some pulling power – that’s the GAA for you.”
That little vignette has stayed with me over the years as rows over sports funding waxed and waned.
In practical terms, it tells us that the GAA gets huge taxpayer-funded grants because it is the biggest, with huge “pulling power”.
It is also touches on one of the great myths of life.
That myth is that sport is somehow above politics. Wrong.
Sport is at the very heart of politics. Sport should be, and often is, above party politics as good sportspeople generally leave their party allegiances at the committee room door.
But as a young journalist, I learned as much about how the county worked at the GAA county board meetings as I did at county or town council meetings.
Many political activists came to politics via sports involvement, often when a well-regarded club member was prevailed upon to stand for office, and lugged club buddies out on the canvass trail.
All of these thoughts came into more focus as the noisy and sometimes vicious controversy raged about the venue for the testimonial match for all-round Cork sports star Liam Miller.
It was a remnant of the various bans which have stayed with the GAA, one of the world’s greatest sporting movements, far longer than was good or right.
You’re already forgiven if you’ve drowned in the details of this nasty row. Here’s a quick summary: Liam Miller, who died tragically young leaving a family, was a gifted young GAA player in Cork, before choosing soccer and playing for Manchester United and Glasgow Celtic among others.
A testimonial soccer game at Cork City’s ground sold out its 7,500 capacity in minutes.
It seemed a good idea to switch it to the GAA venue in Páirc Uí Chaoímh with a 45,000 capacity.
But the GAA’s slow march away from the “bans” posed a blockage. The GAA ended its ban on members playing or associating with “foreign” games – soccer, rugby, cricket, hockey et al – back in 1971.
In 2005, it notably lifted its ban on playing such games at Croke Park, largely thanks to the good offices of then GAA president Seán Kelly, who these days is an excellent Fine Gael MEP (another politicssport linkage).
The GAA was all set to lift the ban for county grounds had Ireland succeeded in its 2023 rugby world cup bid.
But GAA county grounds are still subject to that ban, and various efforts to put these grounds on the same footing as Croke Park have failed.
In 2016, one motion to that effect failed to get even one-third support, an outcome which blocked further consideration for three years.
It is beyond doubt that the vast bulk of GAA activists and supporters wanted to see the Miller game in Páirc Uí Chaoímh. But as the old saying goes – “rules is rules”.
The GAA, enjoying some of its best days on the playing fields, especially in hurling, was suddenly on a “lose-lose” course in the political sphere. Some of the old anti-GAA critics, and the hardline supporters, did their best to drag us back to the 1950s with bitter and excessive words. There was deal of opportunistic stone-throwing at the GAA.
Happily, this weekend saw an imaginative re-reading of the GAA rule book, and a sort of “GAA solution to a GAA problem” emerged. It should work given that most Irish people totally want a happy ending here.
But the GAA also remains on a rather dangerous corner. There have been statements from various politicians, notably Transport, Tourism and Sports Minister Shane Ross, about linking GAA grants to making grounds available to the wider public.
That is a truly glib statement which at a stroke disregards the voluntary effort of the GAA, a mass movement present in every half parish in the country.
Certainly, it needs to ensure there is no repeat of what happened over the Liam Miller case, and it needs to move on and remedy inflexible rules on county ground uses.
But in the real world, sporting and political, an organisation is entitled to work for its own well-being. Fine Gael would not be obliged to promote the welfare of Fianna Fáil.
Why should the GAA be obliged to promote soccer or rugby, far beyond a spirit of neighbourly goodwill?
The excessive voices on both sides could now do the nation a favour. They could be silent.
The myth is that sport is somehow above politics. Wrong. Sport is at the very heart of politics. Sport should be, and often is, above party politics