GAA lives up to ideals
WHO doesn’t love a good aul moan about them? Who doesn’t like having the odd cut off them? What were they thinking doing this or that? A black card in hurling? A back-pass rule introduced without a trial period? Are they having a laugh?
You notice that amount of time we – media and public alike – talk about them in relation to money? Training costs rising. All Ireland final replay boosts gate receipts. Ticket levies raise X amount for County Board. We’re cynical, far too cynical, about the Gaelic Athletic Association.
And by the way we’re not for a moment suggesting they’re beyond reproach or above criticism. We do our fair share here on these pages week in week out and will continue to do so. Sometimes we forget about what it is, though. And what the GAA is, when you strip it all back, is the single greatest community organisation anywhere in the western world. It’s in the worst of times that the GAA shows the best of itself. It rallies around families in times of bereavement and in the midst of this coronavirus crisis the
GAA has again stepped up to the plate. Doing what it can, when it can, for the people in its communities. At a national level Croke Park shut down playing activity in a timely and responsible manner, putting paramount importance on player and spectator safety. In opening up Croke Park (insert rule 42 joke here) as a Covid-19 testing centre, they’ve also done the nation a real service. The contrast with how the UK sporting authorities initially handled the crisis is telling. It’s at local level though that the true strength of the GAA comes shining through. Ever since the quasi lock-down was implemented GAA clubs the length and breadth of the country have been offering help to the vulnerable in their communities. Other organisations – and other sporting organisations – will do likewise we’re sure, but for the GAA it was natural, an obvious extension of their mission statement. Club is family. The GAA is, in a lot of parts of the country, the manifestation of the people and the community. Without getting too sentimental, it’s all for one and one for all. Maybe that’s going too far, but whatever it is, it’s definitely not the grab all association some would have us believe. The GAA has a heart. We should treasure that about it.