Star fighting uphill battle
MOST of us can’t possibly imagine what it must be like to live life in the public eye. We go through our existence largely anonymously. Those of who know us know us and that’s about it. We melt into the crowd, unencumbered, unnoticed and, even if not everyone realises it in the here and now, that’s actually the good life.
Fame may seem alluring on the surface, but it can carry too high a toll as the events of recent weeks have tragically shown. The fate suffered by Caroline Flack has forced a good number of us to reflect on the nexus between fame and media and social media particularly.
Last week former Kerry footballer Kieran Donaghy spoke out about the potentially damaging effects of fans forums, social media and the likes on sports people and the man obviously knows what he’s talking about.
Ever since the summer of 2006 Donaghy has been a public figure. Famous and having to deal with the effects of that fame, without necessarily having the lifestyle of your more typical sports star or celebrity.
That’s the thing that makes GAA fame a strange sort of a beast. Of course, these guys are not as famous as a Messi or a Ronaldo or a Jonny Sexton even, but in their counties and communities they’re as prominent as any national or international figure.
It must be similar to the effect described by former Scottish international Pat Nevin about life in the Merseyside goldfish bowl. Even if the vast majority of people mean well, there can be a stultifying, almost suffocating effect.
Add to that social media where people feel free to say anything that comes to their mind and you can see how an amateur sports person could struggle. The trouble is that there seems to be very little than can be done about people spouting off anonymously and sometimes abusively online.
Donaghy is fighting an uphill battle to reduce the prevalence of anonymous online accounts or profiles by having them identity verified as he suggested. The vastness of the internet makes it next to near an impossible task and besides people, if they were so inclined and were forced to, could simply migrate to a different platform. What then to do about it? As inadequate as it may sound to the scale of the challenge, we simply have to educate people. Educate them from a young age about the harm they can do to others’ well-being with nasty and derogatory comments.
We – probably through County Boards and the GPA – also need to provide further education and supports to footballers and hurlers. Teach them what to expect, how to cope, how to avoid the worst of it (not helped by people tagging the target of their ire in posts). Perhaps there’s a role to be played by somebody who’s been there and done that... somebody like Kieran Donaghy maybe? No better man.