Games are only a part of GAA’s big picture
Interaction fuels Association
BEING at the Wexford county senior hurling final reminded of that old philosophical thought experiment: ‘If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’
At Wexford Park, a stadium that can hold roughly 25,000 spectators, the battle between Shelmaliers and Naomh Éanna was a surreal showpiece occasion, raising its own questions in light of the Government’s contentious decision to put live competitive sport behind closed doors.
‘If a county final takes place in front of no supporters, and no one is around to see it…’
Does it make a sound? Not by any normal county final standard if you take the isolated shouts of the assorted substitutes who parked themselves in the main stand were anything to go by.
Or the various instructions shouted from the management personnel on the sideline, or ones roared from one teammate to another on the field, which echoed all the way to the press box at the back of the main stand.
There was no denying the exuberance of the players’ celebrations. Sheer ecstasy at the final whistle, the players sprinting to leap into each other’s arms and cherish the moment, like any other big day.
The Naomh Éanna players stood with bowed heads on the field, the crushing sense of defeat and dejection in no way lessened by the day’s restrictions.
But it all felt so out of step with what is involved in a normal county final day.
The sight of winning captain Simon Donohoe lifting the cup against the backdrop of an empty stand seemed to sum up this unsettling 2020.
How much is the value of the achievement reduced, if at all, with no spectators allowed?
Can it mean the same thing to the players, the club, the parish, the community?
Longstanding dual star Brian Malone, the Shelmaliers centreback, tried to unpack the philosophical conundrum of what the GAA is missing as behind-closeddoors finals will be played out all over the country in the coming weeks – and at national level on the All-Ireland stage if the Championships proceed as rotating Taoiseach Micheál Martin vowed yesterday.
His personal slant got to the heart of it all.
‘I know from my sake, my parents would love to be here. I’ve a wife and two kids and they go to all the games. I’ve two little boys and they would be in to me after the game. It’s a whole family thing. They love it.
‘I know the whole club, everyone’s parents and the wider community, they love going to the games. The fact that we got to a county final and they couldn’t come? It is tough. But it is made easier by the fact that we won. We can go and see them now. ’
He is lucky enough to be able to compare it to previous county title wins, in hurling and football. ‘In 2014, and we won the football in 2018, we had all the kids in here when we ran out on to the pitch, there was a parade. I brought my little boy around. The cheer of the crowd on county final day, that big buzz around — that’s what you dream of playing in. And you compare it to today where there is only 40 people from each club. It is strange.’
The GAA have done so much right in getting to a position where the games have returned. The Covid-19 Return to Play protocols have set a high bar even compared to professional sporting organisations and as the Wexford county final showed, it’s a triumph in a way to reach the point of a first major county senior title being handed out.
But if this pandemic has shown anything, it’s that the GAA is about more than the games. It always has been. It’s tied in to a sense of identity, sense of place, sense of shared community.
The fact that the crowds have been taken away again have only served to re-emphasise that.
And the logic of it all has to be questioned, given the situation where the pubs in Gorey can host TG4’s live coverage on a big screen so the Naomh Éanna supporters could watch on in an enclosed indoor setting, where alcohol can be served, rather than in the cavernous outdoor surrounds of Wexford Park even though the science says the virus has 19 times less chance of being transmitted in the open air.
No word from the Government yet on the congregating before and after matches that are now being live streamed in pubs.
County boards have reacted brilliantly to facilitate live streaming of so many games. On Saturday night, I logged on to Meath GAA and paid €6 for a stream of Ratoath’s SHC game against Kiltale where my eldest son was making his senior starting championship debut.
But what’s happening now still feels like a facsimile of the real thing. A Zoom version of live sport. Which has a nice, novelty value but is no replacement for real, social interaction. Which live sport is built around.
On RTÉ Radio One with Claire Byrne yesterday, Micheál Martin declared that the Government have ‘saved the Championships and the Leagues’ with last Tuesday’s controversial announcement that sport would be going behind closed doors.
That briefing involved such muddled, contradictory thinking that the numbers didn’t add up — not when 50 of the same spectators now deemed a risk can head to the local pub and watch a live stream of the match indoors, yet not the live match outside.
WE want the Championship to go ahead. I want an All-Ireland this year because I think it would be a symbol that the country is fighting this virus. That it’s not going to surrender to it and I’d love to see the Championship completed. Like all games, League of Ireland, the whole lot, rugby,’ said the Taoiseach.
‘There’s another way of saying this by the way, in taking the decision we did on the crowds, we saved the Championships and the Leagues.’
Really? So it’s the Government who has ‘saved’ the season and the flagship competitions, not the GAA who have been bounced from crisis to crisis and adapted their fixture list to respond to rolling events?
Who are still looking for the ‘empirical evidence’ to back up the behind-closed-doors decision – at least they should get that now with the news that chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn is going to meet the GAA regarding the data behind the National Public Health Emergecy Team’s (NPHET) recommendation for sport.
Who have 5.1 million completed answers to the Covid-19 questionnaire, which is clicked and ticked when a player trains or plays. A system which has covered 91,000 people since the return to play at the tail end of June.
Who made the decision to stick with Cúl Camps and cater for 71,000 kids across 1,200 camps.
If the Government can’t understand best practice for sport and a parent being present at juvenile games – they backed down and accepted the GAA’s improvised recommendation that one parent can be in attendance – it’s a stretch to imagine they fully understand the mechanics of running off an All-Ireland competition in a pandemic.
It’s hugely significant that the Government has now declared the holding of the Championships as a ‘symbol that the country is fighting the virus’.
That the GAA, Gaelic Players Association and now the Government are all on the same page and of the one mind. Which should ensure that the necessary funding costs for inter-county teams and cash-strapped counties board are met.
Behind closed-doors is something. But if events at Wexford Park are a guide to a showpiece occasion, it certainly isn’t everything.
The GAA has always been about more than the games.
The pandemic has shown the GAA is tied to identity, sense of place and shared community