Level playing field is badly needed to save Gaelic football
THE GAA would do well to watch how the UK and EU solve the great problem of ‘a level playing field’. If the protagonists find a solution in the Brexit context, perhaps it could be adapted to solve the great Gaelic football conundrum and save a really beautiful game from oblivion.
On Sunday last those with an interest in the GAA watched two of t he most enjoyable and intriguing games in recent times, or at least since the great cancer that is destroying the All-Ireland competition began to take effect. Gaelic football was played as it was intended, to the enjoyment of players and spectators for almost 130 years.
That was before a coincidence of two developments saw the game deteriorate into the shambolic, boring mess which is beginning to render playing of inter- county football, beyond provincial level, utterly redundant.
The two developments are modern reflections of a manic obsession which has infiltrated a lot of what was best in the world: a determination to win at any cost. The number- one development was an uncontrolled influx of money into the team most likely to win most regularly.
Population and financial advantage are so heavily loaded in favour of the capital that, as one knowledgeable pundit recently suggested, it made opposing their playing prowess entirely futile. The other was the introduction of a playing strategy which, within inadequate rules, entirely changed the spirit and enjoyment of the game. Moving whole teams en masse from one end of the playing field to the other with possession as the primary objective may be effective and entertaining for soccer and rugby, with only occasional scoring, but is proving a destroyer of the long-kicking, hi gh- catching game Gaelic football was intended to be.
There is great urgency to find a ‘level playing field’ solution for Brexit. It is equally urgent to find a ‘level playing field’ solution for inter-county Gaelic football. Otherwise, we may lose one of the great treasures of our past.
PADRAIC NEARY, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo
Double standards?
THOSE of the opinion that the
US Republican Party ought to ‘lick its wounds’ after their recent presidential election bid, and essentially to accept that the Obama-ites have won, are shortsighted and forgetful.
Be that as it may, the beloved US Democratic Party is anything but pure as the driven snow as many suggest it is. It is conveniently written out of Democratic Party history that slavery was abolished in the US by the Republican administration.
The Irish sycophantic love affair with the US Democrats has been there even before cuddly Catholic JFK, with unsavoury national and international decisions all eventually somehow being blamed solely on the Republicans.
These two political parties are not quite two sides of the same coin, with Trump managing to avoid illegal foreign wars during his time at the White House. Biden may not be as given to adherence to international law. ROBERT SULLIVAN,
Bantry, Co. Cork. ... IN 2000 the result of the US election was disputed by the Democratic Party candidate, Al Gore. As was his legal entitlement.
The case went all way to the US Supreme Court. This court decided against Gore’s appeal.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the case is the media reaction. All of the ‘liberal’ heavy hitters – The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN – were critical of the Supreme Court decision.
Fast forward 20 years and the reaction could not be more different. The merest hint that Donald Trump might appeal to the Supreme Court is treated with disdain. Not exactly intellectually honest or consistent.