More resolve is needed before this journey ends
THE OUTLOOK for Irish sport is frighteningly unknowable, because the outlook for Ireland generally is, too. These days are a home brew of competing, primary-colour emotions: the anticipation and excitement of Christmas week; the fear of a third lockdown ready to clang down in the first days of the new year; and the mushrooming apprehension about vaccinating the country, and the thickening realisation that this will be an exhaustive job that will consume the majority of 2021.
A year of emotional overload refuses to relent, season of goodwill and peace to all, or not.
There is a temptation to look back and admire how Irish sport has survived a brutal nine months. It should, unfortunately, be resisted, because it is now obvious that 2021 will be just as difficult.
In a conventional year, this would be the GAA close season, as counties prepare to come again in February.
That is currently the plan for next year, with quick-fix National Leagues, reorganised along geographical lines, resuming towards the end of that month, with the Championships then completed by the end of July.
The remaining months of the year are to be devoted to club competitions, building on the split-season model that worked amid the tumult of this summer.
Yet it looks certain that the highprofile part of the season, the intercounty Championships will, under this arrangement, be played in either empty grounds or, optimistically, in front of drastically reduced crowds.
Euphoria around the imminent arrival of vaccines has itself been suppressed by concerted efforts by politicians and public servants to stress how complicated this process could be, and how it will not be a quick or easy task.
This is partly because the State relies, along with the rest of the world, on the efficiency and speed with which pharmaceutical companies can produce vaccines.
But there is the added local fear that the often sclerotic mechanisms of State could slow the job even further.
There were warnings yesterday, for instance, around booking summer holidays. This is the time of year when many families ordinarily arrange their annual break, but it is predicted that Ireland, along with the rest of Europe, will not have the majority of its citizens vaccinated by the end of next summer, with restrictions inevitable as a result.
This has practical and emotional repercussions for Irish sport. Tom Ryan, the director general of the GAA, explained at the start of the pandemic that the association has costs spread across 12 months, but it generates the most of its revenue in the spring and summer.
That was denied them this year, and with 2021 also likely to see income from gate receipts reduced to a relatively tiny amount, the same problems await them.
John Horan, the GAA president, said in an interview in recent days that getting crowds back is critical. That is not going to be straightforward or perhaps even likely, certainly in the first half of the year.
There is the possibility that the GAA could reverse the order of its planned season and delay intercounty activity, the income-generating part of its programme, until the autumn when more people should have received the vaccine, and so bigger crowds should be permitted into matches.
The emotional impact of the winter Championship has been significant and in many counties and communities, it has been profound. But fans are desperate to get back to games, as desperate as organisers are to have them back.
The same goes for soccer and rugby, too. The FAI need fans in the Aviva Stadium as Stephen Kenny tries to jump-start his time in charge of the national side.
The Six Nations, meanwhile, is due to commence in its traditional slot at the start of February. Persistent talk about switching it to the autumn in order to maximise crowds has quietened in recent weeks.
But given the financial pressures faced by every union in the world, it is surprising that this idea did not attract more backing.
With the Lions due to tour South Africa next summer, one of the enduring attractions in global sport is also in danger of taking place in a ghostly form.
The first Test between the Lions and the Springboks is due to take place on July 24 in Johannesburg. It is an ambitious fan who envisages a full stadium taking in that game.
These difficulties run through Irish sport, from the three field games that dominate to the indoor ones that have felt the effects of restrictions much more keenly.
The imagination and the doggedness evident in Irish sport this year was outstanding.
More, sadly, will be needed.