In Search of Joy: Empty Fields, Full Hearts
By: Conor Keenan
Tags: Sports, NBA, Ireland, Soccer, Covid 19

Empty Fields — Full Hearts Image : Conrad Madden @CMPWarrenpoint

A couple years back , I remember watching a very well produced video from the GAA, that celebrated an event that to be honest, I had never heard of. During the war of Independence, a day of national defiance was held, against a policy of enforced conscription to the join the British war effort in WW1. It was called ‘Gaelic Sunday’ when in flaunting the restrictions from Crown forces, over 300 games of football and hurling were held across the Island.

Watching the video, I was reminded of a visit from the about to be Director General Páraic Duffy to our club in Warrenpoint. I remember sitting there, open mouthed, when he claimed that there was nothing more that could be done in Northern Ireland to increase the playing base of the games outside of its traditional Catholic Nationalist base. All possible avenues to build bridges to the Unionist community had been exhausted ‘we are doing FAR more than anyone else’. With a new club in East Belfast, a number of high profile GAA baptisms for Arlene Foster, Linda Irvine and others, not to mention the huge development efforts undertaken by Ulster Rugby and the IFA, those comments from Duffy seem as foolish now as they did to me then.

Tipperary football players lay their wreath at the 1920 memorial at Hill 16 Image : RTE online

The cloth capped players in that video, jumping over dry stone walls with their hurleys concealed, have now been followed with a memorable commemoration of the Bloody Sunday massacre in Croke Park. And quite incredibly, as you might have seen in about 25 Whatsapps you received, the provincial finalists of the Football Championship echo exactly those of 1920, with particular symbolism for Tipperary of course.

Their slain player Michael Hogan and his eponymous stand in Croke Park has led Hogan to become the best known surname in GAA, arguably above even Cusack, Maguire and McCarthy.

A sombre and respectful week of commemoration with excellent contributions from the Abbey Theatre and the team at Radio 1 culminated in the incredible and improbable semi-final pairings. Aine Lawlor on the Friday tried to encourage a “this is a strange All Ireland weekend” angle but the interviewee couldn’t hide her joy. The Postmistress spoke of her elation and the excitement in Cavan about being in the All Ireland semi final. While Tipperary suffered at Mayo’s hand, having the opportunity to lay a wreath at the spot where Hogan last took his breath, was an incredible moment for that Tipperary team.

The event that falls under this decade of remembrance, again deepened our understanding of the events of that weekend; the actions of Collins that precipitated the slaughter on Jones’ Road, as well as knowing of the other names that deceased that day.

The evening events from Croke Park made a stunning nocturnal sight. Image PRI173326631 / Sportsfile

To me, it was a reminder of the complicated linkages that are stitched in the fabric of the GAA, the warp of war and weft of renewal, and how they resonate so loudly with the events during this most turbulent of decades of Irish history.

Jessie Owens. Tommy Smith and John Carlos. The poppy-less James McClean. Shut up and dribble. Kneel, don’t kneel, then kneel again but get booed. If its true that you shouldn’t mix politics and sport, then we’re not doing a very good job of it.

The perception that both are pure, distinct bodies is of course untrue; beware of any elected representative telling you to ‘stop politicising the issue’. Politics is the sombre, organisation of society defined by the principles and laws of the land. Sports, is the recreation of the people, a distraction to be enjoyed without the botheration of ideologies, parties and philosophies.

Nice try. There is politics in everything. Even marble racing. And of all the sports bodies on the Island, the GAA is beyond question the most political of them all. It is inherent in its nature. Borne from the anger of a post famine Ireland, the GAA is the sporting embodiment of the Gaelic Revival; the living, sweating, panting beast that was born from the Phoenix Bird that beat its wings on O’Connell Street.

Politics will alway be in Sport — especially in Ireland Image — Paul Faith / Agence France / Getty

The GAA has moved with great political astuteness through the Covid 19 pandemic. Along with deft manoeuvers to mobilise its members to aid with a covid community response, GAA chiefs have ensured that throughout the year, they have crafted guidelines that do not make distinctions between its playing base in the North or South. It is unashamedly a 32 county operation, operating in a futuristic ‘agreed Ireland’, as Seamus Mallon once put it. There is little doubt, the hands and arms of Ireland these days, are those of the GAA.