OK, they could maybe use a voice coach so the victory speech of the winning captain isn't so squirm-inducing; but that aside, what a game hurling is! What. A. Game. A grown-up kind of game where, judging by Tipperary vs Kilkenny at Croker today, no quarter is given or asked for. And the skill. My God - the skill! There were guys in Croke Park today doing flicks and turns and scores and interceptions that made me wonder if it was actually possible that I'd seen what I'd seen.
A grown-up sport indeed. Which is good, because for a long time the GAA wasn't grown-up. It was an Association that felt itself under siege: rules forbidding certain people playing Gaelic games, other rules forbidding Gaelic games players from playing other games. No more. The GAA is all growed-up. Just as Croke Park has opened its gates to rugby and other sports, so the GAA mentality has broadened, extended its horizons, and the Association is thriving as never before.
Which is why it's a near-sinful shame that over half the population in the North won't watch it, never mind play it. Years ago there was (allegedly) a headline in the VO: "Catholic Dog Wins Greyhound Derby". Today, there are tens of thousands of people shutting their eyes to an exhilarating source of sporting enjoyment because they think of it as a Catholic Game. Oh dear. Time to grow up, guys.
stunning....the stick you gave to NI football and you then ask us prods to dander up to Kevin Lynch Park or the Bobby Sands superdome.
ReplyDeleteI could understand your hostilty to Windsor Park if it was called the Lenny Murphy Arena but it ain't because that would be obviously mad...however you feel its remiss of prods to not attend GAA,wise up Jude,try and be balanced in your increasingly bizarre musings
You were going well there Jude until that last paragraph. An unnecessary pop at your Prod neighbours IMO.
ReplyDeleteIt is a hell of a thing to be told to grow up by a 68-year-old corner boy.
ReplyDelete"Today, there are tens of thousands of people shutting their eyes to an exhilarating source of sporting enjoyment because they think of it as a Catholic Game. Oh dear. Time to grow up, guys."
ReplyDeleteThe GAA is a political organisation which tries to advance its plans via sport-check the rule book.Place it along with the tricolour
More whining from the poor oppressed nationalist
(British taxpayer educated ,housed and NHS You could not make it uptreated)