The magic of sport needed more than ever to make us believe
By Kevin Egan
Christmas has become far too materialistic, or so they tell us anyway. It’s been said for a quite a while actually, to the point that there were studies done on the matter, and one well-regarded academic paper argued that the festive season took a particularly huge leap in that direction between 1880 and 1920 in the United States of America.
This was the period where the tradition of giving gifts – itself over a century old at that stage – shifted from small, handmade gifts to manufactured presents, and when bigger started to be perceived as better. So when people say that they yearn for a time when Christmas wasn’t all about gifts and lavish expenditure, presumably they’re referring back to a time when Charles Stewart Parnell and William Shaw were turning the Irish Parliamentary Party into a political force.
The ironic aspect is that the modern Christmas is arguably more about celebration and fun than it has ever been. As emigration and immigration both continue to rise, dispersed families go to great lengths to spend time with each other or at least to stay in contact, while Santa continues to be a remarkably generous benefactor in a lot of houses. Also, cultural innovations like mischievous elves and more flamboyant lighting displays help to bring children into a very different, more magical world than ever.
Presumably there will be studies done in future that will draw a correlation between the sense of powerlessness and fear that some older generations feel with regard to the direction of the world when it comes to aspects such as climate change, international relations and the rise of extremism, and that same generation’s determination to try and create a different world for their own children, even if they can only influence what goes on in their own home.
It doesn’t take long for the realities of adult life to wear heavily on the dreams and ambitions of younger generations. At the risk of taking a leaf out of Billy Joel’s book and listing the world’s ills, basics such as secure employment and decent housing are more out of reach of ordinary people than ever before, while increasingly around the world, people are offered a choice at the ballot box between populist extremism or deeply uninspiring centre-right corporatism. For those who believe in things like equality and a strong social safety net, there’s never anything you might want on the menu, so all that you can do is hold your nose and pick the least worst option.
The world hammers home the message repeatedly that better things aren’t possible, that hope is for dreamers who haven’t yet smartened up enough to learn how things work. All of which is why this Christmas, it’s more important than ever to appreciate how much sport still resonates, and how much it still teaches us that there is still magic in the world, even if you don’t have an elf on the shelf.
And hey, who needs an elf if you’re from Offaly anyway? Has anything this year felt more magical, more incredible, than that Leinster final in Carlow against Wexford? When the All-Ireland final got underway against Cork, and Adam Screeney started off by winning – and scoring – two frees, as well as firing over that memorable score from the right wing, were we not all transformed to a different world, a place where things like demographics and pick size, tradition over the last 20 years, all of that went out the window. It felt like the 1990s all over again, that unique decade where Ireland was finding its own identity and voice, emerging from the shadow of Britain, and beginning to dream about what it might become.
The GAA generally, but Offaly in particular, were at the heart of that. Now, three decades later, Offaly have found themselves in three All-Ireland underage finals in three years, all out of the blue in their own way, but all of them capturing the imagination and spirit of a county that more than anything else, lived out the spirit of refusing to accept walls or a ceiling around its aspirations.
Sport is more necessary now than it ever was, but the converse argument to that is that sport needs to also be aware of the threat of “it is what it is” mindset. Globally, that battle has been lost. Tyrannical, oppressive nations sportswash their reputations through sponsorship, and it works. The personality of clubs is quashed if it runs contrary to the accepted values of the corporate world, seen very clearly in the way that Celtic ripped out their Green Brigade heart in a bid to be seen to oppose their supporters’ wholehearted support for Palestine, and sure enough that has carried through onto the field of play.
Katie Taylor will only fight in Croke Park if Eddie Hearn can get the Irish taxpayer on the hook for the security costs; and big global events invariably find their way to utterly inappropriate locations, all because countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Russia understand the value of being in the news for good reasons for a change.
We have something different in the GAA, but we need to keep believing in it. There are a myriad of practical reasons why full integration with the LGFA and the Camogie Association will be incredibly difficult, and this week on Midlands 103, Laois GAA chairperson PJ Kelly spoke with balance and reason about why the process might need to be slowed down.
Yet nobody would even think about suggesting that full amalgamation is the wrong thing to do – clearly it’s the correct course of action, in order to put all Gaelic games activity and players on a level playing field. Where is the ambition to do the things that “accepted reality” would tell us are impossible, and to just find a way because we are a people with imagination, with creativity, and because we are motivated by doing the right thing?
The two richest counties in the GAA right now are Dublin, due to their immense commercial revenue streams, and Limerick, who are distorted by support from JP McManus in a wide variety of ways, some of them well-known and some of them less so. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that the counties with the most money have produced the greatest football team of all time in recent years, and arguably the greatest hurling team of all time. Or perhaps the GAA could take the steps that rugby, or soccer, or golf, would never do and accept that some things are more important than maximizing revenue.
Not just because it’s Christmas, but because of the world we live in, we need the magic of sport more than ever, to make us believe in the art of the possible. To every player who will pull on a pair of boots in 2024, thank you, and may you live out this spirit every time you go out. But to every administrator, every volunteer, every paid official, it’s time for you to think the same way, for everyone’s sake. Happy Christmas everyone.