John Fogarty
THE following broadcast is an urgent appeal for decency and compassion on behalf of GAA supporters everywhere. Stop this nonsense. Stop ruining the match-day experience.
Both in and outside Croke Park, the Association is letting itself down consistently in how they are framing the games.
Let’s start with the National Anthem? Having attended two Allianz Football League games outside Croke Park this past weekend, this writer was left cold and embarrassed by the renditions of Amhrán na bhFiann.
In Portlaoise, a young singer, admittedly with a beautiful voice, was handed the microphone to sing Peadar Kearney’s The Soldier’s Song and proceeded to mix up her words. She wasn’t the first – there were plenty that have gone before her in recent leagues and championships. And, sadly, she won’t be the last.
In Armagh, a more experienced vocalist was given the duty of leading the chorus but hers was a single voice and failed to engage with the Athletic Grounds crowd.
We’re not exactly certain if Jarlath Burns, an able GAA official and head of the GAA’s games presentation committee with a great grá for the Scor, has anything to do with this recent trend of soloists.
But if he has please heed this message, Jarlath: it doesn’t work.
The National Anthem is supposed to be exactly that: a hymn of the masses that is sung by the masses, not listened to. Even the piped-in “press play” interpretations of the song are better than the soloists’, although there is no substitute for a band.
Nothing but nothing compares to a resounding version of Amhrán na bhFiann. Full of anticipation and dripping with gusto, it adds to the frenzy and the build-up. It transmits to the players, instilling them with urgency.
Sung properly by teams, it can be a powerful tool. Mickey Harte recognised that in 2003. As he wrote about the week before the All-Ireland final with Kerry in his book Presence Is The Only Thing: “How unusual would it be for a bunch of bucks from the north, with minimal grasp of the Irish language to end up in Croke Park singing Amhrán na bhFiann with perfect musical and linguistic accuracy.
“The players clicked with the idea straight away. A week before we met Kerry, we stood in a room in Citywest (hotel), singing Amhrán na bhFiann with a ferocity and pleasure that lifted all our hearts. In a week we would stand together in Croke Park again and sing our anthem without missing a word. Breaking down the stereotypes had started before the whistle was even blown.”
If RTÉ were guilty of shooting themselves in the foot when ditching the original Sunday Game theme tune, the GAA are now in danger of taking a pistol to their pinkies by damaging an integral part of their match-day experience.
It’s bad enough the IRFU decided some time ago to jettison the National Anthem for away games and dilute it in the Aviva Stadium with the hollow convenience that is Ireland’s Call. But the disregard – and it is disregard – of Amhrán na bhFiann is but one piece of evidence which substantiates claims the GAA is over-sanitising the games.
In Croke Park yesterday and on St Patrick’s Day, that cursed announcement “Gardaí and stewards to end-of-match positions, please” (said twice for full effect) tolled with 10 minutes to go in each of the three games. Not only does it put pressure on players (who says there isn’t a hooter system already in the GAA?), it also takes away from the flow of the game for the supporters. And while most of them are there in a voluntary capacity, there is definitely room for improvement in the behaviour of some of the stewards.
Yep, we’re with Kilkenny secretary Ned Quinn on this one. In January, he told The Irish Examiner: “What annoys me is this high-vis brigade that come around the perimeter of Croke Park with 10 minutes to go and parking themselves between the selectors and the team manager.
“They are right up to the faces of the selectors. That’s really intimidatory. Subs are blocked off as well. The whole thing could be done in a discreet manner. Why do we have to have this big announcement? And why do they have to crouch in front of the two management benches?
“They do this with 10 minutes to go when a match can be won or lost. I repeat, we have to have regulation but we need common sense too.”
The safety people will argue it has to be done but is the announcement really that necessary? In the Aviva Stadium, stewards move to their end-of-match positions in a uniform, dignified and quiet manner without players and supporters having to be warned. Why can’t the GAA do the same? Pitch encroachment is arguably the most emotive challenge facing the GAA’s games presentation committee right now. The argument made by the Association is the 2.8 metre transparent barrier put up in front of Hill 16 last August was because of concerns a child might be killed.
Yet no child has been killed in Croke Park in over 100 years. No-one has ever died from entering a pitch either.
If Dublin’s footballers do go on to win this year’s All-Ireland, it will take an inordinate amount of stewards and a mighty strong wall to stop the Hill 16 breaching onto the pitch.
Really, why should genuine outpourings of unadulterated joy be tempered for fears that have never been realised? GAA President-elect Liam O’Neill is also planning to keep acceptance speeches short Oscars-style in an attempt to avoid potential on-pitch melées.
Last year in Thurles, Waterford hurling captain Stephen Molumphy spoke for well over five minutes in front of adoring fans after receiving the Munster Cup.
For a team that had been written off, nobody could begrudge him the chance to articulate that moment of achievement.
The fact is Gaelic games aren’t in need of such disinfection but this almost clamour to be PC is taking away from the enjoyment of football and hurling.
That's it. Rant over. But while we’re at it can the GAA bid farewell to the God-forsaken May We Never Have To Say Goodbye that is played over the PA system after games at Croke Park and Thurles? That might be pushing it. That grievance is purely down to personal taste. The previous complaints aren’t.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/nHqGTCUxF3A/post.aspx
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