Last Thursday Notre Dame & Navy (American Football college teams) signed a contract to continue their annual battle for another ten years, keeping going the longest running college football rivalry in history. And it’s been confirmed that the teams will play in Croke Park on September 1, 2012! The last time they played in Croke [...]
That’s it. Roy Keane has left Man. United. A statement released by United has confirmed that Keano, after twelve and a half years 480 appearances and 51 goals with the club, has left with immediate effect, he won’t even see out the season. Shite! But what an asset Keane has been to the club, an [...]
Well as I highlighted in my previous post today is the day that Gaelic Games Football is released. My copy is in the post and I probably won’t get it until the middle of next week so I have been searching for reviews. This short review is rather positive: “Great graphics, excellent gameplay,you can do [...]
It’s the 8th of November, an ya know what that means doncha? That’s right, in 3 days time it’ll be the leventh of November. An ya know what that means doncha? That’s right, Gaelic Games Football will be released on Playstation 2. An ya know what that means doncha? That’s right, for the rest of [...]
JL reckons George Burley is the man to take over as manager of the Rep.Ireland soccer team. Burley left Hearts quite recently due to “irreconcilable differences” with the club board. A number of sites such as World Cup Latest and Eleven-a-side now claim Burley is the firm favourite to take over the job. To be [...]
Troubled times continue for Manchester United. Following their drubbing by Middlesbrough at the weekend they went down against Lille tonight in the Champions League thanks to a Milenko Acimovic goal. Their CL hopes are now hanging by a thread and they aren’t doing much better at home either sitting in 7th place in the Premiership [...]
So Brian Kerr is gone. I can’t say i’m sorry to see him go. He’s a decent man but wasn’t up to scratch as manager. There was no excuse for Ireland’s dreadful performance throughout the qualification campaign. I wonder who’ll take over. I hope it’s not Bobby Robson. Alex Ferguson, David O’Leary, Martin O’Neill and [...]
Gaelic games are close to my heart. Although I’m not a GAA member or player at the moment (I play handball every week, does that count?) I was a hurler in my younger days and I have had *some* small involvement with the GAA in Europe within the past few years. Still, I’ve always been critical of certain aspects of the GAA, mainly their love of money. They talk about developing the game abroad yet the tight fisted cunts find it hard to part with any money for even a few sticks (personal experience). Then there’s the issue of player compensation for example!
Another area I have a problem with, and this is the purpose of this post, is the links with nationalism. This is obviously most evident in Northern Ireland where the “nationalist ethos” of the GAA is seen to ‘exclude’ half the population there. It’s 2005, there’s no reason for an entire community to feel excluded from our cultural/sporting organisation. And while we can argue that our intention is not to exclude anyone you can easily understand, given the nationalist tone of our Official Guide preamble or the links between the GAA and nationalism in Northern Ireland, why many in the NI protestant community would feel excluded? Isn’t it more than a tad shameful that still today in multicultural progressive Ireland a significant proportion of our island population is unable to participate in our national sports, some of the finest sports in the world? Whether they’d want to or not is irrelevant, there shouldn’t be anything preventing them from participating.
I’d like the GAA to be able to promote Gaelic sports & culture for all, not a single soul excluded. We should be making the GAA a better organisation, an organisation where we can put hand on heart and say that this is an organisation where all are welcome regardless of skin colour, religion or political affiliation. Of course I can easily put hand on heart now and say that all ARE welcome, and I truly believe that but the GAA’s links with Nationalism contradict that claim. So we need changes and I’m going to highlight a few which I believe, if implemented, would make the GAA an organisation we can be more proud of.
Btw, most of these suggestions come from discussions with members of the protestant community in NI, where better to get feedback but from those ‘on the outside’.
‘Big Game Part 1′ today, a must win for Ireland. I’m not confident at all but fingers, toes and other bits crossed. (listening to it on RTÉ)
That’s what it looks like. On a MUTV phone-in Keane said: “I would like to play another year or two but I do not think it will be at Manchester United,” His contract is up this summer and if he doesn’t get a new contract before then he’ll already have made up his mind to [...]