Antrim joint-manager Paul McKillen and Maeve Connolly of Antrim celebrate after their victory in the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship Final match between Antrim and Kilkenny at Croke Park in Dublin, September 12, 2021. Photo: Ben McShane / Sportsfile.
I wouldn’t dream of expressing an opinion over the current spat between Mary McAleese and the GAA supremo Jarlath Burns.
I merely follow with interest Mrs McAleese’s claim that the Gaelic Athletic Association is showing a tincture of misogyny by not expediting integration between the men’s and women’s sports.
Mr Burns, for his part, finds it “regrettable” that Mary has resigned from chairing the Steering Group working towards this integration, once promised for 2027, but now unlikely to reach that deadline.
Sport
The finances and management of sport are beyond my ken; but sport as a cultural phenomenon strikes me as a fascinating playing field.
Sporting issues always reflect the zeitgeist – the values and anxieties of the times.
GAA sports also had a strong Catholic identity. Non-Catholics were never barred, but few chose to participate”
In my young days, the hot debate around the GAA was all about “foreign games”. Namely, those who played Gaelic games were banned from also playing, or even watching, rugby, soccer, hockey or cricket. It was lifted in 1971, but not before a lot of argument (and occasional clandestine participation in a rugby match by a GAA supporter).
GAA sports also had a strong Catholic identity. Non-Catholics were never barred, but few chose to participate (and in the North, anyone who served the Crown couldn’t join the GAA – rescinded in 2001).
After all, the big arena was named after Archbishop Croke; and it was the practice to have a priest throw in the ball at the start of a GAA game.
And Protestant sports associations like the YMCA didn’t admit Catholics, or even play against mainly Catholic teams.
All changed. The focus has shifted from national allegiance and religious adherence to gender and identity. Sex, sexual orientation and gender are the themes which dominate our zeitgeist today. So these are bound to be the areas of most contention. (In America, and maybe Britain, race has also been a hot topic, but this has seldom been thematic in Ireland.)
Everything belongs in its time. The GAA ban began in the 1900s when sports like rugby practised their own forms of exclusion – applicants were told “only ‘Varsity’ men are welcome”.
The integration debate will eventually be settled, and eventually, its finer points forgotten too!
But surely the best way to support the GAA now is to “go forth and multiply”. What all sport will need in the future is – more young people.
“What do a people known for the gift of the gab – the Irish – need to learn from Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host?” I’ve been asked. Ms Winfrey filled the 3Arena in Dublin on Monday, with front row tickets costing €395 a pop.
Oprah Winfrey’s success is down to a unique set of circumstances. She had a terrible childhood, of desperate poverty, repeated sexual abuse within the family, abandonment and displacement.
But she had talent – her Grandma’s Bible instruction made her articulate – and striking looks (she won a beauty contest). She rose through local broadcasting by her own efforts, determination – and timing.
In the 1980s, America was ready for a black woman to become visible on screen and Oprah was that woman. She introduced a more emotional, confessional style of TV interview – and was smart enough to take control, financially, of her own brand.
She also appealed to something deeply American – self-improvement. With self-help, you could overcome even the worst setbacks. Maybe that is what Oprah can best teach the Irish.
===
Barbara Cartland, the romantic novelist, wrote (or dictated) 723 books during her lifetime.
Her novels had the following guidelines: they must be about “love, not lust”, a bride must be a virgin, and marriage, between a man and a woman, should be a “happy ever after” event.
When I interviewed her at her stately home, over tea and cake, she was, as ever, dressed in pink. She assured me that her traditional stories still sold books all over the world, because people secretly liked these aspirations.
She gave me the same advice she gave every woman: always dress up attractively for your husband when he comes home, make him feel special, and keep the children quiet. Cherish a man if you want to keep him.
Among the men she admired was, perhaps surprisingly, Michael Collins. When she was a debutante in the 1920s, she wrote, all the society girls in London were mad about him.
A new biography of Dame Barbara – The Great Dictator, by Matthew Sweet – shows that far from being a silly scribbler, she was hard-working, tough and overcame a difficult background. Her father was a drunk and a gambler, and the family had been socially disgraced.
Her daughter Raine became stepmother to Princess Diana by marrying Earl Spencer (nicknamed “Acid Raine” by Diana). Dame Barbara was also critical of Raine – “she fired 14 nannies,” she told me.
La Cartland went on producing her indefatigable novels into her 90s.
Antrim joint-manager Paul McKillen and Maeve Connolly of Antrim celebrate after their victory in the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship Final match between Antrim and Kilkenny at Croke Park in Dublin, September 12, 2021. Photo: Ben McShane / Sportsfile.
Sporting controversies a mirror of the times…
I wouldn’t dream of expressing an opinion over the current spat between Mary McAleese and the GAA supremo Jarlath Burns.
I merely follow with interest Mrs McAleese’s claim that the Gaelic Athletic Association is showing a tincture of misogyny by not expediting integration between the men’s and women’s sports.
Mr Burns, for his part, finds it “regrettable” that Mary has resigned from chairing the Steering Group working towards this integration, once promised for 2027, but now unlikely to reach that deadline.
Sport
The finances and management of sport are beyond my ken; but sport as a cultural phenomenon strikes me as a fascinating playing field.
Sporting issues always reflect the zeitgeist – the values and anxieties of the times.
In my young days, the hot debate around the GAA was all about “foreign games”. Namely, those who played Gaelic games were banned from also playing, or even watching, rugby, soccer, hockey or cricket. It was lifted in 1971, but not before a lot of argument (and occasional clandestine participation in a rugby match by a GAA supporter).
GAA sports also had a strong Catholic identity. Non-Catholics were never barred, but few chose to participate (and in the North, anyone who served the Crown couldn’t join the GAA – rescinded in 2001).
After all, the big arena was named after Archbishop Croke; and it was the practice to have a priest throw in the ball at the start of a GAA game.
And Protestant sports associations like the YMCA didn’t admit Catholics, or even play against mainly Catholic teams.
All changed. The focus has shifted from national allegiance and religious adherence to gender and identity. Sex, sexual orientation and gender are the themes which dominate our zeitgeist today. So these are bound to be the areas of most contention. (In America, and maybe Britain, race has also been a hot topic, but this has seldom been thematic in Ireland.)
Everything belongs in its time. The GAA ban began in the 1900s when sports like rugby practised their own forms of exclusion – applicants were told “only ‘Varsity’ men are welcome”.
The integration debate will eventually be settled, and eventually, its finer points forgotten too!
But surely the best way to support the GAA now is to “go forth and multiply”. What all sport will need in the future is – more young people.
===
What Oprah can teach the Irish
“What do a people known for the gift of the gab – the Irish – need to learn from Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host?” I’ve been asked. Ms Winfrey filled the 3Arena in Dublin on Monday, with front row tickets costing €395 a pop.
Oprah Winfrey’s success is down to a unique set of circumstances. She had a terrible childhood, of desperate poverty, repeated sexual abuse within the family, abandonment and displacement.
But she had talent – her Grandma’s Bible instruction made her articulate – and striking looks (she won a beauty contest). She rose through local broadcasting by her own efforts, determination – and timing.
In the 1980s, America was ready for a black woman to become visible on screen and Oprah was that woman. She introduced a more emotional, confessional style of TV interview – and was smart enough to take control, financially, of her own brand.
She also appealed to something deeply American – self-improvement. With self-help, you could overcome even the worst setbacks. Maybe that is what Oprah can best teach the Irish.
===
Barbara Cartland, the romantic novelist, wrote (or dictated) 723 books during her lifetime.
Her novels had the following guidelines: they must be about “love, not lust”, a bride must be a virgin, and marriage, between a man and a woman, should be a “happy ever after” event.
When I interviewed her at her stately home, over tea and cake, she was, as ever, dressed in pink. She assured me that her traditional stories still sold books all over the world, because people secretly liked these aspirations.
She gave me the same advice she gave every woman: always dress up attractively for your husband when he comes home, make him feel special, and keep the children quiet. Cherish a man if you want to keep him.
Among the men she admired was, perhaps surprisingly, Michael Collins. When she was a debutante in the 1920s, she wrote, all the society girls in London were mad about him.
A new biography of Dame Barbara – The Great Dictator, by Matthew Sweet – shows that far from being a silly scribbler, she was hard-working, tough and overcame a difficult background. Her father was a drunk and a gambler, and the family had been socially disgraced.
Her daughter Raine became stepmother to Princess Diana by marrying Earl Spencer (nicknamed “Acid Raine” by Diana). Dame Barbara was also critical of Raine – “she fired 14 nannies,” she told me.
La Cartland went on producing her indefatigable novels into her 90s.
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