They Said It ....

August 2004

My Goodness, My Guinness, a slogan often heard in times past. Indeed this particular drink company have been more than generous sponsors to the GAA world over the past decade. But times are changing the Guinness sponsorship of the All Ireland hurling championship has only a year to run and will not be renewed. Drink has become enemy number one of the GAA and a calculated effort is being made to rid the association (every sane member will agree) of this modern day vice.
Practically every provincial paper has touched upon the matter in the past month. Our learned friend Owen McCrahan devoted his entire column in the Kerryman to the subject but explained that if the GAAs task force report is aimed at curbing people’s drinking habits then it is doomed to failure.
Recently, a GAA task force chaired by former Galway hurler Joe Connolly and carrying the imprimatur of GAA President Sean Kelly recommended that alcohol sponsorship within the Association be phased out within two years.
Judging by comment in the national media the reaction to this development was entirely favourable. Nowadays, most people seem to agree that there is far too much drinking going on and that any move to curtail this social evil is to be welcomed.
Statistics show that Ireland is now close to the top of the European drinking league with young people starting to drink at an earlier age than ever before. They are also consuming more than most of their counterparts in other EU countries.
Sometimes the drinking starts secretly even before youngsters have reached the legal age limit and we hear talk about a new and alarming development known as “binge drinking” when young people go for a night out. This is the road to alcoholism for many in later life.
Anything the GAA can do to curb this menace is to be welcomed but there is a real possibility that the latest crusade will not make the slightest impact on the daunting statistics that are being trotted out on a regular basis.
Alcohol will be consumed regardless of whatever measures the GAA authorities take and it is quite likely that the volume of drink sold in pubs and clubs all over the country will continue to escalate from year to year. This is a spinoff of increased affluence along with irresponsible social trends.
The drinking culture that is endemic in the Irish psyche is here to stay. No matter what action is taken to lessen its impact, it is not going to go away. It is far too deeply ingrained in society to even contemplate that possibility. Besides, it is a multi-million euro industry that generates a lot of money for a lot of people including the government.
But, obviously a start has to be made somewhere even if it would be easy to accuse the GAA of sanctimonious humbug when they talk about phasing out drinks sponsorship completely. Many GAA clubs nowadays are sponsored by the local pub and finding alternative finances in small communities may not be easy. In cities and towns, there is no shortage of GAA outlets that are lavishly equipped with drinking facilities and consequently any move to curtail this activity smacks of hyprocisy.
You can’t blame anybody for tapping into the most obvious source of revenue that is available to them and in the modern age when everything is so costly many GAA clubs need the finance generated at the bar counter in order to survive. The sale of drink is what is keeping these clubs going.
Besides, there has always been a strong tradition of drinking in the GAA even if that’s not the fault of anybody in particular. It just happens that people gravitate towards the nearest watering-hole after games and the same applies in other codes.
In Irish life that’s as natural as going to Mass on Sundays used to be in the 1940s and 50s. “Going to the pub” has a social resonance that has been handed on from one generation to the next. In rural Ireland, there is nowhere else to go.
It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that this culture has gained acceptance at every level of Irish life. When a prominent club official doled out a potent cocktail to players before a needle South Kerry championship game many years ago he was merely moving the drinking from the pub to the dressingroom.
The recipe which included equal measures of rum, port, wine, whiskey and the white of an agg, came from a famous Kerry footballer who had won a string of All-Ireland medals. The rationale behind this line of thinking was that any perceived advantage was worth pursuing when the opposition had a much stronger team.
Those were innocent times when it was often claimed that certain players performed much better when they had a few drinks taken. This was considered fact rather than fiction and it may have been true. Back then the pace was much slower and the pre-match drinking probably helped calm jagged nerves in some cases just as it may have impacted favourably on others who might have been considered a bit “windy”.
The same drinking culture applied to a lesser extent at inter-county level. Several Kerry footballers gained notoriety for their drinking exploits and the fact that their ability on the field was never compromised added to the mystique.
A true story is told of a famous Kerry forward who was drinking heavily on the night before a Munster final before being picked up in Farranfore on the morning of the match. After running for the first ball he allegedly spewed his guts out but then settled down to play a blinder, scoring points from all angles.
The late Tim O’Donnell never divulged the name of a Kerry player who turned up drunk at a dance run by the Dublin Kerry Association on the eve of the 1951 All-Ireland semi final against Mayo only to be refused admission. This sparked off a melee in which the doorman sustained a broken jaw.
After the culprit was detained in Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station, his release from custody was arranged by Tim O’Donnell who was a member of the Gardai at the time. The matter was subsequently quashed.
It can’t be denied that Guinness who are believed to be pumping two million euro a year into the All-Ireland hurling championship have been doing an excellent marketing job and as a result hurling has a higher profile today than it ever had before.
The drinks company has gained through adventurous advertising and hurling has also profited. Who can deny the impact of slogans like “This man can break hearts from 90 yards”? But it couldn’t last.
Former GAA president Mick Loftus has led the clamour to have alcohol sponsorship banned but, up to now, the harsh world of economic reality has intervened. Obviously, it was far easier to take the millions on offer from Guinness rather than go sourcing other lesser outlets. Now, it appears that a principled stand will see all drinks sponsorship phased out within two years. At least, that’s the theory.
Having a national sports organisation aligned to a drinks company is obviously repulsive to many and the time may have come to offload what has become a highly contentious issue. The GAA authorities have shown an admirable lead in their apparent willingness to trade big money for idealism but if this is an attempt at curbing the nation’s drinking habits it is doomed to failure.
Long-term, it won’t make any difference.

“Drill holes in the GAA cups to prevent drinking” is the solution of Tipperary Board delegate John Vaughan. Report by Noel Dundon in the Tipperary Star.
Mullinahone delegate to the County Tipperary GAA Board John Vaughan has suggested drilling a hole in every GAA cup in the county to prevent teams from filling them with alcohol after finals.
Speaking at the monthly meeting of the Board in Thurles Sarsfields clubhouse this week, the Mullinahone man said the cups should not be filled with alcohol and the solution to it is to drill a hole in the bottom of the cups.
“As a pioneer all my life, I do not like this practice of filling cups with alcohol. I think it is a deplorable and disgusting act. If we drilled a hole in the bottom of the cups it would solve all the problems,” he said.
Vice chairman of the Board John Costigan had made a plea to clubs to return all cups for presentation this season. He also asked for the cups to be in good condition and inscribed properly. “Any cups that are not in a presentable condition will be sent back to clubs to be sorted out before they are presented again. We will be putting the onus back on clubs to look after cups and trophies,” he said.
Ned Brophy from Clonmel asked the County Board to draw up policy in relation to the filling of cups with alcohol. He suggested sealing all cups with lids to make sure that they cannot be filled.
Chairman of the Board Donie Shanahan said that clubs should be responsible for making sure that cups are not filled with alcohol.
Mick Egan agreed and said that cups should be filled with nothing more than Cidona or orange crush.

“Stop the madness” is the heading of the editorial in the Donegal Democrat
Former hurling star Joe Connolly, who is leading the GAA task force into the abuse of drink and drugs, has called for the madness to stop.
The madness he refers to is this country’s saturated involvement with alcohol which has left us with a problem that has for too long been brushed aside with words rarely given the action it requires.
This week the GAA announced its intention to play some role in the ‘get tough’ measures needed to combat this menacing threat to society. Threat? It has already gone beyond that stage.
But at least the decision by the Gaelic Athletic Association to phase out sponsorship and alcohol branding at club and county level is a step in the right direction.
GAA President, Sean Kelly, a man who has already shown foresight in other areas, has admitted that the Association and more significant its clubs will come under financial strain as a result of the phasing out of sponsorship deals from the drink companies but said it was a sacrifice the organisation would have to make if its policy on abuse was to be a success.
Donegal TD Cecila Keaveney yesterday backed the call by the task force describing it as a “significant step” in combating a problem which had become a sourge in many local communities.
In her role as chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sports and Tourism, she called on the GAA to work closely with the Oireachtas Committee at local and national level to promote the positive use of alcohol.
However, it’s not just the GAA and the Government who should be implementing policies when it comes to the abuse of both drink and drugs. Society as a whole, including parents and teachers, must face up to its responsibly and face up to it now if we are to many any inroads at all in curbing an ever spiralling problem.
As far as the GAA move is concerned - the organisation will review the sponsorship by Guinness of the All-Ireland hurling championship when the recently signed current deal expires at the end of 2005 - the question will inevitably be asked if by putting the name of a drinks company ahead of a competition or club it prompts sharp increases in the consumption of alcohol products by our young.
That’s debatable given that alcohol promotion is coming at us from almost every vantage point and the stark fact that for many drinkers, young and old, advertising has never been a starting point.
The drug menace cannot be ignored either and while there are still those advocating the legislation of the so called soft drugs the fact is that these have been a starting point for many caught up in the horrors of the harder substances.
“It’s stop the madness time”, Joe Connolly declared this week.
And well beyond time for us to start taking the problem seriously.

Up north the Anderstown News prints a letter from a T Collins as the subject
I have followed with passing interest the press coverage of a possible ban on smoking in GAA clubs and an end to sponsorship from alcoholic drinks manufacturers - all for the betterment of Irish society, so we’re told.
I couldn’t help but wonder whether the ban in clubs might have more to do with insurance considerations in the event of employees suing the organisation for future health damage. But in any event, it cannot be doubted that there is a trend across Ireland in favour of diminishing the public profile of alcohol, especially when related to popular sports.
If the GAA now, belatedly, want to join that bandwagon - and, in the process, create a better environment for young athletes - I’m 100 per cent behind them. That would, of course, mean the GAA boycotting alcoholic drinks companies.
And, to my mind, that’s where the problems start. You see, the Antrim County Board, for example, have a chequered history in relation to boycotts. Essentially the Antrim Board’s policy has been, well, how should I put it ... to boycott boycotts. And I just don’t know how they’re going to get around this one.
Can anyone remember way back in the early 1990s when campaigners for fair employment was busting a gut over all Ireland, Britain, Europe, Australia and North America to put the issue on the political map, one of the examples highlighted was Bushmills Distillery?
The campaign was highly successful,with famous pictures flashed around the world of San Francisco’s Mayor, Willie Brown, pouring the uisce beatha into the gutter on St Patrick’s Day.
A simple message went out to the world: Bushmill’s economic future in North America would be dependent on a radical programme for fair employment within the company’s North Antrim headquarters. The campaign was non-violent, morally acceptable, incredibly effective and highly innovative. Cue the Antrim County Board.
Right in the middle of the Bushmills campaign the Antrim Board humbly tugged their forelocks and kindly presented Bushmills with a public relations lifeline.
For the price of one set of shirts (remember the Antrim Board couldn’t afford replacement shirts for senior players last year) the county team was kitted out with Bushmills plastered all over their tops.
Lifelong GAA bureaucrats claimed that they couldn’t get involved in issues like politics or human rights or equality. Such matters had nothing to do with sport, they claimed.
That, of course, was the same mentality that lay behind the decision of certain clubs to continue playing with blissful ignorance (or should that be badnatured arrogance) during the 1981 hunger-strikes.
It is also the Uncle Tom mentality which lectures grassroots GAA members that the handful of Catholic recruits into the currently flawed PSNI need some kind of ‘kid-glove’ handling in case they are forced to defend their misguided actions before their peers.
And yet, a decade after the Antrim Board, jumped into bed with Bushmills, we’re suddenly told that boycotts of the alcoholic drinks industry can now be justified on the grounds of socially acceptable trends, such as health and fitness.
Whoopee doo!
And, without doubt, there are thousands of highly principled GAA members throughout Antrim, Ulster, Ireland and beyond. But in recognising that, it is also important that we note the sycophantic double standards of some of those who will soon be bleeding our ears on such issues.

No more will we see the local pub sponsoring the parish team. Words Stephen Glennin of the Connacht Tribune
The days of local pubs around County Galway and the rest of the country sponsoring their parish team would appear to be at an end following this week’s announcement that the GAA is to take an active role in tackling the drink and drugs culture among the youth.
Alcohol and drug abuse has been identified as one of the plights of the game, and to combat this a GAA task force - headed up by former Galway All-Ireland winning captain Joe Connolly - has published a report recommending the phasing out of alcohol branding and sponsorship at club and county level around the country over the next two years.
Advocating adopting a policy limiting sponsorship from companies in the drinks sector, the report also recommends controlling advertising and branding around players and ultimately phase out this form of sponsorship.
Another of the key recommendations of the report is to appoint a national fulltime officer to deal with the issues. To this end, the GAA will put in place a structure to give GAA officers a key role in addressing the issues of alcohol and substance abuse among GAA members in their community and the means to deal any incidents arising.
The report has also recommended the GAA develop an awareness and education programme in GAA clubs through the country, and that a code of conduct be established and implemented.
GAA President Sean Kelly paid tribute to John Connolly and his task force for the work they carried out in this area, having been established to consider how the GAA might positively contribute to reducing alcohol and substance abuse in Irish society.
However, with so many financially strapped clubs around the country dependent on sponsorship from their local pubs, it remains to be seen just what the implications this report will have at grass roots level.