Isn't it lovely that my "posh" paper, "The Guardian", saw fit to lavish praise on the GAA in Tuesday's editorial. Lovely;


In praise of … Gaelic sports

Football is supposed to be the people's game in the UK. But the real 'people's sports' are those across the Irish Sea

* The Guardian, Tuesday 21 September 2010


On Sunday about 80,000 football fans gathered in Dublin's Croke Park to watch Cork defeat Down. There was no segregation of supporters, no need for stewards in high-visibility jackets or even police officers. It's a sport without agents or stars driving Ferraris. Moreover, 85 cents out of every euro that the devotees put into the game is reinvested in grassroots clubs. Football is supposed to be the people's game in the UK. But the real "people's sports" are those across the Irish Sea. The Gaelic sports of hurling and Gaelic football represent a real link between people, players and the governing association. Although Gaelic football attracts tens of thousands to its national championship, the players who turn out for Down, Cork and the other 30 counties of Ireland do so on a voluntary basis. A few have formed the Gaelic Players Association in an effort to extract more payments. But the GPA has generally been unsuccessful in creating a professional wage structure. Some stars earn money advertising everything from milk to fertiliser, but the overwhelming majority will turn up for training after a day at the factory or working on the farm. The Gaelic Athletic Association has had many proud achievements of late: the construction of Croke Park stadium, the end of its ban on members of the security forces playing its sports in Northern Ireland, and the generous decision to allow Ireland's national rugby and soccer teams to use its HQ as a temporary home. But the most notable is the survival of its amateur status. Long may it continue.

patrique (Antrim) - Posts: 13709 - 23/09/2010 19:47:52    782566

Wait a minute Patrique according to Ulsterwhine and his two stooges the British hate all things Irish? whats going on?

paddyogall (Mayo) - Posts: 5110 - 23/09/2010 20:08:25    782594

the peoples sport - compared to the sky premership it is anyway. soccer in england and some other nations is out of control.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11678 - 23/09/2010 20:15:47    782601

A great article. Didnt like the 'every irishman works in a factory or on a farm' jibe though.

Brolly (Monaghan) - Posts: 4472 - 23/09/2010 20:26:30    782610

paddyogalling


what's going on is your rear trumpet is engaged again

That's wot! (as they say in old blighty)

ochonlir (Cavan) - Posts: 4343 - 23/09/2010 20:26:31    782611

Patronising nonsense. A day working in the factory or down on the farm is right. Tis a wonder they didn't throw in minding a few pigs in the parlour. Why not say a day working as an engineer or a teacher or a lawyer. We know what the GAA is about, we are confident in our own skins and we don't need any patronising articles from the Guardian to reassure us

corkcelt (Cork) - Posts: 4388 - 23/09/2010 20:28:40    782615

and there i was thinking dell could be right because ulsterman said it , great post patrique

hipster (Dublin) - Posts: 2509 - 23/09/2010 20:32:56    782621

Patricia

Do you mean it is posh because you use it for toliet paper when you want a treat!

TheBigR (Tyrone) - Posts: 56 - 23/09/2010 20:36:00    782624

Brolly
County: Monaghan
Posts: 1788

782610 A great article. Didnt like the 'every irishman works in a factory or on a farm' jibe though.

Yeh those were the days wha?!

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13833 - 23/09/2010 20:54:09    782655

Did you really require the musings of a left leaning English daily broadsheet (thats a newspaper in case you dont know Ogall) to remind you just what you already know?

BTW well put corkcelt, and hipster would you ever grow a pair and stop eulogising every time patrique posts a thread!

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 23/09/2010 21:00:17    782664

Well said Corkcelt..

Inactive x5 (Cavan) - Posts: 1452 - 23/09/2010 21:02:02    782671

The best paper on either island by a long shot. Saw that editorial, most my british friends are really fascinated by the fact that an amateur organisation has achieved what CLG have. Check out tom humphrey's article on the irish times on monday and see the dangers facing the GAA.

hurlinspuds (Cork) - Posts: 1494 - 23/09/2010 21:06:44    782679

Nice to see the amateur ideals of the GAA being recognised outside of Ireland.

But the sport of the people is, and will forever be, football (soccer). The Beautiful Game.

Don't think anyone can argue with that.

Loyal2TheRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 4522 - 23/09/2010 21:17:44    782695

corkcelt
County: Cork
Posts: 1996

782615
Patronising nonsense. A day working in the factory or down on the farm is right. Tis a wonder they didn't throw in minding a few pigs in the parlour. Why not say a day working as an engineer or a teacher or a lawyer. We know what the GAA is about, we are confident in our own skins and we don't need any patronising articles from the Guardian to reassure us



I am rather disappointed in you Corkcelt.

Ireland achieved a degree of freedom from Britain in 1921 and you still retain that old colonnial inferiority complex. Everything the English say has to be interpreted as an insult.

Now I can understand a post imperial complex in certain areas, such as the slums of Kingston in Jamaica, but in Cork? In 2010?

I suspect the Guardian newspaper is too republican for many on here.

You did know it is the ONLY republican newspaper in the UK, and that includes N.Ireland.

Now just perhaps they used the factory and the farm, as they do about rugby sides, when they try to show that amateurs have completed a HARD days work before competing.

If they had used the Civil service or schools as an example the plebs oon here would have said "should public servants do nothing all day".

just maybe.

Or maybe you like feeling inferior?

patrique (Antrim) - Posts: 13709 - 23/09/2010 21:24:49    782712

I think its a grand article, nothing new or different, but nice to see the GAA receiving positive press abroad, and those looking at it as condescending and patronising need to remove the chip from their shoulders.

And historically the Manchester Guardian is the most pro-Irish paper in England, and continues to be. Its also a great paper.

abhainn (Galway) - Posts: 1000 - 23/09/2010 21:28:55    782722

Some of you on here need to cop on. Gaelic games get zero coverage over here outside of the Irish community. A mainstream newspaper compliments the ideals of the GAA and some people take it as patronising. All of this tosh about 'we don't need blah, blah, blah,' is just rubbish. Or are you content/intent on keeping the Irish sports for the Irish?

Tongo (UK) - Posts: 1795 - 23/09/2010 21:39:16    782746

I have never felt inferior to any English or any other non Irish Nationality, Neither do I need their approval to give me a warm and fuzzy feeling or to reassure me. I know who I am and what the GAA is and I'm not going to jump up and down clapping cos of an article in an English newspaper regardless of the political leanings of its editorial.

corkcelt (Cork) - Posts: 4388 - 23/09/2010 21:42:43    782753

corkcelt
County: Cork
Posts: 1997

782753 I have never felt inferior to any English or any other non Irish Nationality, Neither do I need their approval to give me a warm and fuzzy feeling or to reassure me. I know who I am and what the GAA is and I'm not going to jump up and down clapping cos of an article in an English newspaper regardless of the political leanings of its editorial.

Nobody is asking you to, or expects you to. No need to go bleating about it being patronising though, when it patently isn't.

abhainn (Galway) - Posts: 1000 - 23/09/2010 21:54:28    782782

corkcelt
County: Cork

Patronising nonsense. A day working in the factory or down on the farm is right. Tis a wonder they didn't throw in minding a few pigs in the parlour. Why not say a day working as an engineer or a teacher or a lawyer. We know what the GAA is about, we are confident in our own skins and we don't need any patronising articles from the Guardian to reassure us

I think you'll find the writer of the article was depicting the amateurs ness of the games when mentioning factory workers and farmers. Look at it again and you'll see that the passage you appear to be upset with came immediately after the mention of the GPA and how the GAA has not allowed them (GPA) to do away with the gem of our national games it's amateurism.

BufordTJustice (USA) - Posts: 669 - 23/09/2010 22:02:48    782793

Is the issue here simply that this article was published in an English newspaper? If it had been written in USA Today or Le Marca or L'Equipe or Die Welt, would there have been the same reaction from certain posters?

Tongo (UK) - Posts: 1795 - 24/09/2010 08:32:27    782800