Footballing finesse on display as Micheál Martin mans the gap in Mexico

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin opens a community centre on the outskirts of Mexico City.

There were displays of footballing finesse on the first day of the Tánaiste’s trip to Mexico, after a group of kids took Micheál Martin to task in a game of penalties.

Three young footballers took turns hammering it past the Foreign Affairs Minister, who stood up in goals at a community centre on the outskirts of Mexico City.

Mr Martin’s son Micheál Aodh is an accomplished goalkeeper, albeit in a different code, and the results were also much different with his father in between the posts.

The first shot taken whizzed past the Tánaiste’s hands, flying into the top left-hand corner of the net.

Concerned if he had hit Mr Martin, the boy asked the Fianna Fáil leader if he was alright, to a quick response of: “Oh, I’m fine”.

Taking a second shot, the young boy came up slow and gave it a kick to the centre of the net, knocked back by the Tánaiste.

Joking to the boy after his initial top-corner screamer, Mr Martin said: “He’s insulting me now”.

One final penalty taker, a young girl, took a good run up and managed to slot the ball past the Tánaiste into the bottom-left corner of the nets.

The penalty shoot-out came just minutes after the Tánaiste had officially placed the foundation stone for an expansion to the community centre.

The ceremony was slightly different to the traditional Irish method of "turning the sod", with an industrial winch instead suspending the concrete foundation slab about six feet in the air.

Mr Martin was then handed a big red button, which then let him lower the block into its designated space.

“Beats using the shovel anyway,” he remarked.

The centre itself, which has been built and run by Irish firm Smurfit Kappa, helps to provide educational opportunities for up to 450 children in the locality, which is widely recognised as one of the poorest areas in Mexico.

The new building on the site will be more specialised towards education, with specific classrooms due to be developed focusing on early childhood learning and on high academic achievement.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin is in Mexico today, where he is visiting a community centre operated by Irish company Smurfit Kappa.

He's currently meeting with the Minister for Economic Development of the State of Mexico, Laura González Hernández . pic.twitter.com/WE6mu7nRIi

— Tadgh McNally (@TadghMcN) January 8, 2024

Mr Martin heard from local families in the area, who told him of the impact the community centre has had on their lives and the lives of their children.

The kids, on the other hand, took it in turns to tell Mr Martin how much they either enjoyed playing football in the pitches, or learning how to dance in the centre.

In particular, the early childhood education aspect of the centre was highlighted to the Tánaiste, with classes focused on linguistics, as well as cognitive and motor skills for children up to the age of six.

When the new centre is complete, it is expected that the site will cater for up to 900 children.

Asked by the Irish Examiner what he thought of the centre, Mr Martin praised the work of the organisers.

“In terms of the provision of the community facility, I’m very taken by the education side of this," he said. "The zero-to-six programme for people living in the community — it’s not just employees, it’s people living in the wider community.

“Just talking to some of the parents there, they obviously see huge value in this for their children in respect of progressing onwards from additional tuition on to third-level education and scholarships that some of their children receive from employees of Smurfit Kappa here.

“It’s a good, substantive programme. It has substance to it in terms of educational, cultural, and sporting dimensions.”