Violence in Gaelic games: Stop this machismo nonsense

NEARLY every popular sport faces great challenges that undermine its authenticity, its wellbeing, and the positive contribution it makes to the culture and gaiety of nations.

Rugby is trying to square the circle of ever-more powerful players colliding with each other with the kind of force that can cause life-changing injuries or, nightmare of nightmares, recurring concussion.

As television revenue becomes more and more influential in the game, it may be far more difficult than first imagined to resolve these issues.

International soccer seems to exist in a flexible, ethics-free world of its own where the impossible is made real by the skilful and often surreptitious use of discreet banking services.

The sport, at nearly every level, seems to have conceded that referees may be abused in the most strident and disrespectful ways and that cheating — usually diving like an animal poleaxed in a slaughterhouse for no reason at all — is just part of the game’s colour and appeal.

How wrong that view is as the beautiful game becomes more and more a money-driven charade rather than a spectacle of skill, honour, and beauty, one that ruthlessly exploits its fans.

Athletics, tragically, is deeply discredited by endemic drug abuse. Top level competition, even the Olympics, hardly remains credible. Every champion is assessed more in terms of ‘how did they get away with doping’ rather than being celebrated as the best of their peers. The real race, as with cycling, seems to be between the regulators and the chemists who create their Frankensteins — can an effective test be found for the latest performance-enhancing drug before another synthesised athlete collects another devalued gong?

The GAA and Gaelic games, those twin heartbeats of Ireland, face problems too. Casual and frequent onfield violence is the most pressing. It is a problem with a long history and one that has, as yet, to be effectively confronted.

On Sunday evening this character flaw surfaced again when there was an eight-minute brawl, melee, donneybrook, schmozzle, call it what you will, but if it happened on any street in any town in Ireland a busy day in the local court could be expected.

The dangerous foolishness happened during a match between Dungarvan and Mount Sion and involved players and staff from both clubs. Ambiguity may be our national coping strategy but GAA authorities should have the courage, and real love of their games, needed to impose clear, meaningful sanctions on the individuals and clubs involved.

It is time a precedent was set and that the casual, nasty violence undermining our national games was stamped out. The GAA may not be its own best friend in this regard. In marketing campaigns it uses catchphrases like “the toughest” or “the warrior game”.

Apart at all from highlighting unspoken insecurity, this off-target emphasis cannot but encourage the idiocy seen in Waterford. Some “traditionalists” will say it’s a man’s game and if you don’t like it, look away.

It would be far more manly if the GAA took its duty to protect its players seriously and confronted this kind of childish machismo nonsense.