Sport must never forget the fringe benefits
Perhaps most powerful was the story of former Neptune baller Gerald Kennedy and his basketball programme with the girls of Caritas College in Ballyfermot.
Girls with nothing in their pockets or lunchboxes given a horizon and a reason to lift their heads. One young girl told Kennedy he had saved her life. “How can a kid who is 12 say that? Think about it. Ireland has forgotten about its responsibilities to those girls.”
To read that the programme was in jeopardy due to funding cuts was to discover there was something in your eye.
Budget cuts too were worrying Oisín Jordan of the FAI this week, as he mulled over how depleted funding would impact another group who don’t enjoy all the advantages.
Oisín runs the association’s Football For All programme, with laudable backing from the Department of Community and the Environment, and shares a beautifully simple goal.
“Within three years, any child regardless of their ability will be able to join a club within 30 minutes of their home and pull on a jersey with pride.”
That means kids with disabilities or visual impairment or even those just not blessed with the natural skills that easily kick doors open. But now People with Disabilities in Ireland has had its funding removed and it sent much-needed money Oisín’s way.
“It will put more pressure on.
“It is not going to stop it, but it could slow things down.”
Hopefully not more responsibilities forgotten. If you thought about it all too long, it might turn you off elite sport altogether. It would certainly turn you off money lists.”
