Sport must never forget the fringe benefits

READING Sport On The Fringes, the marvellous three-part series by Ewan MacKenna in this paper this week, you were reminded that some people need sport more than others, that some people deserve sport more, not just for its medals and its rewards and its glory, but to give them something to dream about when troubled heads find a pillow.

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.”