GAA can’t afford to neglect its swelling diaspora
Giving it our best regards
Tipped our hats to Mister Cohan
Dear old Times Square’s favourite bard
Then we raised a glass to JFK
And a dozen more besides
When I got back to my empty room
I suppose I must have cried
- Thousands Are Sailing, The Pogues
Walking through Times Squareduring my trip to New York with the All Stars Tour, I paid my dues at the statue of Mr Cohan, the Irish-American composer (originally Keohane) who is name-checked in my favourite Pogues’ song. Unlike the standard Irish ballad, Thousands are Sailing is a blood-stirring, foot-thumping, fist-pumping anthem; yet somehow, the song still manages to strike at the heart as the superb lyrics convey the heartbreaking loneliness which only the poor immigrant knows.
As the world experts on emigration, we in Ireland are well versed on the emotional wrench which affects those who are exiled abroad. We are also deeply familiar with the behavioural traits which accompany this longing for home.
Topping the list of: ‘The Things Irish Immigrants Do In America’ would be: ‘watch a GAA game in an Irish pub in the early hours of Sunday morning’.
Despite the fact that the GAA fully understands the importance of our national games to the Irish-American Diaspora, the Association’s attempts to service that community with a proper television package has been wholly inadequate.
For example, when I returned to Fitzpatrick’s Hotel last Saturday night, I found Peter Canavan locked in conversation with another journalist.
Peter was hell-bent on watching Errigal Ciaran’s match against Crossmaglen the following day.
The journalist had contacts. He knew people in TG4. He knew a man who owned a pub in Manhattan. He made phone calls. He sent texts. Yet, after an hour our man in the know still didn’t know whether the game was being broadcast in America. The following morning the posse went to a pub. From what I have gathered, the owner basically opened his doors for ‘the Great One’, and by the magical workings of the internet and a ‘sling-box’ they managed to watch the game.
The small print in the current international TV rights deal means TG4 isn’t allowed to stream club games over the internet. This ban applies even when club games aren’t being screened in the States.
Of course, the club competitions are small fry. But even though the provincial and All-Ireland Championships generate a much wider audience, the same mistakes still apply.
During his trip to New York, Dessie Farrell, the chief executive of the GPA, provided figures which suggest the GAA has failed to harness the full potential of the American market.
When making his case, Farrell noted that there are “40 million people of Irish extraction” in America. Despite this massive audience, there is no Sunday Game highlights package available on free-viewtelevision.
The absence of such a programme becomes even harder to comprehend when you learn that the Aussie Football League has a highlights programme which commands an audience of several million.
In this technological age of satellites, smart phones, Skype and online streaming, the Irishman in New York is still hunting around for a pub that is showing the game.
Our brothers and sisters across the pond deserve better and so do their sons and daughters because the interest in Gaelic Games now stretches far beyond the first generation of Irish immigrants.
The children and grandchildren of Irish people are now playing football and hurling in their thousands.
In his speech at the GPA’s fundraising dinner at Times Square, GAA President Liam O’Neill outlined the GAA’s grand vision. The dream is that one day there will be more people playing Gaelic Games outside of Ireland than at home. It’s a worthy aspiration. But the current figures show that the playing population in Ireland (250,000) easily outstrips the numbers abroad (16,000).
If the GAA is sincere in its desire to fulfil this ambition, it’s imperative that live games and a highlights programme are broadcast on a cable channel in America.
Apart from being played, the game needs be promoted. Irish-American children should be able to sit in the comfort of their family homes and watch football and hurling on television. They should have access to new heroes who they can try to emulate. In the last round of negotiations, the GAA’s international TV rights were sold for roughly €1.5m.
After the deal was completed, the company which bought them sold the rights to a third party. As a primary school principal who candidly admits that he’s no businessman, even Liam O’Neill was happy to concede that the GAA needs to be “a lot sharper” when the TV rights come up for renewal. Next time around, Peter McKenna will be representing the GAA. In his work as the stadium director of Croke Park Ltd, McKenna brokered the Champions League style-sponsorship contracts which finally brought the Association into the 21st century.
But when McKenna sits down to study the coverage which GAA games receive in the American media, he will discover that things are largely the same as when George M Cohan was composing hit musicals for Broadway.
