Colin Sheridan: The Lions, Olympics and provincial championships - Sacred cows still being worshipped

Dinners are ate extra early. Doorbells are disconnected and cars parked round the back of the house in an act of neighbourly misdirection George Smiley would appreciate

A view of the start line at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo. Picture: INPHO/Photosport/Steve McArthur

The joke for years in our house was that upon his release from 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela’s first words to his long suffering wife, Winnie, were: “Is Martin Carney still playing for Mayo?”.

I heard that joke so often as a kid I likely believed to be true. On Monday last, Abdul Latif Nasser was freed from Guantanamo Bay after serving 20 years (without charge). Hardly a laughing matter, but, like Madiba, Nasser may have been surprised to pick up his sports supplement this weekend and see three sacred cows still very much being worshipped; Yes Nasser, we still have the provincial football championships. The Lions tour is still a thing, and the Olympics...yes the Olympics is still bankrupting cities and making a mockery of the notion of clean sport.