Colin Sheridan: GAA not making the most of cultural goldmines that is the All-Ireland finals

The GAA could do more to make the All-Ireland finals more of a spectacle. 

COULD BE DOING MORE: Young Donegal supporters reach for the Sam Maguire cup as it is brought out onto the pitch by Kerry jubilee team captain Seamus Moynihan, not pictured. Pic:  Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

All-Ireland final Sunday. Kerry versus Donegal. Tradition versus turf. Colm Cooper’s ghost versus Michael Murphy’s shadow. One hundred thousand pilgrims in polyester descend upon Dublin, each clutching a flag, a hip flask, and the faint hope of finding a toilet somewhere north of the Gresham that isn’t decorated like a Francis Bacon painting.

It should be a weekend of national significance. It should stop the country. But instead, it sneaks in like a tummy bug and leaves just as quickly, a cultural blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, gone before the spilled pints on Dorset Street have a chance to dry.