When Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years of imprisonment, his first words to his wife, Winnie, were said to be: “Is Martin Carney still playing for Mayo?” So the joke went - a testament both to Carney’s longevity as a Gaelic footballer and the stubbornness of the apartheid regime in South Africa.
I’m not sure what the appropriate modern equivalency is in terms of unjust incarceration - Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian political leader jailed in 2002 by Israeli security forces under widely disputed charges, perhaps - but an update of the gag would surely read: “Is LeBron James still playing basketball?”
This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in
