Drico gripes expose our national insecurity
I watched the game, was naturally disappointed, but was thankful of my location because I thought it would allow me to escape the mass hysteria and pseudo self-righteousness we do better than anyone else when it comes to sport. But even our misplaced moans as a country made their way across oceans and, embarrassingly, so did the stories that went along with them.
From the man ringing national radio in an attempt to start a campaign boycotting Cuisine de France — it being an Irish company — to protests outside the French embassy to John Delaney hinting at a 33-team World Cup, we let everyone know what kind of people we are. All the while, I tried to keep my head down and my passport hidden.
Consider those actions in the coldness of history for just a moment, and how ridiculous they were. Now consider how we’ve just made a right stab at repeating them in the heat of the present. You’d think those pathetic times were buried deep considering what’s happened here in the last five-or-so years and that the very real struggles of a nation would have allowed us to put sport into some semblance of perspective. Not so, because this past week has nearly matched what went on in 2009.
Brian O’Driscoll was hard done by, nobody is denying that. Whatever about making the team, not making the bench was a strange call, and it showed up the Lions concept for what it really is. It’s a team supported by four separate groups who only look out for their own, and when they deem one of their own to have been wronged, they question their future support of the team. But, far more importantly, it again showed up what we are as a nation — whiny and insecure.
You always expect Twitter rants (for future reference, remember that the problem with getting loud about what hasn’t yet happened is that someone might hear) and businessmen in Dublin who tape up signs saying Warren Gatland is banned from the premises in the name of opportunistic marketing, but the media getting in on it was the worst of all. What should be the voice of reason, bringing objectivity and context to a matter that needed to be confined to the sporting pages, got overly-excited by what amounted to the naming of a team?
It made the headlines of Morning Ireland. In the op-ed pages of one paper late last week, they brought in a clinical psychologist to talk about Gatland’s call. Then, on both Wednesday and Thursday, on Vincent Browne’s show on TV3, the panel were given time by host Sam Smyth to discuss O’Driscoll’s dropping. At one point Mary Lou McDonald was fawning outrage, presumably to show she’s right there with the mood of the people. Sadly, she was.
The cogs of the Anglo tapes are still spinning, the abortion bill is hot from the printer, we are back in recession, but this is what we are completely outraged by and thoroughly consumed with? Sport is an escape for sure, there’s no harm in being passionate about it and we can’t focus on the awkward reality we live in night and day. But that doesn’t mean we need to muddle our priorities just like we did in 2009 to the extent the world laughed at us and we made complete fools of ourselves.
One thing everyone agreed on this past week was the class shown by O’Driscoll throughout the entire ordeal. He kept quiet and got on with it. The rest of the country could learn a lot from that in light of their revealing reaction to it all.
NOT EVERY GAME IS LIFE OR DEATH — ASK A BRAZILIAN
I was all down with the late American comedian Bill Hicks when he went off on one regarding marketing.
“You’re the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No, no, this is not a joke. You’re going, ‘There’s gonna be a joke coming’. There’s no f**king joke coming.” That was the gentle introduction and we’ll let you Google the rest.
But marketing was at its wicked worst at the recent Confederations Cup. A largely meaningless tournament that’s as much about practicing logistical exercises as watching tired footballers compete to start their summer holidays was rammed down our throats as if it mattered. Worse still, for every Brazilian we saw crying with passion inside a stadium, there were far more weeping because of tear gas outside.
Of course that was a secondary concern because we were told Brazilians love their football and this is vital.
But sometimes lesser events are just that. Not everything has to be the ultimate.
It’s a pity those marketing the Confederations Cup didn’t remember that recently and it’s a pity those marketing sport into the future will ignore it.
TOUGH GOING GETTING TO THE TRAIN IN TIME!
It might seem petty to some, but probably not those that had to race from Cusack Park in Ennis to the local train station on Saturday evening. With the double-header put back 15 minutes, the last train out of the town left just 24 minutes after the final whistle blew in the football. A couple of hundred Laois fans had made their way from Portlaoise via this method, yet for the elderly amongst them, it was an impossible task to walk that distance in that time. Worse still, the train from Ennis stops in Limerick for over an hour before moving on. Yet no alteration was made to accommodate what turned out to be almost the entirety of passengers.
The rail company should be promoting the match-day experience and cashing in, especially when two counties are linked by their service. But they’re not there yet, and they aren’t getting there any time soon.
SINS OF THE PAST STILL HAUNT TOUR TODAY
Chris Froome: Blew the Tour de France peloton apart with his stage eight charge on Saturday.
Believe it or not, some good came from the ruination of professional cycling. Firstly, we got David Walsh’s masterpiece of a book, ‘Seven Deadly Sins’. Secondly, both he and Paul Kimmage got long-overdue recognition for years of inspirational work regarding doping. But to add the cleaning up of the sport to the list of positives is premature as, for those who allowed themselves to be duped into believing, mud doesn’t come out in a single wash. Right now there’s a mist of healthy and deserved cynicism over each and every climb that won’t be blown away any time soon.
Having Alberto Contador as second favourite for this year’s Tour did little to appease the sneering that surrounded a race we once saw as the ultimate test of not just sporting brilliance but human character. And let’s be honest, we know what you were thinking when Chris Froome powered away to win Saturday’s 121-mile eighth stage between Castres and Ax-3-Domaines, pushing the favourite into a powerful position. It was scarcely believable on first viewing, and the statistics backed that up. His time was faster than the residual baseline across the Tour’s dark years and his time up Ax-3-Domaines was the third fastest, behind only Roberto Laiseka and Lance Armstrong in 2001.
It brought to mind Kimmage’s answers when asked about Team Sky after Bradley Wiggins’ performance last year. He questioned the appointment in late 2010 of doctor Geert Leinders, a man who had previously worked with Rabobank at a time when their former team manager admitted doping was tolerated in the team (Leinders left Sky in 2012). He questioned Wiggins, and how he shunned questions about doping while leading the Tour. He questioned Sky, stating: “The point I am making is, look, I didn’t care if they ever won the Tour de France. What I wanted, what I expected, given where the sport was at, was that they were going to be transparent. Whatever comes after that is a bonus. But that they are transparent and we can believe in them, that’s all cycling fans wants.”
Perhaps Froome is that good. Perhaps the work he and his team have put in is coming to fruition. But right now there’s no celebrating anyone who achieves the ultimate in this Tour and that will be the case for many years to come as a lingering stench remains from the past.
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