Democracy day?

THERE is, of course, an organisation due to meet shortly which might possibly have the intellectual heft and diplomatic subtlety to make a decision on Rule 42.

It has centuries of intricate debate behind it and the members of its version of Central Council even resemble the GAA’s in age and outlook. However, given the choice between electing the spiritual leader of one billion Catholics and adjudicating on whether to open a sports stadium, the College of Cardinals seem to have taken the easy option.

The ancient Greeks, unsurprisingly, had a precise word for the situation we find ourselves in: aporia, a debate which ends in deadlock because neither side can offer an answer which is definitively correct, and frankly that sounds a fair summary of the Croke Park/Rule 42 issue. Of course, a smart alec could suggest going to Athens and see what happened to the modern Greeks’ stadium after the Olympics, but that’s a deadlock of a different colour.