I WAS unable to attend the Ulster Club Senior Football Championship semi-final between Kilcoo and Crossmaglen last Sunday. However, I did want to see the game, whether it was streamed live via the internet or possibly by getting delayed coverage or highlights.
Despite the terrible weather conditions, a huge crowd flocked to Newry, in excess of 11,000 people, to see two of the best club teams in Ulster battle it out. Even if you evacuated both parishes, you still wouldn’t come close to having 11,000 people. So you could say, outside of the clubs’ supporters, there was a fair bit of interest from general Gaelic observers.
RTÉ radio carried the game in parts, mostly the last 10 minutes, with Bernard Flynn co-commentating. UTV, in their news summary, showed viewers 30 seconds of coverage. BBC news viewers got the same.
TG4 simply can’t facilitate the logistical requirements to show every All-Ireland club game and, to be fair, the government-subsidised station does its best on a limited budget to provide live or delayed coverage. Yes, BBC provides inter-county coverage, but by no means is it on an All-Ireland basis or, indeed, even on an all-Ulster basis.
On most Friday nights, you will be able to switch on BBC Two and find an Ulster rugby game being broadcast live. I am not complaining as they are usually entertaining matches. When Ulster played Treviso in October, there was a crowd of 14,000-plus at the Kingspan Stadium and the game was also broadcast live.
The rugby fanatics in attendance, as well as those unable to go to the game for whatever reason, had the opportunity to enjoy the match. Friday night matches work well and I tend to think this is something the GAA should experiment with further. But back to the point.
Gaelic football is the largest participation sport in Northern Ireland. That is fact. Soccer and rugby both lag behind in the participation stakes. Even club matches in GAA can rival professional provincial rugby games in terms of attendances and interest.
Last Sunday afternoon, UTV decided to show a re-run of the previous night’s X-Factor. As if we didn’t get enough of it over the weekend. BBC Two, meanwhile, showed live tennis, a sport that is so popular in terms of participation in Northern Ireland that it is up there with cross-country skiing and volleyball. And BBC One gave us a repeat of the series The Hunt, which is actually a brilliant programme.
But surely, although I am biased, there is an argument that, as GAA supporters, we are being completely ignored when it comes to live coverage. The 11,000-plus at the Crossmaglen v Kilcoo game in Newry would surely agree. It may not be an inter-county game, but there is a definite market for some of the bigger club matches to be shown live.
We cannot just rely on the under-funded, government-subsidised TG4 channel. Not everyone can speak Irish either. I know I should be able to understand our native language, but at school I just couldn’t grasp its complicated lingual structure. I much preferred the French field trips.
I would, however, defend RTÉ as their coverage of our game is unrivalled. The pundits and the effort they make is better than anything else we have, or are likely to get. It’s only a matter of time before they come under pressure from TV3, who have recently won Six Nations Championship coverage. God help us, more advertisements and robotic commentary.
It is surprising that Gaelic football, the largest participation sport in Northern Ireland, is largely ignored at both club and county level. For anyone not familiar with soccer’s Irish Premiership, Warrenpoint Town currently sit bottom of the league.
This may be due to how poorly they are currently playing, but I can strongly argue that you would get as many spectators at an underage GAA championship match as at a Warrenpoint Town game.
You could also argue that their coverage is shockingly poor, but I would say that Saturday’s highlights show on the Irish League receives better-than-Gaelic coverage. Hands down, no argument.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday games are all club-based, which is great for the local community. However, the coverage is very different. GAA coverage from BBC and UTV is poor and both have long been accused of ignoring half the population of Northern Ireland when it comes to showing sport.
Whether gaelic football and hurling are confined to Ireland or not is irrelevant, yet there seems to be no concerted effort whatsoever to meet an entire community’s interest. It does show a level of disinterest when you see repeats shown instead of live games.
Even delayed highlights should not be too much to ask. It’s unlikely, though, as a game of indoor bowls would probably take precedence. Imagine the spectacular viewing figures.
