Sport

Brendan Crossan: Reasons why sport and politics should not be afraid to mix

Jane Adams and Paddy Cunningham launch the Antrim Gaels letter outside Casement Park last month Picture by Hugh Russell
Jane Adams and Paddy Cunningham launch the Antrim Gaels letter outside Casement Park last month Picture by Hugh Russell Jane Adams and Paddy Cunningham launch the Antrim Gaels letter outside Casement Park last month Picture by Hugh Russell

THEY say sport and politics should never mix. In my own head, I never really questioned or interrogated this flimsy kind of mantra.

On reflection, it’s the kind of narrative that generally promotes the status quo of a society or an organisation. And if you dare challenge it, you might well be cast as an extremist or an upstart, rather than a conscientious citizen.

It’s fair to say sport is generally tentative, hesitant even, to involve itself in campaigns for social and political change.

But when sport does mix with politics it can play a decisive role in hastening that change.

During Apartheid South Africa, sportspeople intervened decisively at times through the act of boycott and strong utterances against injustice there.

The ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign where professional footballers have been 'taking the knee' has shone an unforgiving light on the prevailing racism in society.

We heard the boos in Budapest on Tuesday night and it was good to hear Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny and some of his players condemning them.

Maybe if footballers didn't 'take the knee' there would be no boos.

Maybe those who believe sport and politics shouldn’t mix would prefer if Kenny and his players side-stepped the question in their post-match interviews and remain in their performing art boxes.

A month ago, Antrim senior footballer Paddy Cunningham and camogie legend Jane Adams spearheaded a campaign to bring about fundamental change on the island of Ireland by signing a letter, along with thousands of other Gaels in the county, urging the Taoiseach to establish a fully representative citizens’ assembly and to bring a greater urgency to the debate surrounding the reunification of Ireland.

Following the publication of the letter – to which the Taoiseach has yet to respond - the sport-should-never-mix-with-politics constituency might've got a bit twitchy.

Perhaps the GAA hierarchy got a bit twitchy themselves upon hearing of this agitation in far-flung Antrim where over 3,000 Gaels had the temerity to express an opinion about the absolute state of this island.

Or perhaps the GAA leadership regards this well-intentioned, well-argued letter as a brilliant, forward-thinking, game-breaking idea for the nation.

After all the ‘aims and ethos’ of the GAA are inscribed: “The Association is a national organisation which has as its basic aim the strengthening of the national identity in a 32-County Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic Games and past-times.”

What could be more important than trying to grapple with making this island a better, fairer place to live?

A better education system. A better health service.

For instance, both health systems north and south are completely broken.

In the 26 counties, citizens have to pay on average €60 just to see their doctor and then pay for prescriptions. They also have to pay to attend A&E.

The National Health Service [NHS] was one of the greatest altruistic innovations of the last century – where it was proclaimed citizens would be looked after from the 'cradle to the grave'.

But the lauded NHS is unrecognisable from what it was, say, 20 years ago. It has morphed into a crude two-tier system – the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ - where money gets you access, while others are forced to launch desperate fundraising initiatives to gain access to life-changing treatments and drugs.

There are now record high seven-year waiting lists for rheumatology patients, with one doctor claiming that the NHS was no longer fit to be called a “service”.

Should we accept that patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, as an example, and other debilitating illnesses classed as “routine” have to wait 334 weeks for their first appointment with a consultant?

These are real-life issues that shouldn’t be seen through the prism of nationalism or unionism. These kinds of societal injustices could be top of a citizens’ assembly agenda where pressure could be brought to bear on the political elite to do better.

‘Brexit’ and its ramifications have undoubtedly lent greater focus to the Irish question – but for many of the signatories to the Antrim Gaels letter it may be their way of expressing disillusionment with the power-sharing Executive at Stormont, the lack of elite predominance among the main political parties, the generally poor calibre of representatives and the distinct lack of achievement.

The public release of the Antrim Gaels letter to the Taoiseach last month was a brave, bold and absolutely correct step.

This notion that high-profile sportspeople should be seen and not heard is patronising and insulting.

Who should the discussion be left to? Who is allowed into the room and who is not?

Upon the letter’s release, Jane Adams said: “When the Good Friday Agreement was signed I was only 15.

“It felt there were new opportunities coming, it felt like a new beginning. When you think of our parents at that age, their opportunities were completely limited in terms of education and work prospects. We are the generation that’s benefited from the Good Friday Agreement and looking ahead for the next 25 years I see so more opportunities for society to move further, and I’d like it to be done in an inclusive way without fear or prejudice.

“Everyone is entitled to feel no fear and that everybody’s equal. Everybody should be allowed to be who they are and what they are without fear or prejudice. That’s what I would hope for and that this country belongs to everyone, so they can celebrate their identity in any form they want to.”

One of the founding fathers of the GAA Michael Cusack once said that it was his hope that Gaelic Games would “spread like prairie fires” around Ireland.

Niall Murphy of St Enda’s Glengormley and civic forum group Ireland’s Future, currently lecturing clubs on the issue, said: “Our conversation on the constitutional future of the island is the prairie fire of our times.”

Since the publication of the letter, other northern counties have embraced the initiative while similar conversations are taking place in Kerry, Cork and Dublin.

When you take time to reflect on it, there isn’t a more important debate in these times.

For what we’re currently living through - and accepting - is the ugliest kind of purgatory.

Going one step forward and four back, north and south.

When the greater good is up for discussion, there is nothing wrong with sport and politics mixing.

It actually should be encouraged.