Yesterday’s All-Ireland and today’s radio

Screen Shot 2015-09-21 at 09.19.56

Picture by Dara Mulhern

I watched the entire  All-Ireland Gaelic Football Final on RTÉ yesterday. All seventy sodden minutes of it and quite a few minutes after, as the Dublin players romped and hugged each other and the Kerry players looked stony-faced and drained. It wasn’t a classic final but it was one full of excitement, energy and not a few skills.  Of course if a northern team had been playing it’d have been even better (maybe), but the rivalry between Dublin and Kerry gave the game a delicious edge.

I wonder how many other people in the north of Ireland watched it as well. A thousand? Five thousand? Fifty thousand? A hundred thousand? I’ve no idea, but it’s certainly the case that northern interest in the Championship doesn’t end when the northern teams make their exit. Which brings me to this morning’s sports report on Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster.

We had a report on a young guy called Johnny Rae or maybe it was Ray, who won a  world championship of some kind on his motorbike. Well done, Johnny. There was a report from a Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster sports journalist on the spot, an interview with Johnny who spoke fondly of the belief his grandfather had in him. There was a report on a car race involving Lewis Hamilton. There was a report on the rugby game where Japan beat South Africa, including extended interviews with former player Willie John McBride and a Japanese woman living here. And there were other bits and pieces of sports reporting – how Man United did, how the Ireland team did on Saturday, that kind of thing. Oh, I nearly forgot. There was a mention of the fact that Dublin beat Kerry in the All-Ireland Gaelic Football Final. It lasted less than five seconds.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the notion of cultural imperialism or soft power. It’s where two civilisations or countries exist in an unequal relationship. You have what’s known as a cultural hegemony, with the culture of one grouping or country presented as the normal, natural state of affairs, while the culture of the weaker grouping or country is presented as trivial or even vaguely silly.

In the good old bad days here, cultural imperialism was front stage and centre. You no more thought about turning to the BBC Home Service to get the results of a Gaelic football match than you would think of going to school naked. Times have changed. Now, when what is probably the most important day in the Gaelic Athletic Association comes round, you know you can turn on  BBC  Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster and get a a report lasting at least five seconds.

37 Responses to Yesterday’s All-Ireland and today’s radio

  1. billy September 21, 2015 at 8:54 am #

    after letting a british army team in,and the casement pk fiasco gaa support in belfast has never been lower,havent heard many complaining about coverage.

    • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 11:58 am #

      The fact that people don’t complain may be due to the reason people didn’t complain about gerrymander and discrimination for fifty years, billy – people shrugged their shoulders, accepted that that’s how life here was. We’re supposed to have moved on since then. The fact is,RU sport ignored the interests of roughly half the population.

  2. Neill September 21, 2015 at 9:40 am #

    Oh good grief man stop your moping do you listen to shows to get annoyed!

    We had a report on a young guy called Johnny Rae or maybe it was Ray, who won a world championship of some kind on his motorbike. Well done, Johnny.

    World champion!= from Northern Ireland imagine covering that story!

    GAA is only played in one country to any great extent so which sport is globally more covered Motorbikes or GAA?

    Did they talk about the Irish league either doubt it very much and do I get annoyed?

    • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 11:56 am #

      Now, now, neill – cool your jets there, to quote a respected politician…I welcome Johnny’s success. I’d never heard of him or the world championship he was racing in before this morning. Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster is a local station, essentially – BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the big British beasts. So RU should – and usually does – focus on local stories or those nearer home. In this case by about a hundred country miles, the biggest sporting event in Ireland on Sunday was the Gaelic Football All-Ireland Final. There were 82,000 people attending the game. Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands watched it on TV. And RU gives it less than five seconds, even though it knows that tens of thousands of its listeners are very interested in the game and this year’s championship. The comparison with the Irish League is more something for having a laff at than being annoyed about, neill. Seriously.

      • Neill September 21, 2015 at 12:21 pm #

        Now, now, neill – cool your jets there, to quote a respected politician…I welcome Johnny’s success. I’d never heard of him or the world championship he was racing in before this morning

        Ignorance is not bliss!

        In this case by about a hundred country miles, the biggest sporting event in Ireland on Sunday was the Gaelic Football All-Ireland Final. There were 82,000 people attending the game
        Did BBC radio cover it if so what are you moaning about?

        And RU gives it less than five seconds, even though it knows that tens of thousands of its listeners are very interested in the game and this year’s championship.

        The majority of people in Northern Ireland are not interested in a match that featured Dublin or Kerry.

        • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 12:25 pm #

          So the remaining – what is it – 45% – 48% – can go hang? Oh dear neill – we really haven’t travelled very far from the 1950s after all…

          • Neill September 21, 2015 at 12:57 pm #

            No I put that to see if you would react!

            In fairness did you expect the BBC to spend much time on the subject if none of the teams come from here?

            I think in the morning take a deep breath of air and get ready for the Nolan show a man of your age shouldn’t get to excited to often in the morning…

          • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 5:47 pm #

            Ha ha – very good, neill. I always take a deep breath in the morning, just to make sure I’m still alive. And in answer to your question yes, I did expect the BBC to give some space to it. If there’d been a truly major political story, or economic story, or social story from south of the border, would it get less than 5 secs too? It’s worse than ridiculous – it’s depressing.

    • PJ Dorrian September 21, 2015 at 12:48 pm #

      http://www.irishtimes.com/profile/ciara-kenny-7.1593252

      • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 5:51 pm #

        I’m not sure what you’re pointing us to, PJD – is it the story about 1 in 6 Irish living abroad? Brings to mind the campaign for Irish living abroad to have the right to vote for the Irish president – with the assumption that we in the north are abroad. I mean ffs….

  3. fiosrach September 21, 2015 at 9:53 am #

    That’s why we all listen to ‘Athlone’

  4. Jim Neeson September 21, 2015 at 10:42 am #

    Well put,pity they had to spend so much time in reporting All Ireland result. Background staff must have said” All right if you must”

  5. Iolar September 21, 2015 at 11:11 am #

    It is refreshing to know that attempts to colonise minds have failed in various parts of this country. Cumann Lúthchleas Gael remains the unique expression of Irish tradition and culture throughout the 32 counties of Ireland. It is evident that the eponym Corn Shomhairle Mhic Uidhir is something that the State does not wish to nurture let alone use.

    Ms Villiers suggests that efforts to resolve the current political stalemate, are “crucial” for the region. I suspect the architects of Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta had their sights set on loftier ideals than a region, given a region may refer to a political district. The body politic needs a good doctor, one that has the ability to diagnose and treat the root cause of the illness, not the symptoms.

  6. Sherdy September 21, 2015 at 11:46 am #

    Jude, Maybe you are starting to realise why they call it the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation!
    The fact that they actively ‘encourage’ their staff to wear the British poppy (you won’t be seen on air without it) every October/November should have given you a clue.

    • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 12:03 pm #

      I don’t think the word ‘encourage’ quite gets it – although I suspect a heavy irony wreathed round those quotation marks. Maybe we should ask Donna…

      • Sherdy September 21, 2015 at 4:49 pm #

        Jude, had you seen Donna’s face the first time she was on the BBC with the opium plant firmly superglued to her top so it wouldn’t ‘accidentally’ disappear you would have known how she was working under extreme duress!

  7. Mary Jo September 21, 2015 at 11:50 am #

    The first time I saw an Irish tricolour flying legally in my home county, Fermanagh, I was so overwhelmed I had to stop the car and tell my Donegal born children, in the back seat, why a single tricolour flying in my own place had brought tears to my eyes. They were a bit unbelieving as I explaned that single Irish flag flying legally in Fermanagh was a validation of my identity and the identity of my people, that it meant more to me than any number of flags flying on the Donegal side of the border. Oh yeah, they said, Mammy being nordy again.

    BBC don’t quite get it either. They have a long way to go to before they deliver genuine parity of esteem.

  8. Perkin Warbeck September 21, 2015 at 11:55 am #

    Funny passage of time that five seconds, Esteemed Blogmeister, in the Cultural Imperialism scheme of things.

    And on both sides of the Black Sow’s Dyke too.

    Down here we had a most ambrosial sample of same from the southern mouth of John Giles, national icon, secular saint, Freeman of Dublin City and all round good guy.. This happened on the emblematic ‘Off the Ball’ programme which is broadcast on the DOB-owned Newstalk FM station. DOB, ca va sans dire, being the high bankroller of the ROI managerial duo of ROY and the wee MON from the wee North.

    The interview was held in the wake of the Ireland-Georgia game in the Aviva which is located in (gulp) Georgian Dublin. And as the attendance (official) was rather on the stunted size of things, the finished stadium being less than half full with the ‘best fans in the world’ the diminutive J. Giles was asked for this take on the small takings (provisional)..

    Silence being the bugbear of radio one was immediately conscious of the next five seconds of the unbearable bugbear which followed:

    -Tick. Tock. Tick, Tock, Tick.

    What made these five seconds of silence particularly surprising was that they came out of the blue grass in the left field. It just wasn’t in the nature of the preternaturally decisive J. Giles to press the pause button.

    What followed was not surprising, but a-stounding:

    -School.

    -School?

    Meaning, seemingly, that being a Monday evening game (Sky-decided) it followed the morning of Back-to-school Monday. Meaning, seemingly, that the hard-pressed contributor to the hallowed FAI’s Capo di Tutti Capi’s non-capped salary, could only put their hand in the shallow pockets so often.

    Meaning, seemingly, that any implausible excuse was preferable to using the Forbidden Word, in a favourable way..

    -Thump ! Thump ! Thump !

    That would be Diogenes, the cynical pet canine, thumping Perkie’s parquet flooring, demanding an explanation.

    As follows: during the weekend prior to the Georgian Monday the less than salubriously located and unattractive in an unfinished way, Pairc an Chrocaigh attracted a total of over 160,000 spectators. Which works out at, erm, roughly 8 times the number that less than half-filled the AVIVA.

    Meaning, seemlngly, that the G-word is the least favourite in the extensive vocabulary of the cultural icon known as the G-man, Giles. That would be (gasp) the GAA.

    But just why is this G-word such a HARD WORD for him to pronounce, in a favourable way? A little back storey, oops, story perhaps. While still a young Johnny Giles who liked to play soccer on the street (before morphing into the mystic he became: John Giles, footballer) he attended Brunswick Street national school, aka Brunner.

    Where his teacher was the figmental Schoolmaster, Paddy Crosbie, NT. Who doubled as a broadcaster with his almost apocryphal wireless progamme: ‘The School around the Corner’. Where the pupils of the present were introduced to the pupils of the past and which pupils (the former ones) were confronted with: the HARD WORD, explanation of.

    The bane, as it were, of every boy’s school life.

    Which may, or may not, go some distance towards expaining the former iconic soccer player, ertswhile emblematic footballer, and current bionic broadcaster, J. Giles, and his allergy to a HARD WORD. And not just any HARD WORD, but THE one: the GAA.(prounounced GAH which rhymes with YAH sucks !).

    Brunner rhymes with Runner and this brings to mind the spring-heeled former marathon man who has a similar allergy to blow kissing as distinct from dissing the GAA. And a (gasp) Kerryman to boot.

    He is the go-to guy when ALL the monopoly media need a disser of the GAA, the must-hear dude who knows how to plant his spiked running shoes into the bottom line of the unspeakable G-word. For a Kerryman, yerra, to adopt this unusual stance he has been inundated with a Roisin Ingle-sized spring tide of epithets from brave to courageous to gallant to fearless to spunky to plucky to heroic, enough plaudits to fill the bays of Paudie-land, the Bays of Dingle, Ventry and Tralee itself.

    Oddly enough, Jerry ‘Kerryman’ Kiernan (for it is he !) has been as lathair/ marked absent in recent times from the Studios Around the Corner when there was much in the GAH to be dissed about.

    And.

    And?

    And, of yes, his beloved Athletics were, erm, under a magic mushroom cloud of sorts..

    Not just a great runner, but a great runner for cover.

    It is possibly not unknown for Cultural Imperialists to look after their own.

    .

    • Francis September 21, 2015 at 4:58 pm #

      Illuminating as ever Perkin. A pleasure to Read. GRMA, f

      • Perkin Warbeck September 21, 2015 at 7:52 pm #

        Failte romhat, Francis.

        Btw, after the 5-second Final yesterday one duly retired to one’s 4-poster bed, wondering. Just where had one seen that particular scoreline before:>

        Dublin,0-12;:Kerry, 0-9. There was something oddly familiar about it.

        Having judiciously taken the precaution to turn one’s body clock back 60 years before retiring, one was duly awarded. For, on waking this morning, the answer was there, on the bedside table.: a breakfast dish, served cold.

        The result of the 1955 Final was: Kerry, 0-12; Dublin, 1-6.

        This led one logically to checking out the clip of that final on youtube. a 6-minute clip in glorious black and white when the sun was splitting the cobblestones of Smithfield, Dublin 7. With the advent of global warming, alas, this unfortunate sun’s day is done.

        If a neutral (i.e. one who merely dislikes Dublin as distinct from detesting the loudmothed Liffeysiders) chances to check out this 6-minute clip, one 5-second passage of play is worth keeping a hooded eye out for.

        Features a diminutive corner forward with a familiar Napoleonic strut who sells a GUBU -like dummy to set up a DUBU point,alas to no avail.

        That would have been one, Jock Haughey.

        Yes, indeed, a relation.

  9. ANOTHER JUDE September 21, 2015 at 12:51 pm #

    Gaelic sports are played weekly in every parish in the north, it is the most popular sport in the six counties never mind the proper nine counties. The BBC attitude will never change, to them it will always be a game played by fenians.

  10. paddykool September 21, 2015 at 2:41 pm #

    I’m back , Jude! Maybe this whole BBC Radio thing has something to do with Sky winning the contract to show games.Sky Sports won the rights to broadcast GAA last year, basically stealing it away from the Beeb and also within this past few years we’ve had the whole digital thing coming in , leaving a lot of listeners and viewers minus all the southern TV channels after the changeover. BBC 2 used to show all the big Finals up until then with discussion and so forth afterwards and they possibly have little interest now that their viewers have been chopped away. That may be one reason why they show scant interest.

    I don’t know what the hell neill is carping about , though. I’m not a huge sports fan of any kind , but even I can see how hugely popular GAA football is .I mean , it’s bloody massive and carloads and busloads fill the stadiums in their thousands for the games. The numbers would make any soccer team yearn for that kind of support.It is also hugely popular socially by all accounts, with whole families of every shape, make and gender getting into the act. The likes of Neill seems to come at it from a sour grapes point of view which says a lot more about his worldview than about the sport itself.Like i say, i’m not a massive fan of sport or football generally , but the All Ireland football final is one of the biggest deals in the entire island’s calendar.Consider the hoohah about tennis, golf and rugby and in the scheme of things , it is small beer compared to the final in Dublin.Is it sour grapes with BBC Radio U. too….but for another reason entirely?

  11. RJC September 21, 2015 at 3:08 pm #

    Demographic parity is more or less upon us, but parity of esteem often feels like a long way off. Neill’s carping up above only goes to show the level of entrenched attitudes that sadly still pervade Unionism here. God forbid we should have a media or (heavens!) a society that accurately reflects the people who live here. There are indeed many days when it feels like we really haven’t travelled very far from the 1950s at all. Although I guess when you’re not on the receiving end of oppression then perhaps you don’t notice it so much.

  12. Gerry (an Doireannach) September 21, 2015 at 3:46 pm #

    Jude
    you don’t have to come north for this kind of bias. The Sunday Independent began its all Ireland reporting on Page 5 of the sports section. Tells you all you need to know!

  13. Francis September 21, 2015 at 4:56 pm #

    This is an an Equality issue, and questionable Ownership and control of the Media, just ain’t getting with the program. This coverage was shamefully inadequate. I watched it it on RTE myself with my wee son, but that the result was not given fair coverage, shows that the agenda precipitated continues to be biased against half of the people within the Northern state.

  14. Willie D. September 21, 2015 at 4:58 pm #

    I think it is very difficult to construct a narrative that B.B.C. N.I. deliberately discriminates against Gaelic games in some sort of “hegemonistic” way. I believe B.B.C.N.I. is now unable to televise, or broadcast, either of the All Ireland Finals for contractual reasons, R.T.E. has a monopoly : this probably also applies to highlights. In the same way, some of the back-door All Ireland qualifiers have been bought up by Sky and are no longer available on R.T.E.. I recall during the 70s, 80s and 90s watching all the All Ireland football and hurling finals on B.B.C. N.I.. I have no doubt that if Tyrone had reached the final there would have been extensive coverage of their preparations for the game, the exodus of followers and their victorious, or defeated, return. During the winter there is always live radio commentary on the games involving the Ulster counties in the National Leagues and in the summer extensive radio and television coverage of the Ulster Championship and Ulster counties in the back-door series.. There is always radio coverage of the Ulster club championships and a lot of publicity is given to Ulster clubs who have a good run in the All-Ireland series, most recently Ballinderry
    The thesis that G.A.A. followers in N.I. are being discriminated against by an “Imperialistic”
    B.B.C. just doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny. A very flimsy thesis is being constructed on the basis of a five second mention of a game, which most G.A.A. followers would have already viewed live, or watched the highlights of, on R.T.E..
    The idea that the B.B.C. does not deliver “parity of esteem” in its coverage of Gaelic games is ludicrous.

    • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 5:28 pm #

      No it’s not ludicrous. Come on – less than 5 secs to the biggest sports event of the year the previous day! The BBC doesn’t get it that GAA fans in the north are very interested in the GAA championship even when their own county has been eliminated. I have no Dublin or Kerry links but I loooove watching both play.I suggest I’m far from unique and I’m convinced that BBC coverage of the GAA is as minimalist as they can make it.

      • Willie D. September 22, 2015 at 3:29 pm #

        It’s not that the B.B.C. don’t want to show the AlI Ireland Final, they can’t, they don’t have the rights to it. You wouldn’t expect much coverage on B.B.C. radio the following morning, as there would be nobody on earth, who was interested in the final, who wouldn’t have already watched it live, or watched the highlights/analysis programme, later that night, both on R.T.E.. As I’ve already pointed out the B.B.C.’s coverage of Gaelic games in Ulster is far from minimal, it’s far more extensive than soccer. I haven’t been able to watch the N.I. soccer team playing live on the Beeb for many years, because Sky have bought up their games and the B.B.C. radio commentary on these games is dreadful. All the G.A.A. Ulster championship games are live on the Beeb. And, as for coverage of local soccer, it was better in the early 70s.
        But I suppose if you’re convinced that there’s some nefarious plot against you, no amount of contrary facts will be able to convince you.

        • Jude Collins September 22, 2015 at 5:28 pm #

          I didn’t speak about TV coverage of GAA games but I will now. If there is a team from the six counties/NI, they may well cover it on TV. And sometimes Donegal gets a thumb’s-up, since so many unionists use it as a holiday pad place, it’s a sorta NI honorary member. So I’ve no complaint there…Well actually I have – I think the NI TV commentary of GAA games is stilted and near-embarrassing. But they do show these games. My point would be that the moment any northern team (and maybe Donegal) ceases to feature, so does coverage. This is to misunderstand, whether intentionally or not, the nature of the GAA audiences. Of course we in the north want a northern team to go down there and win; but if that doesn’t happen we still enjoy watching the other counties playing, and Sunday was a prime example. And yes, we all knew the result – but I read the Guardian newspaper on Mondays describing games played on Saturday, even though I know the results. So we’re looking for some thoughts or analysis of the biggest sport in Ireland on the day after its biggest day. Asking too much? Oh right…I’ll get my coat, so.

  15. Freddy Mallins September 21, 2015 at 5:31 pm #

    Hi, Jude. I was one of the 82,300 people in Croke park, in the rain. Great day and great craic. Actually bright along my English cousin who knows nothing about Gaelic games. But he knows a lot more now and if you’d seen him in McDaid’s bar in the wee hours discussing the merits of Stephen Cluxton’s short kick outs, you would have thought him a true Gael.

    • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 5:54 pm #

      Love it, Freddy. A pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled…

  16. Freddy Mallins September 21, 2015 at 5:32 pm #

    “Brought” along my English cousin. Sorry for typo.

  17. neill September 21, 2015 at 6:00 pm #

    Oh dear Jude BBC Newsline didn’t report on the GAA final but focused on Jonny Rea the World Bike Champion the Irish Rugby team which represents everybody both North and South and Rory the former golf number one perhaps its a evil conspiracy to make Catholics into Protestants perhaps Jude is right after all, be very worried folks.

    • Jude Collins September 21, 2015 at 6:08 pm #

      Try it this way, neill – shouldn’t reporting of the different sports relate in some way to the audience’s participation/interest in said sports? I’m all for world bike champs and rugby and Rory – but not at expense of the GAA big day.

  18. Wolfe tone September 21, 2015 at 8:03 pm #

    I said it before and say it again, but why any nationalists pays the BBC t.v license us beyond me? Added to that I can’t understand why nationalist politicians don’t urge people not to pay unless parity of esteem materialises?
    The BBC showed most GAA games during the late eighties and early nineties as part of the NIO’s ‘wouldn’t it be great if it was like this all the time’ campaign. They had to reach out and convince nationalism by being nice. Btw they also dropped playing God save the queen at the end of transmission around this time on the BBC.
    Alas once the NIO got nationalism to enrol in running the affairs of the six counties, a culture war started to win the hearts and minds of future generations in the north. Parity of esteem was fired out the window.

    • neill September 22, 2015 at 6:35 am #

      The BBC don’t have the rights to show the final as the GAA sold it to SKY. So how can you say the BBC isn’t acting with parity of esteem?

  19. Gerard September 23, 2015 at 8:50 am #

    One of these days, after said journalist has left the BBC in the North, I hope a journalist who is a GAA follower will come forward and tell the truth of how the BBC clearly miniminalised their coverage of GAA games. Maybe one of the news reporters will do the same……… re their coverage of our political situation… hope springs eternal!