'Pucked' Article Lifestyle Sunday Indo

[Seany]

Wouldn't buy this rag in a million years, but apparently there was an article in its magazine tearing the GAA apart.  Can anyone post it if you have it so I see for myself?

[cornafean]

Wouldn't buy this rag in a million years

Why?

[spectator]

The article is written by someone who's, at best, a very occasional GAA watcher & uses several instances of sleight of hand to try and overplay the GAA as being amateurish, old fashioned and behind the times. It portrays the GAA as being in possession of an under-used monument to the Celtic Tiger era, which it is unable to fill. Or generate the types of contests which would do it justice. By comparison, rugby is portrayed as being the happening glitzy sport that's winning the battle for young hearts and minds hands down. The article certainly also has a dyed-in-the-wool Rugby Marketing and PR bent.

It raises several valid issues though regarding the problems the GAA is facing, as it tries to come to grips with growing player power, not forgetting the lure of professional sports for young sportsmen.

My impression though, is that this article is primarily a vehicle aimed at sending a message to the IRFU and rugby public. It looks like Tony O'Reilly has realised that continuing to hold big rugby games at Croker is a vital component in promoting and spreading rugby in Ireland.

The IRFU have already said they won't be using Croker once LR opens, afaik, while the GAA have said they'll keep it open if required - thus neatly placing the issue back on the IRFU's doorstep. The article itself states that Croke Park is THE arena. In pushing the case for Croker, it also rhetorically compares the ground capacity of LR and Croker. I expect to see more articles of this type appearing in the media, as the debate goes on within rugby circles around whether it's to their best advantage to use Croker or LR going forward.

You can see where O'Reilly is coming from on this. If rugby is ever to seriously challenge the GAA for the hearts and minds of young sportsmen throughout the country, if it's ever to build even half as comprehensive a club network and membership, then its continued use of Croker is a far more powerful promotional tool in helping to achieve this than the newer, smaller LR can ever hope to be. That's the reality which is behind producing articles like this, imho.

[IolarCoisCuain]

Who wrote it fellas? Anyone we've heard of?

[armaghniac]

In some circles rugby might seem to be a mass activity, these are mostly in South Dublin and Limerick. But while rugby has improved its situation to some extent the reality is that the big Heiniken games were not on regular TV, so only the converted got to see them and the new stadium will have promises to the sponsor and 10 year tickets etc which mean that all games will in D4. The well heeled traditional crowd will go, but there simply won't be tickets for anyone else.

[INDIANA]

In some circles rugby might seem to be a mass activity, these are mostly in South Dublin and Limerick. But while rugby has improved its situation to some extent the reality is that the big Heiniken games were not on regular TV, so only the converted got to see them and the new stadium will have promises to the sponsor and 10 year tickets etc which mean that all games will in D4. The well heeled traditional crowd will go, but there simply won't be tickets for anyone else.

Drove through Cork last week- You know the place that is one of the heartbeats of Munster rugby. Passed about 50/60 Gaa clubs and 2 rugby clubs over a 60 mile radius. I've a good mind to point that out to that clown.

[Main Street]

  "afaik, while the GAA have said they'll keep it open if required"

Not afaik, once Lansdowne is completed, even if requested.

[cornafean]

The article was written by Will Hanafin. It is a silly, careless, slovenly effort, full of inaccuracies and plain fantasy on the part of the writer.

It starts on the premise that the GAA has endured an annus horribilis this year (which is news to me, and I'm from Cavan  ). The main pieces of evidence presented in support of this thesis are (1) the crappy Late Late GAA Show in January, for which the writer entirely blames the GAA, and not RTE or Pat "early retirement" Kenny; (2) the 2009 successes of the Irish rugby team and of Shane Lowry  in golf; and (3) Dublin's hammering of Westmeath in the Leinster Championship in front of a"poor attendance" in Croke Park.  (For the record, this game attracted an attendance of 51,458, which is more than the future capacity of the new Lansdowne Road stadium)

The article also features an extended and self-contradictory whinge about the GAA's lack of innovation and effort in presenting its games, and the "waste of money" in the Croke Park 125 celebrations in January.

We also learn that the Fields of Athenry is a GAA song (Mr. Hanafin must work in RTE in his spare time), that Jimmy Magee is a GAA commentator, and that Tyrone "annihilated" Wexford in last year's championship.

In short, the article is at the same level as the sort of tripe that HotPress used to write about bogball and stickball about 20 years ago.

[Son_of_Sam]

The article was written by Will Hanafin. It is a silly, careless, slovenly effort, full of inaccuracies and plain fantasy on the part of the writer.

It starts on the premise that the GAA has endured an annus horribilis this year (which is news to me, and I'm from Cavan  ). The main evidence presented in support of this thesis is (1) the crappy Late Late GAA Show in January, for which the writer entirely blames the GAA, and not RTE or Pat "early retirement" Kenny). (2) the 2009 successes of the Irish rugby team and of Shane Lowry in golf; and (3) Dublin's hammering of Westmeath in the Leinster Championship.

The article also features an extended and self-contradictory whinge about the GAA's lack of innovation and effort in presenting its games, and the "waste of money" in the Croke Park 125 celebrations in January.

We also learn that the Fields of Athenry is a GAA song (Mr. Hanafin must work in RTE in his spare time), that Jimmy Magee is a GAA commentator, and that Tyrone "annihilated" Wexford in last year's championship.

In short, the article is at the same levels as the sort of tripe that HotPress used to write about bogball and stickball about 20 years ago.

The fields of Athenry is a Connacht song, specifically a Galway song & more so an Athenry song. I wasn't wrote for Ruggerbuggers, soccerheads, Glasgow Celtic, Munster Rugby team or Republican sympathsizers. Its a West of Ireland song, that should represent Galway teams, maybe Connacht teams & at a push Clare, coz its West of the Shannon & therefore SOUND.

O yea and stop that I.R.A. chants in it. I f**king HATE THAT SECTARIAN RACIST SHIT, its a nice song hijacked by DICKEADS.

[cornafean]

The fields of Athenry is a Connacht song, specifically a Galway song & more so an Athenry song. I wasn't wrote for Ruggerbuggers, soccerheads, Glasgow Celtic, Munster Rugby team or Republican s

If you read the article, you will see that the author hasn't a clue about the song's context or origins.

[Son_of_Sam]

Its about the Famine, which happend worst in the West, pretty bad in the South and parts or Leinster & to a far lesser degree Ulster. Thats where "Mayo God Help Us" comes from becuase it was by far the worst affected county in Ireland. It comes from the practice in London of Upper-Middleclass & Upper-class people congratating aroung a dinnertable for dinner followed by a guest reading from the paper. The toffs at the time in London would read about the Irish famine like we did about Ethopia & to them it seemed as far away. The towns and county that made the London papers by far the most because of having the worst conditions, deaths, sickness, & emmigration was Mayo. So it was at toff London dinner tables that the exclamation "Mayo God Help Us" origionates. Mayo was so fckd that even at the heart of the Imperalist Empire they felt SORRY FOR US 

The song is more about Australia than Dublin, Ulster, Celtiic, Republicans, Munster, Soccer, Rugby or any other East of the Shannon institution or thingymajig.

The Independent is nothing but a Fianna Fail loving, Bertie protecting, recession causing rag anyways. I wouldn't wipe my arse with it. If you buy the Irish Independent you are supporting the Recession. Hey they also where against the 1916 Rising, once a C U Next Tuesday always one.

[oakleafgael]

Will Hanafin is a researcher for the Ray Darcy show, I think that says all that needs to be said. You can be sure like a lot of "journalists" he is looking in. So just to make it clear, your a knob of the highest order.

[Yes I Would]

Will Hanafin is a researcher for the Ray Darcy show, I think that says all that needs to be said. You can be sure like a lot of "journalists" he is looking in. So just to make it clear, your a knob of the highest order.

Could be wrong, but i think he worked with Gaybo and Kenny for a while on the late late as well.
Complete gobshite, who gets a hard on at the sound of his own voice.  I would imagine he knows f**k all about either game, and is merely engaging in sensationalist shite in a rag that is renown for it!!

[Rossfan]

The RTE/Reilly axis of evil predicted the end of the GAA back in 1990 when Jacks Army were on the road. 
More wishful thinking from the D4 brigade.
By the way Sam Roscommon suffered the biggest loss of population in the Famine ..a 31% drop from 1841 to 1851.
One parish in North Ros had 12,947 pop in 1841...it had round 7,000 in 1851.
Has about 900 today 

[Denn Forever]

I thought that the Fields of Athenry was written by Paddy Reilly but The Fields of Athenry" was written in the 1970s by Pete St. John.

A claim was made in 1996 that a broadsheet ballad published in the 1880s had similar words; however folklorist and researcher John Moulden found no basis to this claim, and Pete St. John has stated definitively that he wrote the words as well as the music.

Facts from Wikipedia so you can take them with a pinch of salt.