DUBLIN - As you may have heard, Ireland is going through a roughpatch at the moment. The country owes international creditors a tonof cash, most of it borrowed to fund the construction of housingdevelopments and office blocks that will never be occupied.
Having spent the Celtic Tiger years partying like spoiled teenswhose parents were away for the weekend, we're now left to clean upthe mess without a broom or a dustpan to our name.
Well, the folks in charge over here aren't likely to listen to myideas on how to boost national morale. I'm only a lowly blow-in fromMedford, after all, with a scant two decades of residency to myname. But just in case someone with clout happens to pick up on myremarks, here's what I want to tell them.
Forget the International Monetary Fund or the European CentralBank. If the Irish people are looking for a bit of national uplift,I'd suggest trying a homegrown institution, namely, the GaelicAthletic Association, or GAA for short.
Established in 1884 in a Tipperary hotel as a means of preservingIreland's national identity through her native games of hurling andGaelic football, the GAA still enjoys a grass-roots appeal thatserves to bind the country together in difficult times like these.
When attempting to describe the GAA to friends back home inBoston, I like to use the following comparisons. Imagine anorganization and a set of games with the historical pull ofbaseball, the frenetic energy of playoff hockey, and the hysterianow building toward Sunday's Super Bowl between the Patriots and theGiants.
That would be the GAA in Ireland, I tell my Boston pals.
As part of my promotional package, I'm also likely to lift ascene from a book called 'Green Fields: Gaelic Sport in Ireland,' byIrish sportswriter Tom Humphries.
According to Humphries, after leading his county team to the All-Ireland hurling title in 2002, Kilkenny captain Andy Comerford gotup on a bench in the locker room in Dublin's Croke Park and told themen he had led on the field that day: 'I'll say one thing, lads,respect yourselves and respect your families. . . .Whatever way youcelebrate, do it with dignity and do it with pride. Remember thatyou are Kilkenny hurlers.'
This kind of communal responsibility vanished long ago from theprofessional sports scene, as we witness every year when major clubsin baseball, basketball, and European soccer routinely tenderastronomical sums for the services of some far-flung superstar.
My 13-year-old son follows the Hub sports scene closely, anduntil recently he played baseball and soccer with local teams aroundour Dublin home. Much to the delight of his uncle Gene, though,Brian has found his true calling on the hurling field. In fact, hehas confessed that given the choice, he would rather play for theDublin hurling squad in Croke Park than the Red Sox at Fenway.
Through Brian's involvement, I've come to see that the GAA isdistinctive in a way that parents like myself can appreciate. Welike to think that prominent athletes might serve as role models forour sports-oriented kids. But invariably we end up cursing thesedemi-gods when they are shown to be just like the rest of us, onlymore so, given the amazing riches at their disposal.
Being community-based and genuinely amateur, the GAA has yet torun into this problem with any of its high-profile players.(Although, as I've seen for myself and no different from othersports, the organization needs to improve its methods of dealingwith a lack of discipline on the field and the sidelines.)
So yes, Ireland is broke and demoralized for now. But onenational treasure endures: the Gaelic Athletic Association.
And in a sports world gone crazy with money and celebrity, theGAA's core values of continuity and community don't look half bad.
Medford native Steve Coronella has lived in Ireland since 1992.He is the author of 'This Thought's On Me: A Boston Guy Reflects onLeaving the Hub, Becoming a Dub & Other Topics,' which is availablefrom The Book Oasis in Stoneham. He can be reached atsbcoro@eircom.net.
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