Huge element of grief junkieism associated with this event now.
A man dies in very sad circumstances and strangers on twitter who never had any dealings with the chap - except to maybe slag him off down the pub for not being good enough to play for Manchester United - are furiously trying to outdo themselves to appear compassionate, while putting the boot into the big bad wolf that is the GAA.
That Flynn hoor who is stuck in the middle of this is playing a blinder, in fairness.
I’d imagine there will be a U-Turn and it’ll go ahead but the GAA would be well within their rights to hold tough.
After all the hullabaloo I can still see Stade de Frank being half empty for it as the snowflakes choose to celebrate their victory online rather than support the family financially.
Tim loves delving into history when it comes to GAA/ Irish nationalism and pointing out their bigotry … Yet he keeps shtum about his beloved Irish rugger boys who openly supported apartheid in South Africa long after the GAA had lifted their own ban.
Maybe to flesh the point above out and give it context.
Below is taken from Irish times
The Irish Times reports:
In the absence of any information to the contrary, the taxpayers can only conclude that they have given Mr O’Flynn a very large bailout. As far as we know, Mr O’Flynn owed his banks €1.8 billion when he went into Nama in 2009 and has now left Nama owing Blackstone considerably less money – the figure of €1.1 billion being reported.
Mr O’Flynn remains, subject to contradiction by Nama, in control of his company; he just has new bankers. However, some €700 million has been wiped off his debts and sucked up by the taxpayer in one of two ways depending where the writedown took place.
Now The organiser of this match is Michael O Flynn. I crunched the numbers on what that €700M could buy based on information in the UK and Ireland about hospice running costs.
First off on average a person will receive pallative care or end of life care for roughly 20 days.
The cost of providing this care based on 1000 people a year receiving care in a hospice works out at about €4m.
Based on this then the savage hit to the tax payer of wreckless borrowing practices (no personal garauntees provided ) could have run 35 hospices up and down the country serving 175,000 people with cancer for a period of 6 years.
We wont even mention all the other benefits meted out on the country through Austerity, emmigration, cuts in services etc.
AND THE NUB OF THS ISSUE IS THAT THE GAA IS BEING HELD TO ACCOUNT ON A CHARITY MATCH.
I was going to say its a bit like the tail wagging the dog here but its more like the parasite on the tail wagging the dog.
Ah right the imagined repression. Now if he had been talking about the outlawing of our games by the english who wanted to promote their own sports of soccer and rugby then it would have been an appropriate word usage.
The spastic. English when it suits him, took the queens pound for years and then saunters back with his money made. Why didn’t he stay in Ireland for his chavball career if he’s that worried about the Irish.
He can fuck right off with his opinion
The GGA used fear and intimidation to get where they were;
in its early days, the GGA used intimidation and sectarianism to crush Kerry Athletics. There was logic in some of Cusack’s early efforts to locally organise athletics. However, after local athletics clubs went ahead and did it themselves, the GGA still went on the attack.
the GGA, an apparently non political organization, implemented a ban on people playing other sports for decades. This was an effort to stifle everyone else. This was imposed through fear and intimidation. Even so called rugby schools welcomed the GGA in from the 1970s with open arms and indeed these schools had history with the games long before this. GGA schools meanwhile, continued to put up roadblocks.
this extended to the use of grounds (which continues to this day). The rules were explicitly bigoted, targeting “British” sports. They had no problem with the likes of American football.
the GGA were absolutely desperate to become associated with the Easter Rising, such that they perpetuated the myth of Hill 16
the 1927 Finance Act gave the GGA tax ememption on profits, no other sport received this. In 1931 it was proposed to extend this to other sports and this was voted down. Reading the Dáil debates at the time is rather illuminating in understanding how politics and sport overlapped at the time.
the GGA received far and away more grants than any other organization on the island.
two illustrations of the political power of the GGA are:
DeValera, despite being a rugby man, would not attend a rugby football game for decades for “political reasons”.
TAOISEACH Éamon de Valera told a dinner of the Past Pupils Union of his old school, Blackrock College, at Shannon in Apr 1957: “I have not been at a rugby match since 1913 because I do not want it being raised as a political matter and having rows kicked up about it.”
His own newspaper, the Irish Press (funded by Irish Americans), gave preferential treatment to the GGA. It says a lot that DeValera would do this. He understood where the power lay in the new Free State. The nexus of the State was through the Church and Schooling (i.e. Christian Brothers promotion of the GGA over all else), media (Irish Press) and political (tax exemptions and grants for the GGA). You did not want an organized lynch mob against you, look at what happened to Douglas Hyde (as below).
With the 6 counties gone, it made political sense to focus here.
At the same time that the GGA was getting preferential treatment across the board, there was mass flight of Protestants from Ireland. Trinity College was falling into disrepair. It is almost as if this was all apart of a deliberate tactic to cleanse Ireland.
The GGA removed the Head of State as Patron for attending an association football match. Not only the HoS, but the Protestant co founder of the Gaelic League. This symbolism was striking.
The GGA used intimidation and mobilisation in their early years against other sports. After partition they pressurized and intimidated politicians for preferential treatment. They extended this to the wider population. They weren’t just after the promotion of themselves, they wanted to wipe the State clear of everyone else. Douglas Hyde who spent his life promoting Gaelic culture, was ostracised for being inclusive. The GGA flexed it’s muscles and sent a message.
All of this is rarely discussed in the Oirish media as they fall over themselves to kiss the feet or the GGA for arriving into the 21st century opening up Croke Park and inviting the Queen to visit them.
It’s very easy to throw stones at Irish association football. But the simple facts are they operated in a repressive state, they didn’t have the advantages that rugby did and they had more competition than any other sport on the island from abroad. Mistakes were made and it is ultimately a partionist sport on the island, but they are unfairly maligned at times.
It’s sad that it takes the death of a young man for these kinds of issues to get any attention in the Press.