Strip away all the nationalistic ****e in Brolly's article and the basic point he's trying to make is spot on. The biggest single problem facing the GAA is providing its ordinary players with a regular structured fixture list.
I've been involved with both gaelic and association football as a player, coach, and administrator for over 30 years now and the difference in the amounts of games provided is staggering.
Fwiw, Joe is spot in regards to his historical reference, also spot on in regards to what GAA clubs in the 6 counties had to endure in the troubles, which was germane to the point he was making re the importance of the club. It would be difficult to find nordies who have absolutely no time for Joe's punditry, that would disagree with what he wrote.
They are intelligent in that they have all become media personalities by creating controversy and generating more column inches for their respective sports than most. They know what their role is and the media love them for it. I don't believe for one minute they believe everything they write or suggest. Brolly's headlines in his newspaper columns are absolutely brilliant, enough to intrigue non GAA fans to at least peruse his articles.Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
I wouldn't dream of placing Hook or Dunphy on some intelligent pedestal along with Joe.
He might share some traits with them, like his flashes of bottom feeding attention seeking personality syndrome, along with some examples of astounding shape shifting gutter level punditry. Joe's a multifaceted, astutely intelligent man, who could argue and get a rise out of saint Monica, his calling is to be argumentative and he loves it.
The trick is knowing what not to take serious and the difference between when he's serious, flippant, controversial, ADHD, snidely hyper argumentative, corny folksy style, et.c. Then there's the people's historian side and his knowledge and memory of stuff, he's a walking volume of encyclopedias.
I have to say, any other regular human being would not be able to contain inside them all that Joe Brolly is, without all their screws bursting loose and ending up in a padded cell. But Joe somehow functions in the way that fictional Serge A Storm character functions in those Tim Dorsey novels.
I don't know much about Hook but Dunphy is, if nothing else, highly intelligent surely? An inner city, poorly educated street kid who wrote a ground breaking book, a classic, on the life of a professional footballer long before the genre even existed. Right up there with Fever Pitch as one of the greatest football books ever in my opinion.
The greatest I've read, anyway.
I suppose it's all down to how you define intelligence - Brolly- intellectual, Dunphy - linguistic.
Educated versus functionally intelligent?
Interesting article:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gael...-34471173.html
Awful carry on for a 14 year old
I've noticed the Lidl push actually, they seem to have gone all in which is great. The billboards have caught my eye and the ad on TV is excellent. The idea of playing their final before the men's is a very good one, but it would take a lot to get the GAA to break with the tradition of playing the minor final in that slot. You could have a treble header but the crowd would probably be tiny for the first of the three anyway so it would defeat the purpose.
Interesting from Jim O'Callaghan
http://villagemagazine.ie/index.php/...ocial-benefit/
What makes you say poorly educated?
Because he went to the same school as Bertie!
Actually, because he left school early to play football in England. He may very well have been well educated up to that point. I think the point I was making is that for a guy who I assume hasn't got Leaving Cert English, he writes well and is articulate so is clearly clever. You're quoting me from February so am not 100% sure of the context. Is it important?
Only in so far as the general theme of reverse snobbery on the site is a bit tiresome.
I can't locate the book right this second but Dunphy did say he didn't get a very good education from the Christian Brothers (I think) and his learning to be a writer was more down to his own curiosity.
Do you find the actual snobbery in rugby quarters just as tiresome?
Maybe my experience is different to yours but what I find tiresome is the rugby being holier than thou, morally superior voice of the nation claptrap that has dominated the media and that has been the perceived view of lot of the Irish people I know. I have been sceptical, thinking that success is the key to superficial popularity and that rugby was benefiting from its earlier stage in the product life cycle. Both rugby and GAA are starting to see the perils of increased commerciality, but football got there before them. I feel that I might just be starting to be proven right and when rugby folk start backing up my views I'm happy to publicise them here.
I have no real axe to grind, I've enjoyed rugby all my life, and there is absolutely no question of reverse snobbery. I like to challenge conventional wisdom and I've long felt that in Ireland the "rugby good, footy bad" narrative has been vastly overplayed.
What I find refreshing now is rugby folk starting to question their own game rather than slagging off mine. Paul Ackford in the Times recently came down in my side of this discussion, saying he is sick to the hind teeth of hearing rugby people talking up the moral benefits of their sport.
I'll answer any objective criticism of my views on this topic but I won't for a second accept that I'm a reverse snob. As far as I'm concerned there's good and bad in all sports and comparing the best bits of one to the worst in another is a daft exercise.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 06/06/2016 at 10:15 AM.
Some viewing figures from RTÉ (excluding ITV) last night: http://presspack.rte.ie/2016/06/23/1...ry-over-italy/
I read that earlier and I can't believe England and Wales got more viewers!!!
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
England Wales played in the early afternoon on a weekday. During the day I'm more likely (and others it seems) to watch the match on a stream. At 8pm when I am safely home I will enjoy it more watching on TV. I'm not surprised more people stream the early afternoon matches.
I completely misread it as TV viewing rankings were IRL-SWE>ENG-WAL>IRL-ITA
My bad. And you're correct as well David. That's what I do in the office and on the bus home. Or should I say did.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
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