Perhaps Irish politics has something to learn from the GAA 'State of the Nation' model, writes Elaine Byrne
‘THIS IS an extraordinary country . . . It is that quality of the Irish, the remarkable combination of hope, confidence and imagination that is needed more than ever today.”
John F Kennedy’s June 1963 speech to the Oireachtas was an inspired choice by Croke Park on Saturday night. The GAA marked their 125th anniversary with a 20-minute fireworks and musical extravaganza. JFK’s words were accompanied by a pyrotechnic presentation of the 32 county crests screened on to Croke Park’s hallowed turf.
It was hairs on the back of your neck territory when the 79,161 strong crowd reserved their loudest cheer for the flooding of the Hogan, Cusack, Nally and Davin stands with the green, white and orange beams of the Tricolour.
The GAA knows how to do patriotism. For 20 minutes Croke Park delivered a “State of the Nation” address, GAA-style, evoking pride in an audience hungry for something in which to believe.
On October 11th, 1884, the United Ireland newspaper featured an article entitled “A Word About Irish Athletics”. In that seminal piece of writing, Michael Cusack urged the establishment of a national organisation which would develop Ireland’s “spirit of courage and endurance”. A Tipperary farmer, Maurice Davin responded and the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded that same year.
Since that time, the GAA has contributed to a sense of community and pride of place across Ireland. This grassroots movement has bound people together under a common identity of commitment, conviction, confidence, self-sacrifice and voluntarism. In doing so, they built one of the most impressive stadiums in Europe by means of a tightly managed budget and long-term financial planning.
Perhaps Irish politics has something to learn from the GAA model. For starters, we need a “State of the Nation” address.
Charles Haughey is dead. His hypocritical televised address 30 years ago should not be permitted to hold politics hostage today. Green Party Minister for the Environment John Gormley did the Irish public no favours on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland programme recently when he suggested as much.
Only six Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators had the courage to ask Brian Cowen to make a direct address to the public at last week’s parliamentary party meeting. Opinion polls are now consistently confirming unprecedented low levels of support for Fianna Fáil. Will bravery enter the party’s ranks before their ardfheis at the end of the month?
The Government may have lost the public’s confidence but they in turn must not lose faith in the electorate.
The “I will run the Government as I see fit” attitude contributes to a perception of conceited leadership. This style of authority is permeating Irish public life. When Pat Kenny asked the Late Late Show audience recently if they would take a pay cut to save colleagues’ jobs, hands resolutely stayed down and the responses ranged from “not a chance” to “absolutely not”.
Contrast this with the dignified tone emerging from Waterford’s WLR FM radio in the last few days. Some Waterford Crystal workers, now in the fifth day of their Kilbarry plant sit-in, are working for free to keep the factory’s furnace alive in the desperate hope that it will still be needed.
Anxiety and confusion are boiling into a groundswell of anger and defiance. If political leadership does not have the ability to provide direction or vision, the very least it must do is concede that mistakes have occurred. How can a society learn from its mistakes when it does not acknowledge that mistakes have been made?
Trust is fragile. A perception of political failure has the snowball effect of amalgamating unconnected issues to collectively undermine the most robust of democratic institutions. This death by a thousand cuts was the circumstances in which the Irish Parliamentary Party was obliterated in the extraordinary 1918 election.
The social partnership model has the beneficial advantage of bringing the four pillars together. The trade unions, business and employers, farming associations and community and voluntary sectors have in the past greatly profited from this approach. But what of the Opposition parties and the tax- paying public – are they irrelevant within this process?
The longer the debate on how to save the country continues the more vulnerable public trust becomes. WB Yeats wrote of this during the War of Independence:
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”
Rioting in Iceland, Greece, Bulgaria and Latvia in recent weeks has shown that the centre is already in difficulty in many parts of Europe.
In a beautiful sea of green, white and orange on Saturday night, JFK reminded us that “The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by sceptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were, and ask why not.”
Any dreamers out there?