Now that the road of history beckons brightly on this green isle it may be time for us to take a closer look at ourselves and our neighbours. They tell me that there is going to be something called a Council of the Isles - whatever that may mean and one can only hope that such a venture will recognise the importance which sport can play in any healing process planned. Unfortunately, at the same time, there is a man called Ian Paisley who gets apoplectic when he hears, or thinks he hears, a word of the Irish language or an accent redolent of its nuance. Apparently he doesn't seem to realise that many of the people who would share both his political and religious views in these islands in such a council are fluent speakers of the "sweet and kingly tongue" of the Gael - those people call it Scots Gallic from which constituency he originated.
How can these little matters be reconciled or can they? We in the South of this island have become inclined to throw up our hands in despair whenever "the North" is mentioned and we tend to blame others for our own inadequacy. In this respect some Southern attitudes reflect those of Dr Paisley.
But why does Dr Paisley get so hot up about the Irish language when he, himself, uses a version of it every day? Does he not realise that Ballymena, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Down, Antrim and Fermanagh are all Irish language names. What does he think of Cullybackey or Cullyhanagh or Drumcree for that matter?
He also uses the words Ulster and province on a regular basis in a way which illustrates that he is ignorant of much of the culture which surrounds him. It is, therefore, not surprising, that he has been attempting to "convert" the unfortunate populace of Cameroon to his way of thinking - as though they didn't have enough problems already.
Everybody who is striving for some kind of an uneasy peace, according to him, is betraying the "people of Ulster" and yet he hasn't, as far as we can tell, consulted the people of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal in this regard.
Yet, now that Joe McDonagh, the president of the GAA, has grasped the nettle of Rule 21 of the GAA and called a special congress to consider the ban on the RUC and British forces from membership, perhaps we should all take a look at the words we use and the way we use them.
This writer had a bit of fun some years ago on meeting a number of British political journalists in a hostelery hard by these premises. They continued to use the word "province" in reference to what I insisted was the "six counties". More through boredom than anything else, I asked one of them to name the other "provinces" of the United Kingdom to which he constantly referred and one of his companions suggested that Wales and Scotland were the "other provinces".
Pleased in my own mischief, I informed him that Wales was a Principality and that Scotland referred to itself as a country. I followed up with the question: "Of what is Ulster a province?" and he and his colleagues were willing to concede that Ulster was a province of Ireland but they were flumoxed when asked to name any of the other provinces of our benighted country. One hardy soul courageously ventured Kerry.
Flumox was heaped upon flumox when I informed him that Kerry, according to itself, was a Kingdom. You can have limitless craic in circumstances like these when you meet people like my friends on that occasion or that time who, without any protest, pay an enormous amount of money in their income tax to bolster part of their United Kingdom which, constantly, abuses its privileges by making it clear that they are democrats only in the context of having a controlled majority - hence the failure to have a referendum in the entire "United Kingdom" on the Belfast Agreement. I was working in London many years ago when what is euphemistically called "the present Troubles" had started and I was asked, for the umpteenth time, whether I was from the North or the South of Ireland. Not wishing to be vulgar or dismissive or even inaccurate, I informed my friend and colleague that I was from the West.
A look of bafflement crossed her face and the subject was changed instantly and we discussed the chances of Queens Park Rangers against Chelsea the following day at Loftus Road.
There is a serious point to be made here and it has a sporting influence and a lesson for all of us. There are certain places in these islands where the playing of soccer matches are regarded as expressions of sectarianism. This was illustrated recently in the tortured city of Belfast.
Normally sensible people in this country get quite as rabid about the rivalry between the two clubs, Celtic and Rangers (in alphabetical order) in Glasgow. This makes little sense unless you understand Ian Paisley and his ilk and share much of his attitude.
Sadly, the idea of a united Ireland soccer team (as in rugby, golf and other sports) seems very distant at present but, perhaps, we in the media might make a minor contribution by being a little more careful about the way we describe our sporting heroes.
Why, for instance, should Darren Clarke be referred to as "the Ulster man" when Padraig Harrington is not referred to as "the Leinster man"? Why is Catherina McKiernan never referred to as "the Ulster girl" nor Sonia O'Sullivan referred to as "the Munster girl" for instance.
Does this indicate a certain fore-lock pulling attitude among ourselves; an acceptance of a British dictated cultural agenda perpetrated by the overwhelming influence of television and newspaper colonialism.
Surely we must welcome a window of opportunity for a new relationship between ourselves and our closest neighbours in this and the adjoining island. Why should not we, the Irish, start a new colonialism and base it on our absolute and often fanatical devotion to sport and the way in which common interests can be used to destroy age-old antagonisms.
Perhaps Croke Park's development programme is a signpost for our future.
