Going for Gold?

Someone rang in to a Dublin radio station suggesting that Gaelic Football be considered for inclusion in future Olympic Games. The caller was Irish, living in China and competing with a selection of expatriates and foreigners in the All-Asian games - in Gaelic sports. What chance, I wondered, would we Irish have of winning gold in the Olympic Games were Gaelic Football and Hurling to be included. Hurling, undoubtedly, would represent our best shot at taking gold - such are the skills required for the sport that only those living and breathing the game in stronghold counties ever possess any chance of medals in our own country - it would be an impossibility for any other country to take us on in this sport. Football, however, is a different ball game altogether. Football is, and always will be, a game for strong men. True, skill makes a difference, but not so substantial a difference that a team of well built foreigners couldn't take on our own. Football is so similar in fact to other sports - all the obvious ones - that I'd reckon that our lads would in no way be assured of podium positioning if a rich selection of foreign countries were to invest a few years in getting their lads up to scratch. Not so for our hurlers though.

The Australians, when their native sport was catching on, immediately set sights on international expansion. The early game spread from Victoria to other colonies on their continent, to South Australia (where, interestingly, the goal posts took a shape like the future [and current] Gaelic posts), New South Wales as well as New Zealand. At the time, however, even the trip across the Tasman couldn't be considered international, but their attempted invasion of the US most certainly could. The Australians attempted through correspondence to get their game to influence British sports, though as Britons in the south perhaps even that couldn't be considered international. Perhaps also their excursions to the States could be put on a par with our own ill-fated adventure of 1888.

However, in the modern era the Australians have sought to have their game taken on in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, with a recognition that foreign fields can provide rich ground for recruitment. The franchise structure of the Australian game represents a clear difference from our own, as does the environment in Australia where multiple cultures and national groups have long been part of their sport. Maybe this has given them an advantage in internationalising their game, or maybe they just want it more. Maybe we don't want it at all - remembering that for its 12 decades the GAA has been as much about asserting Irishness, culturally and politically, as it has been about sporting competition.

Consider this example: if Gaelic Football was being played at the Olympics, would it still be necessary for the Irish flag to fly and for Amhrán na bhFiann to play before the game. Rule 15 requires this of any game under the control of the GAA. Would we sacrifice this to see our sports played on foreign fields, or are we happy as it is - a game of our own, where we're champions of the world this year, next year and forever.