GAA puts country first in courageous Covid stance

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley

The GAA is hungry for money; it’s a money-grabbing organisation. That’s been the popular refrain for years now.

It’s mostly a criticism from non-GAA people but even the organisation’s own grassroots members use it as a stick to beat the suits in Croke Park with.

Any time there’s a draw in an important championship match, a common reaction is to blame the referee, who ‘played for a draw’. The snide innuendo is that there’s some sort of conspiracy to produce replays and boost gate receipts.

It is through that prism that the GAA’s admirable and courageous stance during the Covid-19 crisis should be viewed.

The GAA has been lambasted by a vocal minority of Gemma O’Doherty-type extremists from outside and within, for taking a cautious approach during the coronavirus health pandemic that has killed more than 2,000 people on the island of Ireland, including 1,600+ in the Republic.

The daily death tolls – thankfully falling – are so great, they’re difficult to fully process, and comprehend. Were the daily deaths occurring in ‘normal’ times and caused by something like a car crash, or a fire, they’d each merit a national day of mourning.

The hurlers on the ditch, and clueless amateur epidemiologists, who for weeks called ‘ad nauseam’ for pitches to reopen and games to restart, would be first to attack Croke Park as ‘money-grabbers’ for resuming before the experts agree it’s safe to do so.

Some commentators would have us all out licking each other’s hurls in the morning. One even suggested that because GAA players are highly-conditioned athletes they are less susceptible to contracting Covid-19.

Tell that to the 36-years-old UHG nurse, with no underlying health conditions, who was battling for life in ICU last week, having caught the highly-contagious, deadly virus.

But even if the ‘highly-conditioned’ footballers and hurlers somehow had miraculously developed an immunity to Coronavirus – if it’s true, could ye let the thousands of medics worldwide who are scrambling to find a vaccine in on the secret; O’Neill’s short shorts, perhaps? – these athletes have loved ones who are less immune.

Amateur players, while eager to get back playing, are intelligent enough to know that they could be asymptomatic carriers. That’s the cruel thing about Covid-19 – it’s a silent spreader – and they could infect their parents or partner or siblings. And what about ‘less-conditioned’ linesmen, umpires and other volunteers?

Fallow pitches in May and June is far from ideal, but GAA President John Horan did the decent, honourable thing by closing them.

By taking leadership, and making the decision centrally, he spared volunteers of club committees from the inevitable local pressure to re-open. One Galway soccer club did reopen pitches but closed again because of anti-social behaviour and a dangerous disregard for social distancing. That’s what Horan wanted to avoid.

Horan and GAA people like him in Galway in positions of leadership, haven’t cribbed or moaned about loss of money.

Instead they’ve joined the thousands of ordinary members who’ve shown meitheal, by volunteering in communities to help vulnerable people to get through Covid-19.

That silent majority – who are just as eager as the loudmouths to see play resume – are proud of the selfless stance their organisation has taken in Ireland’s darkest hour.

As restrictions ease in the coming weeks, it’s a comfort to the grassroots that the GAA will continue to act responsibly, while remaining agile to respond to the evolving advice of expert virologists and epidemiologists.
This is a shortened preview version of this week’s Bradley Bytes. Please remember that without advertising revenue and people buying and subscribing to our newspaper, this website would not exist. You can buy a digital edition of this week’s Galway City Tribune HERE.