Cavanman's Diary: With no fans, what's the point?

Cavanman's Diary

Were you there in 1997 when Stephen King lifted The Anglo-Celt Cup? Or on the pitch in 2011 when the Cavan U21s won the Ulster title, blue eyes crying in the rain, as one of our captions read?

Those are the memories which linger brightest. The communal outpourings of joy, the fun and celebration after a victory are what sustains the GAA fraternity.

In this brave new world, though, we are told to come together by staying apart. No matter how well our county or club teams do this year, those minutes and hours of bliss, the bonfires and homecomings that mark the milestone successes, will not happen. You’d wonder what the point of it is without them.

Back in the middle of April, I spoke to Cavan captain Raymond Galligan. The Dublin-based goalkeeper, whose day job is manager of a day service for adults with disabilities, was totally honest in how he felt the GAA should approach the running of the All-Ireland Senior Championships.

In a nutshell, Galligan felt there should be no All-Ireland in 2020, even though his gut feeling was that there would be. It wasn’t that he did not want to play this year, you understand – nothing could have been further from the truth.

The thing was, he didn’t feel it was worth the risk.

“I feel it probably will go ahead,” Galligan predicted, correctly (so far).

“I know there is a lot of talk about it possibly going ahead in September, with clubs going first. That’s probably what will happen, the reason being that money has a lot to do with it.

“My personal view would be that the best scenario would be to have no Senior Championship this year… Working on the front line, I’ve now seen two deaths where I work with adults with disabilities and, when you see how vicious this virus is, it puts things very much in perspective.

“Obviously I, like every other guy who plays football, would absolutely love to play championship.

“But for the better of the people, and putting yourself and your family at risk, I think the best thing would be that inter-county is completely closed off till 2021, leaving the clubs as the only competition that would be needed.”

It was a brave statement for a county footballer to make. Often, they are accused of being caught up in a bubble and of being unable to see the wider picture. That is not the case with Raymond, one of the elder statesmen and leaders of the Cavan panel. He called it as he saw it.

At the time, the country was in the grip of the pandemic. Fear abounded. Nobody – not even the medical and scientific experts – knew what was coming down the tracks. That void of information was filled with anxiety and even a level of panic.

And then, all of a sudden, the clouds parted. It became clear that the virus was in retreat and soon, calls grew for the easing of restrictions to be sped up.

Our understanding of the disease had increased significantly, measures to curtail its spread had proven successful and, while we could not save those who had lost their lives, knowing what we then knew, the feeling was that we could potentially save the livelihoods of some of the rest by returning to some form of normality.

That meant a return to sport, too. As new cases slowed to a trickle, the GAA received advice that their club and county competitions could, in fact, recommence. Across the country, clubs and county boards cranked into gear; plans were quickly put in place, fixtures drawn up and training bibs dusted down.

Ten days ago, I had a conversation with the county board PRO Susan Brady in relation to the restrictions that would be in place for the opening rounds of the All-County Football League at the weekend.

Capacity was limited to 200 people but it was widely expected that the government would move to Phase 4 of its roadmap within a few days, allowing crowds of 500 to attend club championship matches when that competition resumes on the August bank holiday weekend.

There was a gnawing suspicion that the recent increase in cases could scupper those hopes (“we are just waiting for the announcement with baited breath,” the PRO told me) but I don’t think many believed it could really happen. Personally, I thought we would move on to Phase four, albeit with a stern warning that we needed to be ever more vigilant.

And then came last week’s bombshell and suddenly, the best-laid plans of sporting bodies and publicans, many of whom had spent a lot of time and money preparing to re-open their doors and earn a living again, had been torn asunder. Phase four was delayed. Now what do we do?

The GAA were up in arms, describing the decision as “a hammer blow”. GAA President John Horan took to the airwaves to appeal for a change of heart from the powers that be.

Later on Friday morning, Raymond Galligan posted a tweet.

“Common sense needs to soon prevail,” he wrote.

“Large county grounds like Kingspan Breffni need to have the attendance guidelines moved to 500 people at games… Making each county ground in Ireland as the one place 500 people could attend, then it would benefit a host of parties in a safe manner.”

The Cavan captain knows better than most, through his work, just what the level of threat out there is and was again speaking sensibly. Elderly and vulnerable people must remain vigilant but, for the rest of the population, the threat is minimal.

The virus may be circulating again, very slowly, but that’s what viruses do. While it exists, it will spread. Are we now to say that almost no semblance of normal life should return before this thing is completely and utterly eradicated?

The knock-on effect of this ‘one size fits all’ approach will negatively impact the community-based sporting body that is the GAA – local gate receipts accounted for €400,000 of Cavan county board’s income last year and that sort of money cannot be replaced. Less tangibly but just as real, it has extinguished hope for the many thousands who follow their local football or hurling teams and who have been looking forward to this return to normality for months.

That is not to mention the fact that the restrictions are unworkable anyway – just as the golf clubs were not expected to police those members who played when the 5km limit was in place and bus drivers were not asked to enforce the wearing of masks, we cannot charge volunteers with turning away supporters at the gate.

Fear induces panic and, when we panic, we cannot think clearly. How have we reached a point where, even with face masks, with social distancing and no human interaction, it has been deemed unsafe for more than 120 supporters to attend a match in a 20,000-seater stadium like Kingspan Breffni? It’s time someone shouted stop.

Asked about it this week, the GAA’s commercial director Peter McKenna did not rule out playing the All-Ireland championship behind closed doors. If it comes to that, the association should pull the plug altogether.

Imagine a success-starved county like Cavan were to win an Ulster title with nobody present, no homecoming and not even a celebratory drink with friends (unless, of course, one of the group is also dining because that is apparently perfectly safe).

What would be the point? It seems the Cavan captain, speaking from the heart three months ago, was right on one thing.

Either we have a championship or we don’t!

A diluted version – with all of the expense and effort and none of the communal joy which makes it worthwhile  - would defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Professional sports, with their piped in, phony crowd noises, will continue to sell their product but in the GAA, it is real fans, in thrall to tradition and pride in club and county, who make Gaelic games the soundtrack of the summer.

Play it loud or leave the instruments down for another year.