Garth Brooks Concerts….What a Mess.
Sometimes when things go wrong at a high level the barstool
sages casually espouse; ‘I could have told them that’. To actually sell up to
400,000 tickets for five concerts subject to licence, (I was going to use
‘seems to me’ but I’ll leave the qualification aside) was just hugely
irresponsible. The result now is a huge loss to many different groups. First
there are the people who bought the tickets though they are expected to get
their money back and what an operation that will be. The Joe Duffy show
is likely to have enough material for the foreseeable future in the travails
that will emerge there. Those worst effected
are the people from abroad who have booked flights, hotels and bought tickets.
Then there are the multitude of service providers in Dublin City, hotels, bars
restaurants, B.& B.s’ and so on. Many people, possibly students, were to
have a period of part-time employment on the foot of the concerts. Croke Park,
referred to by objectors as Corporate Croke Park, which I presume is the group
running the stadium as a fund-raising machine will also lose of course and the
regime which will emerge will be considearably more restrictive on the
stadium’s use. The objectors will possibly have to keep their heads down with
the loss of so many part-time jobs and the ‘legacy fund’ of 500,00 for local
amenity projects now gone. It was of course their right to object and so on and
it is more likely that it was the City Council executive who were the final
arbitrers in all five concerts not going ahead being unlicensed. Perhaps,
though I have not heard it said, they were worried about the scale of it all
and if there was a disaster who would then be accountable? Then there is the
country’s reputaional damage as against what would have a huge good news and
promotional story for Ireland Inc. How so many agencies could not see the light
in the tunnel being an oncoming train is mind-boggling. There was the distinct
Celtic Tiger attitude of ‘build it and seek retention’. It has been
regularly suggested that the Church, Fianna Fail and the GAA were the great
Irish institutions; two have been rocked, is this a body blow to the third?
The reality of all
the brinkmanship is that there should have been a much earlier intervention and
awareness and perhaps the sage Kieran Mulvey should have been consulted
earlier. Even I might have suggested that there was (possible) trouble ahead. (As
I finish this note did I hear correctly that Garth Brooks was still asking that
the five would go ahead?)
Roscommon v
Cavan:
Next Saturday
Roscommon GAA supporters head for Kingscourt Breffni Park, Cavan for a
championship game. Roscommon and Cavan have a history. In 1943 when Roscommon
won their first All-Ireland they defeated Cavan in a replay, a robust affair.
In ’44 Roscommon disposed of Cavan in the Semi-Final before beating Kerry in
the Final and making it two in a row. It looked as if Roscommon would rule for
a time with a great side They were shocked by Mayo in ’45 but returned in ’46
but lost to Kerry in a replay. Cavan were their opponents in the ’47 Semi-Final
the year the All-Ireland took place in the Polo grounds in New York a great
prize. Cavan won and beat Kerry in New York. The two counties did not meet
again at this level until 1962 when Roscommon were victors before going down to
Kerry in the final. This was to be Gerry O’Malley’s final. After the early
fifties both Roscommon and Cavan went into decline but occasionally the old
embers sparked into life and the hugely dedicated supporters, of both counties,
shook off their disappointments and emerged re-energised. So we travel to Cavan
on Saturday evening to a football tradition where as Seamus Heaney said about
Derry ‘ Where hope and History Rhyme’.
(Best wishes to the
Boyle connections involved at the week-end Enda and Donie Smith on Saturday and
Evan McGrath on Sunday in Castlebar with the minors plus Fergal O’Donnell and
Stephen Bohan of their management team).
Boyle Ladies
GAA:
Boyle Ladies GAA
team play Shannon Gaels in the Intermediate team Championship at 12 noon
(High!) in Boyle. When I asked if this was an ‘important’ game the response I
got was; ‘Every game against Shannon Gaels is an important game!’ Tradition!
World Cup and
the Death of Di Stephano.
A good few people
including myself will have withdrawal symptoms as the World Cup comes to a
conclusion. It has been a feast of drama, theatre and entertainment. I really
enjoyed it. The German victory over Brazil had elements of GUBU about it. The
goals were pouring in when the person I was watching it with got a message on
his I Phone with an altered picture of the towering statue of Christ the
Redeemer over Rio with his his hands over his eyes! Another story came from the
Roisin Dubh pub in Galway who had the offer of 50 cent reduction on a German
lager for every goal German scored from a starting price of 4 euro. Near the
end of the game therefore they were down to 50 cent.
One
of the greatest soccer players in the game’s history Alfredo di Stephano died
in Madrid this week. He was born in Argentina but became a naturlised Spaniard.
He was part of the great Real Madrid side which won five European Cups in a row
from ’55 to ’60 inclusive. It included some other special players such as Gento
and the Hungarian legend Puskas. That final was played at Hampden Park
Glasgow and was watched by 127,000 people. Real won scoring 7 goals to
Eintracht Frankfurt’s 3. Stefano, the ‘blonde arrow’, scored 4. It was the
first game of soccer I saw being on a snowy television screen. It was on May 18th
1960 and I still seem to remember it.
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