Time for reflection for ye GAA faithful

 On Gaelic Games: At this time of the year our thoughts turn - in the absence of anything more urgent - to offbeat matters.

With Christmas officially upon us (today's Church holiday for some, tomorrow's Philips Manager of the Year lunch for the more secular), it's appropriate to reflect on the lessons of the season for the GAA.

The affairs of the association and the Roman Catholic church have been entangled since the GAA's inception: they share the basic unit of the parish, their biggest liturgical holiday comes in the spring with Easter and Congress never far apart, and their biggest festive holiday falls at the end of the year with Christmas and the close season coinciding.

And when it's all over, as the three wise men make their way home after the Epiphany, they will bear witness to the new life perhaps by taking in O'Byrne Cup matches or their equivalent secondary competitions in other far flung provinces.

So it won't be too fanciful to extend this commonality to the season of Advent. On one level this interlude of ascetic contemplation in the midst of unrestrained Bacchanalia appears to be as comfortable a presence as a juggler at a funeral. But its themes of preparation and renewal are apt.

There are three central figures in the liturgy of Advent: Mary, the mother of God, and the two great prophets of the Old and New Testaments Isaiah and John the Baptist.

This fits perfectly with the GAA season of annual conventions, which see many wild-eyed declamations issuing throughout the land, several under the heading Tuarascáil an Rúnaí. Isaiah preached at a time when his nation was at its most depressed - a common state of affairs in several counties - and while exiled in Babylon, a situation metaphorically familiar to some disillusioned Gaels.

And only recently in Dublin, John the Bailey prepared the way of the Pillar and made (relatively) straight his path.

Mary's relevance to all of this may not be immediately apparent even on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. But further examination reveals one important authority with versatile application.

One of the earliest advocates of the doctrine that Mary was sinless in life and immaculately conceived is St Cyril of Alexandria in the fourth and fifth century.

He is perhaps most famous (well, relatively) for the vigour with which he refuted the heresies of Nestorius, who believed that there were two persons in Christ - reflecting the rejection of the modern dualist heresy that footballer and hurler can exist in the same athlete.

But among his teachings, the following is of equal importance and comfort to the one tendency in the Rule 42 debate.

"Whoever heard of an architect who built himself a temple and yielded up first possession of it to his greatest enemy?"

In the face of what are so often recurrent themes it is easy to share Patrick Kavanagh's nostalgic desire, in his poem Advent, for renewal.

"And the newness that was in every stale thing When we looked at it as children . . ."

Church teaching is of the view that feelings of deflation and depression when the festive season ends are often evidence of poor preparation during Advent.

Accordingly I am offering the spiritually satisfying advice that we should combine a sense of acceptance of those things that cannot be changed with a rededication to improving those things that can.

1) The Railway Cup or Inter-provincial competition cannot be restored to its old glories. Sunday's poor attendance at the hurling final has prompted some fantastic talk about marketing. Contrary to what some believe, marketing is only an exercise in communication. It can bring or direct people to products or events but once there, the product or event must stand on its own merits.

The Railway Cup was a great competition, which peaked in the 1950s in terms of spectator interest. Just as no marketing campaign would make the black Morris Minor a best selling car in 2004, so we must accept that the prospect of big crowds at inter-provincial matches is beyond even the most creative promotions team. It may be that the GAA consider it worth its investment to use the competitions for promotional purposes overseas and as a rewards system for players. That being the case, it's not doing anyone any harm.

2) Amateur status has its down side. If the association is not going to allow the payment of players, there should be no hand wringing over the departure of elite footballers and hurlers to play professional sport. Without doubt Na Piarsaigh are unfortunate to lose the two Ó hAilpíns but Australian Rules offered them the opportunity to be full-time sportsmen and there's nothing an amateur organisation can do about it.

3) Match officials are the only arbiters of scores. Frustrating as it may be when umpires get points and wides mixed up in the most obvious of circumstances and referees are unable to correct them, that's the way it has to be.

All field sports accept human arbitration and whereas some, like rugby or cricket, have official video review built into the course of matches, none provide for scores to be changed after the event no matter how conclusive the television evidence.

Mistakes have cost teams all sorts of setbacks. Italy exited the last World Cup against South Korea because of refereeing error but there were few trying to twist the Koreans' arms into offering a re-match. So even the world's biggest sport's championship accepts that human error is part of the game.

That's not to say the GAA's powerless in the matter.

Improved training and monitoring of umpires should reduce the room for error but nothing will eliminate it.

4) Tomorrow sees the announcement of the Manager of the Year. This year's list of 12 monthly nominees has one unhappy omission. Charlie Mulgrew, who led Fermanagh further than the county has ever been in the national pecking order, doesn't feature.

The county mightn't have won anything but when you take Mulgrew's starting point, a panel riven by the defections of key, experienced players and low on morale in a county that has never won even a provincial title, and measure the distance travelled to the All-Ireland semi-finals it's preposterous that he wasn't honoured during the year.

In August - the obvious month for recognition - the award went to Pat Fenlon. No one would wish to denigrate Shelbourne's fine run in Europe but in terms of performances by Irish clubs the win over Hajduk Split was not the epochal stuff of Fermanagh's achievements.

Since the break-up of Yugoslavia, Croatian club champions haven't been particularly strong and this was the fifth year running that they haven't made it beyond the qualifying stages of the Champions League.

Fenlon deservedly also took the November award for winning the National League (a not unforeseeable event back in August), which means he has two monthly awards for the year and Mulgrew has none.

Leaving Charlie the immaculate exception.

smoran@irish-times.ie