A musical representation of the GAA Championship would be a fine thing, especially if it were ever possible.
Presenters from the TXFM radio show Parklife have instigated the formation of a 32-county-strong playlist, but they’ve instantly asked for loads of help.
The original point of the exercise was to alleviate the clichéd success pattern that unravels at around about this part of the Championship every year. The GAA is good for humouring the small-fry teams with Qualifier draws (a token second chance tradition not unlike the X Factor’s wildcard system). But the Championship is also good for releasing the shark teams from the previous season at a late stage in the competition; imagine what it would be like if Olly Murs and One Direction were re-entered into the X Factor finals on a yearly basis, and you’re on the right road.
To pre-emptively commiserate the “non-teams”, Parklife is compiling a list of musical heroes from each county, because apparently there’s more to life than the GAA. This would be fine if they could actually complete the list. Instead, they’re crowd-sourcing suggestions for Leitrim and other grey-area regions whose musical prowess is a little underwhelming.
In the music stakes, we can imagine the counties would fare similarly to their Championship teams. Wicklow falls short of the big win even though the talent is there – this is because Hozier is too often lauded as a Dub in international media. Donegal sails in to popular favour on the strength of Rory Gallagher (hands off, Cork) and, of course, Daniel O’Donnell, while Mayo maintains its “always the bridesmaid” status with Louis Walsh.
Kildare footballers haven’t restored their form since their mid-1990s peak – around about the same time that native acts Damien Rice and BellX1 split from their potential super group line-up. Leitrim and the rest will continue to compete with polyphonic ringtones until any actual bands are suggested.
