Oh that God the gift might give us

Tae see ourselves as eithers see us

COMING away from Croke Park last Sunday Robbie Burns was not in many minds. We were all rather chastened, not so much by the result of the match but by what many of us saw as a rather poor expression of ourselves.

On Monday afternoon a prominent Meath GAA man admitted to himself and others in an unguarded moment, that his county's victory was tarnished and diminished, in his eyes, by the disgraceful "dust up" early in the match which had given a huge foreign audience a negative impression of the game and the country.

That view was expressed before Tommy Dowd and Sean Boylan were refused permission to enter the stadium and the celebratory lunch by self indulgent "security" people and before the unseemly confrontation between John McDermott and Liam McHale.

It is quite right that we take into account how others see us as we are playing a very important role in European affairs.

To get back to the Meath Mayo match therefore it may be worthwhile considering what was written in the Times (of London) on the matter. Before we do that we should remember that that "Old Thunderer" was never a great friend of Ireland or the Irish. For many years it portrayed the Irish people - all of them as brutish, low life, uneducated, ignorant, inarticulate, shillelagh wielding thugs.

It has modified that view some extent but while still being largely dismissive of the Irish, it is determined to sell as many of its newspapers to the illiterate among us at below cost rates.

Apart from a reference to Guinness in the first paragraph of his report the man from the Times, Simon Barnes, took a far more positive view about Sunday's events than many others who reported the match including Irish owned newspapers.

Having dealt fairly with the early and quite disgraceful fracas he wrote in an extended report: "Before I go any further, I must point out that the game is not a punch up with a ball as an occasional distraction. Gaelic football is about skill and courage. The prime discipline is keeping your eye on the ball, despite the murderous attention of the opposition.

"The game resolves around nerve and appetite under the high ball. Where a full back in both codes of rugby is thus tested half a dozen times in a match, so the players of Gaelic football are tested with almost every kick, for this is the very nub of the game.

"It cannot help but be a fearsome and compelling spectacle. Yet Gaelic football and its sister sport hurling are seen in England as little more than jokes. How the merry Irish like to beat seven bells out of each other."

Simon Barnes of the Times has taken the trouble to study the history of the GAA and its roots and hasn't ignored James Joyce or Michael Cusack in the process.

He writes: "The All Ireland final is no living fossil: it is a vibrant occasion with the brave sight of terraces crowned by banners held a stiff by the sharpening wind. It is contested and roared on with contagious passion. It was an occasion that underlined the unique nature of sport and the unique nature of sporting archetypes.

"If you have sporting blood in your veins, you cannot attend any of sport's grand occasions - and this was unquestionably one of them - without responding. A grand occasion.

Now without doffing my cap or touching my long lost forelock, I like that view by Simon Barnes.

There is no hint of patronising jocularity, no sign of a superiority. It all suggested that Simon came with an open mind and allowed himself the luxury of keeping his mind open until he began to understand what he was seeing.

Perhaps many of the critics of the games of the Gael, including this one, might take a leaf out of his book. Those of us who love the game were disheartened on Sunday and saddened on Monday by the negative attitudes which prevailed.

Without abandoning our critical faculties we should try to understand more fully the fierce pride and passion which spilled over into unacceptable violence on Sunday. We should also try to understand the sporting nature of McDermott's gesture after lunch on Monday and the profound disappointment of McHale's rejection.

Huge sacrifices are made by all involved in these events and those of us who make a living from being there to observe, report, analyse and criticise should not jump on too high a horse but should, rather, try to understand and sympathise as the man from the Times did.

That is not to say, of course, that we should be complacent either. There is a clear and unambiguous need for a review of the rules of Gaelic football to cope with the extraordinary development of aspects of the game.