It was the same when the GAA had the temerity to bring Sky on board as a broadcast partner. How could they treat the plain people of Ireland with such callous disregard by putting them in a position where they might have to pay something to be entertained by a sport that they perhaps loved, or perhaps just dipped in and out of from time to time.

When Sky’s contract came to an end there was no mad rush of free to air broadcasters coming in to fill the void. RTÉ were there as they always have been but with multiple demands and a very broad based audience to serve there is a limit to the amount of games they can broadcast. 35 as it happens.

Thankfully the GAA had the foresight a decade ago to establish their own broadcast channel in GAAGo, initially to provide coverage of games to the Irish diaspora, at a cost it must be said, for which they were rightly feted.

Then Covid came and games had to be broadcast in front of empty stadia. GAAGo one again was called on and celebrated to bring the events of national sporting importance to the people of Ireland.

The past two weekends have see RTÉ cover all four provincial football finals. That has been a long standing practice and the Government’s own review of listed events that would have to be shown free to air includes all four of those games.

In years to come then RTÉ will have no choice on their selection of games. Nobody would have wanted to give up Sundays Ulster thriller. Likewise who in Louth or Clare, Mayo or Galway would have thought “that’s grand, ignore our moment in the sun, away and show Cork against Limerick in the Munster Championship, sure they only get to play each other two or three times a year.”

Of course they could just show GAA games all the time, rip up their obligation to rugby or football, gymnastics, the Olympics or the Eurovision and pay for the broadcast of every Championship game. Who needs the News or movies or anything else?

There are a number of commentators who feel in particular that hurling is hard done by. It is unfortunate that a game as rich in drama and skill as the Cork win over Limerick proved to be was not shown live and free to air but how many of the Muster Hurling Championship Games should be part of the RTÉ slate.

There are two each weekend through this period. Should they all be shown at the expense of everything else?

That was not the point that either Taoiseach Simon Harris or Tánaiste Micheál Martin pressed over the weekend but they were demanding answers, even if not quite sure of what the question might be.

Should GAAGo be free for everyone? Should the presenters and technicians, the camera staff and the sound engineers give of their time for free because they love the game? Should the analysts drive up and down the country, or to ßupervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Semple Stadium and pay their own petrol expenses.

Should we stand knee deep in the tide of technology and sports broadcasting, shout Go back! Go back to the days when only a handful of games could be shown because there was no internet, there was no streaming, heavens there was no RTÉ2.

So many questions. So may opportunities during an election campaign to strike a blow for the way things were, and for the plain people of Ireland. Well those who ‘love the game’ but wouldn’t be willing to pay €12 to watch Saturday’s ‘priceless’ example of brilliant sport, and perhaps those in the nursing homes that did not apply for the multiple free passes for all the coverage which the GAA distributes each year through counties and clubs.

Next weekend the Munster Hurling Championship games between Tipperary and Cork and Clare and Waterford will both be shown live on RTÉ2 television. Supporters of Galway, Derry, Kerry, Monaghan, Wicklow and Laois will be grateful for the fact that they will be able to watch their counties play in the All Ireland Series or the Tailteann Cup on GAAGo. And TG4 will weigh in with live coverage of the Eirgrid All Ireland U20 Football Championship between Kerry and Tyrone.

Sometimes it is better to be grateful for what we have than bitter about the things we think we have a right to, free of charge.

Just a thought.

 

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