The celebrated RTÉ series Documentary on One – now in its 35th season – returns for a new run this week with a major sporting story to get things going.
Crossing the Line will air this Sunday 11 July at 6 pm on RTÉ Radio 1 and is available on a podcast this Thursday via the DocOnOne podcast feed.
It tells the story of May 1981 when the Irish rugby team were forced to sneak out of the country for a tour of South Africa. It was at the height of apartheid, and South Africa was a sporting pariah.
The IRFU ignored calls from the Irish government not to go but three players Hugo MacNeill, Tony Ward and Moss Keane refused to travel.
A New Zealand touring team from two years before had acceded to a demand from South Africa that Maori’s were excluded from the team, an indication of how deep apartheid ran, and unfortunately how sport declined to protest it.
The Irish and South African teams that played on that tour were all white, though there were multiracial games included on the itinerary.
Thankfully those days where colour was a barrier to participation are now behind us but the Irish Tour was only 40 years ago and the lessons to be learned will be of real value.
Ward is one of the contributors to the show, produced by David Coughlan and Donal O’Herlihy. It promises to be a fascinating insight into a time when sport and politics were inextricably linked, coming just twelve months after a major boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow.
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