Saffrons suffering in Belfast downturn
THERE’S supposed to be no soft touch in Ulster football. In their championship — proudly proclaimed to be the most competitive every summer — any team can beat any other, evident in Cavan beating last year’s All-Ireland semi-finalists, Monaghan last weekend.
Except there is one minnow. Such a minnow that they are 20/1 to beat Tyrone tomorrow evening. In the past ten seasons, since they surprisingly reached an Ulster final in 2009, Antrim have won one game in the province — a barnstorming shootout with Fermanagh in 2014. The fate of Antrim footballers is pre-destined every season. A short summer. In the past three years, they have played only six championship games, losing every one.
Antrim’s sorry state is starkly illustrated by the clash with Mickey Harte’s side, ostensibly a home game, being played in the Armagh Athletic Grounds as Casement Park lies in disrepair, ten years after plans were first announced of its redevelopment into a 38,000-seater stadium.
Their home ground lying in decrepit condition in West Belfast stands as a symbol of the apathy around Gaelic Games in the island’s second city. Plans are afoot to arrest the decay. For some time, there has been a realisation within Croke Park that Belfast needs saving.
Last April, the GAA announced a new regeneration plan, ring-fencing more than £1million to invest in games development. More coaches have been established to harness the potential in Belfast’s population. But some feel that the Gael-fest initiative was too little, too late. That GAA in the city had been allowed to fall into such a state there was no saving it. As one former schools coach said: ‘There is now simply a disconnect between the GAA and large parts of the city. If you
took 50 people off the street in West Belfast, half would have no interest in GAA, 15 would have a passing interest, a few might be social members and there would only be four or five with genuine grá. That’s the reality.’ Former Antrim player Kevin Brady recently talked with passion about the plight facing the county. But there are success stories. St Enda’s reaching the All-Ireland intermediate final proves there is plenty of talented footballers within the city. But when Antrim take to the field in the Athletic Grounds, much of Belfast won’t care. Not having a county ground has only added to the sense of disconnect. How are county teams supposed to perform in such an environment? Belfast also had the legacy of the Troubles. The city was the interface for almost three decades as the conflict ripped society in the North apart. However, it is 21 years since the Good Friday Agreement and Antrim GAA have yet to see any tangible benefits. The Belfast problem has had the GAA scratching its head for years, although there is a sense that the Antrim county board is now populated by able administrators who want to bring some pride back into the Saffron jersey. It’s not as if they don’t have a proud history. Before Armagh and before Tyrone, it was Antrim who had the audacity to come south and challenge Kerry’s place at the summit of Gaelic football. In the summer of 1946, a group of young footballers from the Gaels met the Kingdom in an All-Ireland semi-final.
The Ulster champions were threatening to revolutionise the game. In an era of catch-andkick, they were bamboozling teams with a swift hand-passing style, attacking in pods of three and four. What transpired in Croke Park was described as ‘one of the disgraces of the forties’ by Breandán ÓhEithir in his timeless GAA memoir, Over the Bar.
Kerry’s tactics were to target the runners, rather than the player carrying the ball. It meant players were taken out of it before receiving a pass. Antrim lost by three points, 2-7 to 0-10, but objected to the defeat on the grounds that Kerry brought the game into disrepute. The objection failed on a 19-10 decision.
Four years later, GAA Congress voted to abolish the handpass, making their style redundant. The motion came from Antrim, whose rural clubs felt that the hand-pass was giving their city counterparts an unfair advantage and Saffron football fell into its extraordinary slump. There was one last kick in their great team, winning the Ulster title in 1951, but since then they would contest only two Ulster football finals — 1970 and 2009.
And unless Gaelic Games can be revived in Belfast — and Casement Park is re-developed — Antrim will be the soft touch in Ulster for a long time to come.