We need an ambitious wake-up call
Sitting idly by will not help us during these dark times, writes Paidi O Se, we need to find a sporting spirit
There is absolutely no way that we should succumb to the sense of malaise that afflicts the country. We have been through darker times than these and we have emerged with our spirit intact.
I am optimistic enough to believe that patriotism is not dead, an idea which seems to be the cynical, trendy assumption, both inside politics and outside it. And I will also go against the prevailing wind by repeating my belief that Brian Cowen possesses the qualities it takes to get us through this. He is acting responsibly, making unpopular decisions, and in the long run he will be vindicated.
But there are many ways in which we can all help ourselves. As a director of Failte Ireland, I fully realise that visitors from America and Britain are well down in number, though domestic tourism is, I think, holding up. We have got to be ambitious.
When I look back at the manner in which movies like The Quiet Man and Ryan's Daughter brought people from all over the world to Ireland, it strikes me that we should be doing all we can to bring the top Hollywood directors and actors here again.
Steven Spielberg or Ron Howard on location in Ireland would achieve as much as the spending of millions of euro of taxpayers' money.
Big sporting events are another way of selling Ireland aboard.
The Ryder Cup, the Volvo Ocean Race (which attracted more people to Galway than the Pope's visit in 1979), the Irish Open (which was also sponsored by 3Mobile), -- they all received worldwide publicity. And we are fortunate to have a few really good events coming up, such as the Ladies' Ryder Cup (the Solheim Cup) and the Tall Ships are coming to Waterford in 2011. Remember, Munster against the Ospreys brought some €10.5m to Limerick, and we all know what our success in the Six Nations and the Heineken Cup did for the country.
It is our duty to show the ambition of Peter Quinn and Liam Mulvihill, who took a huge risk in building the showpiece Croke Park, leaving other sporting associations far behind.
Where would we be without Croke Park, not only for Gaelic games, but for rugby, soccer, and U2 concerts? That's the ambition we need. We should be lobbying for the Olympic Games, and the soccer and rugby world cups, too.
Because, even now, tourism employs about 300,000 people here, more than the building industry did even at the height of the boom.
And it is a good thing that prices have come down in the teeth of recession. I believe that people should be able to take a return train from Killarney to Dublin for about €30, and that there should be special family packages available so that people can travel by train to the big matches, with bus collection at both ends. Good dining cars should be provided in which families could have suitable meals at affordable prices. All this would serve to create extra jobs.
An Bord Snip or not, it makes no sense to merge the Department of Sport and Tourism with some other ministry. Short-term thinking at its worst, I call that. The Irish have plenty of ability, energy and enterprise once they find the right outlet.
It is recorded in cabinet minutes that Sean Lemass, in the 1950s, said; "The country is half asleep. We must wake it up."
We are not half asleep at this point, but we are indecisive and our confidence is slipping away.
The great Kerry footballer and selector, Joe Keohane, used to say to me that there were three types of player.
One, those who make things happen; two, those who watch things happening; and three, those who didn't know what the f*** is happening anyway. He believed that the thing to do was to try to get category two to throw their lot in with category one, and to f*** category three out of it altogether.
There is deep wisdom in Joe's thoughts and words, shaped in a period when people still had the time to think. Which is why my advice to those students who didn't do so well in the Leaving Certificate is: There's a lot more to life than exams, it's not the end of the world. To them and to their parents I would say, life is rich and full of possibilities. Carpe diem, seize the day!
When another great Kerry footballer and selector, Paddy Bawn Brosnan, was in the CBS in Dingle, the brother asked him to conjugate a Latin verb. "I can't do that," said Paddy Bawn. "I'm only here for the football."
Paidi O Se is a Sunday Independent writer on Gaelic games and a director of Failte Ireland.
