Another kind of revolution for Cork GAA

The sound of death in the throat of Thomas Macswiney is the end of your adventure in Ireland’. This was the opinion of a guild of New York Irish as the Lord Mayor of Cork was dying on hunger strike at Brixton Prison in 1920. The worldwide reaction to Macswineys protest caught the British by surprise and was a great propoganda victory for Irish Nationalists. In Spain for example the British Consulate in Barcelona was attacked upon news of his death. In Manchester a crowd of forty thousand attended a mock funeral in his honour. India and China protested and even the South Australia Labour Congress passed a resolution in the name of ‘humanity and justice’. In Italy Mussolini himself was moved to opine, ‘uno stoicismo superbo’ though the pope didn’t join him. Over in Paris one theatre gave a nightly update on Macswineys deteriorating condition and James Joyce was moved to write:
Of spinach and gammon
Bull’s full to the crupper
White lice and black salmon
Are the Mayor of Corks supper.
All this fed into the subsequent local Cork story and its history as the ‘Rebel County’ when only an act of military brilliance by Free State forces recaptured the city from the Irregulars in 1922. But bloodshed was not averted along with destruction and looting before anti treaty forces were routed (if indeed they ever were). Some historians say that Cork never came to terms with the fact that they were marked absent in the uprising of 1916 and overcompensated later but there’s no doubt that the sacking of the city cast a long shadow. In the sporting field this could be seen for instance in the waving of the American Confederate flag on its big sporting occasions. In recent years however, just like the confederates, Cork have been losing. It’s still a bit of a shock though that within a century of the deeds of Macswiney and Kevin Barry and the rest to rid Ireland of its oppressor the Brits have retaken Cork without firing a shot. Yes indeed, all Mike Ashley and his Sports Direct machine had to do was wave a few shekels at the GAA hierarchy and in they caved. Ashley owns Newcastle United soccer club currently languishing at the wrong end of the EPL and the aspiration is to forge strong links between Newcastle and Cork GAA though whether this means Steve Bruce will be helping the Cork hurlers and Jimmy Barry Murphy the Newcastle soccer team is not revealed. Ashley as you all know had recently to answer to the British Parliament for the Dickensian working conditions in his sports shops and of course his attempt to sell the soccer club to a consortium financed by mr. Bonesaw fell asunder under the weight of its own contradictions. None of this bothered the suits at Cork GAA.
It’s hard to say when the rot set in in Cork. Some might say when the players started using ‘agents’ was a bad sign. There are other obvious causes of course but the hierarchy have now decided that the status quo is no longer acceptable and Cork must reengage at the business end of hurling and football. The huge cash injections into Dublin and Limerick and the associated success has convinced the traditionalists to concede. What the local Sports Shops which have spent a fortune supporting the teams over the years make of the Ashley coup has not been reported but business is business.
On the other hand this could be the beginning of a another kind of revolution from the one imagined by the Tom Barry’s and the martyrs of yesteryear and Cork Gaa will once again reign supreme on the playing fields of auld Ireland. ‘O watchman, what of the night?’