The day a Cork United player showed how true sportsmen should play the game

Saturday, November 21, 2009

LISTENING to RTÉ today and the aftermath of Paris, and how God’s hand is being blamed for our defeat, I remembered when I was a young boy my father took me to the Mardyke to watch Cork United play one of the leading Dublin teams – Shamrock Rovers or Drumcondra, I cannot be sure.

When was it : The early 1940s?

During the match the referee awarded a very unfair penalty to Cork. The Cork player, possibly Owen Madden or Tommy Moroney, placed the ball on the spot and then kicked it out towards the corner flag. The Dubliners’ captain walked up and shook his hand and there was no demur from the crowd.

It would not happen now; it could not happen now: The clubs, the fans, the media, the money backers demand success and only the very naïve believe otherwise. Perhaps even, the Cork player would be red-carded for bringing the game into disrepute.

Then Pat Kenny’s guest mentioned the futility of appealing to FIFA or to the French for justice. Did we think, he questioned, that little Ireland would carry any power or influence in organisations like FIFA: if France had been wronged they would be listened to, and I could only concur.

That’s exactly what the ‘No’ campaign in the recent Lisbon Treaty referendum campaigners had been arguing for most of the last year!

Nobody listened then – perhaps they’re listening now.

Eamonn McCarthy
Tara Lawn
Glasheen Rd
Cork

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, November 21, 2009