Obama Fails to Mention Hurling Crisis

21st Jan 2009

Obama Fails to Mention Hurling Crisis
Danny Elbow

It was rather surprising that Barrack Obama's first speech as President of the United States did not address one of the world's most pressing conflicts. The former Illinois senator who

Obama and county secretary Frank Murphy share a joke about term of office. Obama has just four years to make an impact.

beat John McCain to the White House in the November election had eluded to a new U.S. policy on Israel/Palestine that emphasised more than ever the urgent need for a Palestinian state.

He has hinted that dialogue with Iran is a distinct possibility and his withdrawal policy from Iraq, while likely to be watered down, is bold in its "sixteen month" drawdown of combat forces.

Despite making important policy statements on China, North Korea and the Americas including Cuba, the man who allegedly embodies hope, has yet to address the global elephant-in-the-room that is the Cork GAA conflict.

Why Obama has stayed silent on the debacle is not yet clear although it is believed that his new secretary of state has argued that the conflict should be prioritised over some of the allegedly more pressing matters in the Middle East.

A reliable Cork born source at an Irish bar in Washington who thinks he might have overheard a "guy in a suit who appeared to know things" says that Hilary favours the County Board's stance while Obama is leaning towards the side of the players.

Other Washington insiders on the Peoples Republic of Cork payroll say it is too early to speculate whether Obama will attend Cork's championship opener against Tipperary on May 31st .

Should the County Board's dilemma not be settled by then, the rumour mill on Daunt Square last Saturday night suggested that Obama may only send Joe Biden, his vice-president - a man with Irish but not Cork ancestry.

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However, unlike his boss Barrack, Mr. Biden does not yet have a street in Cork named after him and this may be seen as an attempt by the U.S. number two to win enough favour with Corkonians to bag him a street name or have a bridge named in his honour.

Although never acknowledged by historians and lacking definitive proof, it was George Washington's alleged contribution in ending a 1775A.D. stand-off between a hurling team from Cloyne and Bantry that bagged him his most outstanding achievement - having a Cork street named in his honour.

In those days, before the GAA and the Washington Street strip were established, the game that eventually became hurling, was a violent unruly contest played, not on a pitch, but across the fields between two parishes. Matches could last for days on end and become an outlet for rival parish grudges to be settled violently resulting in battles that often needed the intervention of a priest or bishop to be defused.

Cork awaits Obama's first statement on the current crisis with trepidation and God speed his diplomatic intervention. Should Anthony Daly's Dublin side come to Cork and defeat the side that Gerald MacCarthy has managed to assemble it will be a very dark day for Leeside.

Many who feel no passion for field games dismiss a disappointing hurling, football or soccer match as "only a game" but in gloomy times, little nuggets of success are hugely important to lift the spirits of a people. In Cork, all three sports are massive with huge ,often cross-over, followings.

When the small ball and big sticks take to the field in May there's hardly a TV set in the country, possibly worldwide, that isn't tuned in to see the Rebels - although reports suggest North Korea had trouble with the reception for Cork's victory over Galway last year but this is something Obama's administration is sure to address in talks with the rogue state's leader Kim Jong-il, himself believed to be a Kilkenny fan.

It is said that sport and politics don't mix but the internal politics of Cork GAA is so riddled with it maybe it is time for politicians, local, national and global to intervene with some of their own to try to impose a solution.