| COMMENT- Clarke the
real winner as Europe triumph SOMETIMES, amazingly, despite all its
problems sport has the power to transcend the ordinary and deliver
something truly special.
It happened this week in Ireland as Europe defeated America in imperious
style to win the Ryder Cup.
But the abiding memory from the triumph will not be the celebrations or
the glorious shots played on the way to victory. Instead it will be the
image of Irishman Darren Clarke breaking down in tears as he won his
match on the final day.
By then, of course, the trophy had already been won. But Clarke’s
victory was a very special one that meant more than all the others that
had gone before.
For here was a man still mourning the death of his beloved wife Heather
from cancer just last month. He could easily have decided the stresses
and strains of the biggest international golf event would have been too
much for him after such a traumatic blow.
But he decided to play because he knew that’s what Heather would have
wanted — that she would have been proud to see him helping Europe to
victory in his own country.
It’s hard to imagine what must have been going through Clarke’s mind
throughout the competition — but his tears as he sank his final putt and
his comment that he knew Heather was up there watching him told their
own story.
In a week when football has again been mired in bung allegations and
drug scandals continue to surround other sports it was refreshing to
watch a competitor conducting himself with quiet dignity as he went
about performing at the top level in the game he loves.
For once, the good guy won.
Irish success story Setanta moves into the big league
STILL on the subject of sport we report this week on the success of
another Irish venture — the TV sports channel Setanta.
The station was conceived 16 years ago by Irishmen Michael O’Rourke and
Leonard Ryan when they discovered Ireland’s match against Holland in
Italia ‘90 was not being broadcast in Britain.
They managed to buy the rights and screened the game live to between 700
and 800 people at the then Top Hat club in the London suburb of Ealing.
Now Setanta is a multi-million pound business which recently firmly
entered the big league when it successfully bid for one of the packages
to beam live Premiership football across Britain.
In the interim it has also become synonymous with GAA — screening games
from Ireland to the Irish community in this country on a regular basis.
That’s something founders Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan say will
continue despite Premiership soccer coming on stream from next year.
There’s no doubt Setanta has come a long way in those 16 years since
that first night in Ealing. It is now a true Irish success story and one
we can all be proud of. |
