Open at Doonbeg won’t help image of a sport labelled elitist

Justine McCarthy’s piece in The Irish Times yesterday is worth a read.

---

Rory McIlroy was searching for the words, though he had no need of them. The catch in his voice said it all. “Rory, Rory, Rory,” the spectators were chanting.

The golfer had just produced a thriller Agatha Christie would envy. The twist in the tale could not have been more dramatic when he sank a putt as long as the Nile on the 18th hole on his way to snatch what seemed an impossible victory in the Irish Open.

Four months ago, he strode into the history books by winning the Masters in the US, becoming only the sixth player and the first European to complete a career grand slam, but last Sunday evening in Kildare was special.

It culminated in a love-in on a divided island with a young man who, like many of his post-Troubles generation in Northern Ireland, refuses to be trapped in the ancient pigeonholes of identity.

This was about much more than birdies and bogeys. His voice crackled with feeling as he exulted in coming home to win his national tournament and being among “these people”, gesturing towards the crowd.

The green and orange of Irish flags billowed with celebration; not the hatred they too often symbolise.

Nelson Mandela believed sport could make the world better. “We need inspiration, Francois,” his Invictus movie incarnation urged South Africa captain Francois Pienaar before the 1995 Rugby World Cup. “Because in order to build our nation we must exceed our own expectations.”

But sport has the power to divide, too. That danger is greatest when it ditches its standards. The decision to stage next September’s Irish Open at Donald Trump’s golf club in Co Clare looks guaranteed to divide. For, if the prospect of Establishment Ireland swooning over the planet’s most notorious golf cheat inspires anything, it is contempt. This decision does not exceed Ireland’s expectations. It rips them up.

Masses of Irish people have consistently expressed an expectation that tyrants like Vladimir Putin and Binyamin Netanyahu will be held to account by the law. That goes for Trump too. He has spent every waking hour since becoming US president in January breaking laws and sucking up to the demonic duo.

Spectators at the men’s US Open tennis final in New York responded to their president’s presence there with thunderous booing last Saturday. Yet the Taoiseach has stated that, if the pouting Potus decides to visit his Trump International Golf Links for the Irish Open, “there’s no question that [he] will be welcome to Ireland”.

Many golfers resent their sport’s image as an elitist pursuit for the moneyed; less a game of two halves than a game for the “haves”. Not everyone can afford a membership, green fees, clubs and four hours in the day for what GK Chesterton called an expensive version of marbles.

The stereotype caricature golfer saunters around the course in pinstripe plus-fours making deals and dispensing business cards with leather-gloved hand. That, of course, is entirely unfair to the millions of golfers who play the game for nothing more than the sheer pleasure of it. They are ill-served by those who pull the sport’s strings and the image of it they convey as a money-making machine. Even Trump would not have been stupid enough to buy a string of courses, stretching from Scotland and California to Florida, Oman and Indonesia, if there was not gold in their bunkers.

The news that an additional €30 million is being sought from the public to host the 2027 Ryder Cup in Adare is mind-blowing. The State has already designated €58 million to support the event and has set aside another €150 million for a 7km bypass, a new railway line and other infrastructural improvements to facilitate it. We are told the cost to the exchequer of security, park-and-ride provision and local authority outlay was grossly underestimated. That explanation gives no solace to families struggling to buy groceries and pay electricity bills as prices keep rising. Nor will it console the one in five children the Economic and Social Research Institute says are living below the poverty line when housing costs are factored in.

It has the sting of a slap in the face for parents of children with special needs who are being denied an education and children whose spines are shrivelling in long surgery queues. These are people unlikely to be swanning off to the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor, the five-star hotel and golf course owned by tax exile JP McManus.

Skewed towards ABC1 groups

A report by Deloitte on the economic impact of hosting the biennial Europe-versus-US men’s competition in 2006 at the K Club – half-owned then by another non-tax resident, Michael Smurfit – described the profile of attendees as being “skewed towards the upper end of the socio-economic scale”, with 90 per cent being in the ABC1 groups.

Only 3 per cent came from “lower socio-economic groupings” which, the report said, “illustrates the general ‘upmarket’ profile of those with an interest in golf”. A sizeable proportion of those attending were corporate guests.

Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan, whose Limerick constituency encompasses Adare, has defended the State’s funding, saying a bypass – which should have been built before now – and a new rail link between Foynes port and Limerick city with a stop in the heritage village will be elements of its legacy. His constituents will, undoubtedly, be hearing all about those bonuses from Government canvassers before the next general election.

Big sports events are money-spinners. Local hotels and restaurants benefit at the time, while vast global television audiences may generate future tourist numbers. The biggest beneficiaries, however, are the organisers – the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe in this case.

Adare Manor can expect future returns too, after being showcased on the international stage as a prestigious golf venue. When the Ryder Cup was last played in Europe in 2023, the Roman course was beamed around the world on TV.

For the majority, though, the Ryder Cup in Adare and the Irish Open in Doonbeg signify nothing more than grandiose extravagances with too high a price to pay.

Canon Kilcoyne speaks a language of hatred and despair

Below is a clip of a talk given by Fr Brendan Kilcoyne, suggesting only Christian migrants be allowed into Ireland.

He uses nasty, disparaging terms such as ‘middle class journalists.’

Kilcoyne says the country is being crammed with people, who have no sympathy with the country.
And at the end of his words he blesses himself, an almost sacrilegious act, considering what the canon said earlier. Maybe he is even blessing his viewers; a shuddering thought.

According to the Irish Catholic Directory this man is a priest of the Archdiocese of Tuam, indeed he is a canon. 

Does his bishop subscribe to what he says on this clip?  

He speaks abhorrent, objectionable words.

Below is the clip:

https://youtu.be/I1_R7VQhONI?si=DgiNNJ09aCsfwQEo

'The Prince of Darkness' is back in the news

We are now learning that the

Peter Mandelson

UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson had a longtime friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. 

During Mandelson’s time in Northern Ireland as Secretary of State he was known as The Prince of Darkness, a term he earned due to his ruthless and media savvy skills.

Watching the man stand beside US President Donald Trump in the White House and learning about his effusive letters to Jeffrey Epstein the moniker seems to sit well on his shoulders.

Mandelson was known as The Prince of Darkness ever before he came to Northern Ireland.

We are living in the strangest of times.

A garda superintendent does a good job

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

Last Christmas a former colleague and I found a middle-age man living in undergrowth. We’ll call him John, which is not his real name. We got him to hospital, where he made a speedy recovery. The man was an alcoholic. 

On being discharged from hospital he told me he was attending two to three AA meetings every day. Only six weeks ago we met for a chat. I thought he was in good form.

Last Monday my colleague called me to tell me John had died.  He had been found dead in his room in a house, which he shared with other men. At this stage his family had not been informed and I was in a state of confusion, wondering whether or not I should call his mother, whom I had got to know over the last few months. 

I called the relevant Garda station. Because of GDPR the garda on duty informed me I could be told nothing. I accepted that but it was the manner in which I was told it that was annoying, indeed, demeaning. I got the impression the garda with whom I spoke may as well have been speaking about a sack of potatoes. 

And what particularly annoyed me was that that the previous evening the new Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, at a press conference, was explaining how important it was that gardaí should respect the public. The garda with whom I spoke showed not a shred of empathy, interest or compassion.

I was not leaving it at that and asked to speak to the superintendent in the local area. I left my number with the station and the superintendent returned my call. We were in written communication to and fro; I explained what happened, he examined the situation and detailed the case to me in an email. The superintendent gave me his own mobile number. The man could not have been more helpful; he was kind and empathetic. He spoke to his fellow officers about what had happened and how I had felt I had not been properly treated.

We sure do live in strange times. There’s much shouting and screaming out there. It’s easy to call a chat show and air one’s complaint.

Of course, we can be badly treated, people in authority and power can abuse their positions. But there are ways and means of dealing with such occasions.

I was impressed with how the superintendent handled the situation and indeed how he dealt with me.

His behaviour was completely in line with what Commissioner Justin Kelly had said in his first press conference.

There’s a twist to the story; within hours of my being in contact with the superintendent I discovered to my horror and yes, annoyance, that John had gone back on the drink, indeed, had been drinking for some time.

And that too brought it home to me nothing is simple, there are twists and turns with every situation.

Yes, I’m upset about John’s death. He was a good man, afflicted with alcoholism. 

But I learned too that An Garda Síochána are doing a good job and have women and men out there doing their best to protect and serve us.

‘Not a chum of the PM but champion of the party'

Not good days for the Labour Party in England. A year ago many people hoped for a different UK. Yes, there have been some developments but with the resignation of the deputy PM Angela Rayner, the star of the north, Keir Starmer is not in a good place.

Baroness Harman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "I think that, in terms of extending the breadth of the leadership, it probably needs to be somebody from outside London and it definitely needs to be a woman.

"We need somebody who is not a counterpoint to the leader, but is complementary to the leader, will broaden the reach of the leader and galvanise the party.”

Another member of the party said it is important that the new deputy leader if not a chum of the prime minister but a champion of the party.

Wise words indeed.

Pope Leo realises first you have to listen

From the Sunday Independent yesterday. It’s a lovely piece of writing by Colum McCann, positive too, and leaves the reader with hope and trust in the new pope.

I was lucky to meet the pontiff last week and was struck by his sense of reflective calm. One thing is clear: he doesn't want to be the centre of attention

I'm not a particularly devout Catholic, but last week I had the honour of visiting Pope Leo in the Vatican alongside Diane Foley, the mother of murdered journalist Jim Foley. Our visit was short, no more than 15 minutes. The conversation ­centred on mercy and compassion, as clearly seen in Diane's forgiveness of her son's killer, documented in her book American Mother, which I co-wrote.

One of Pope Leo's most significant refrains, in the four months that he has held the papal office, is the world needs a form of communication where we are all "capable of listening”.

This may seem a routine salvo of language from a pope, or indeed any religious figure. Of course we need to listen. It has always been so. But what Pope Leo has been suggesting in the ongoing shattering of the world around us was that to listen — to properly listen — might be the quiet essence of slow change, a counterpoint to the mechanical loudspeakers of political bluster and war.

War. Hostages. Death. Compassion. The idea of moral courage. As the conversation unfurled, Diane and I also got the chance to talk to him about the atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank. We shared an acute memory of all the journalists and aid workers who had been killed over the course of the war, in particular those who died in the double bombing in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The Pope bowed his head, and his sense of reflective calm filled the room.

We talked, then, of the word "possible” existing within the word "impossible”. The point was, of course, that he was listening. With sincerity. And, crucially, also with a certain amount of graceful delay, or benign silence. I was overcome with the feeling that the real listening would come later, when the information could be parsed and ruminated over, and digested into a form of prayer for the brokenness we all inhabit.

He was not prepared to become declarative. He did not give any outright clue to anything but the sadness of what he heard, and the hope that something might emerge from the words if, or maybe when, they could be disarmed. To remove the weaponry. To acknowledge one's own armaments. To move through language. To learn.

​

Peace is a dirty word these days. It gets dismissed by government officials. It gets laughed at in progressive and conservative circles alike. It gets crushed under the allegations of naivety and the weight of a fashionable cynicism. And why not? Cynicism spreads. In so many instances we are scared to speak out. Consequently, we are scared to listen. Pope Leo has begun his role in opposition to that sense of cynicism.

It was quite obvious in our brief visit that the Pope was adjusting to his role. He, too, talked of the seemingly impossible actually occurring. Four months ago, he told us, he never could have conceived or even imagined himself being in the position where he finds himself now. The world has offered him the impossible. It is, of course, a shock to the system and something he must inhabit quickly, maybe even uncomfortably. Even the pressure of the morning visits must be overwhelming.

While Diane and I waited for our audience with him, there was a senior Italian politician also waiting in a neighbouring room. At one point, Pope Leo came to the door of our room and peeped his head around. "Buongiorno,” he said.

It was a disarmingly human moment, the spiritual guide of 1.4 billion people looking bemusedly around a doorframe, almost as if he might be the gentle intruder, to see who awaited him. Yet as he talked, it became clear that he has a great sense of who he is. He didn't strike me as American, nor Peruvian. Even if his new position has confounded him at times, he is aware of the "everywhereness” of his role. He is clued in to his responsibility. Perhaps it frightens him in a galvanising way.

One thing is clear: he does not want to be the centre of attention. He is interested in the process of "synodal unity”, a fancy term for walking together. On June 1, at the homily mass for families, the Pope said Jesus does not want us to be a nameless and faceless crowd. "Together, we will rebuild the credibility of a wounded church, sent to a wounded humanity, within a wounded creation. We are not yet perfect, but it is necessary that we be credible,” he added.

Credibility is a good theme for these times. When nothing seems true, we at least have to believe that there is a credibility somewhere, a proper truth, a moment of hope despite all the evidence that the world throws at us.

Nothing is whole if it doesn't lead to eventual action.

Will Pope Leo go to Gaza and stand among the shatterings of our modern world? Sudan? Ukraine? Lebanon? Afghanistan? Will he speak out vocally against the insanity of the actions those who wield power?

For now, he is listening, but the doorframe is opening. 

Differing views on driving the new electric buses

Dublin Bus has now a significant number of electric buses in its fleet. The mirrors have been replaced with cameras and monitors in the driving cab.

The buses have the classification EW.

It’s interesting, maybe remarkable how drivers consider the new bus. Some think it is a great bus to drive, others think it is shambolic.

A number of drivers complain about the power steering and how difficult it is to turn the bus.

The way of the world.

Anyone who has travelled on the upper deck of the hybrid bus, the class PA bus, will have noticed the continuous loud noise at the rear of the bus.

Is it fair to ask why the TFI moved away from buying Volvo, which were the workhorse of the entire diesel fleet.

China is on the march - in every respect

I can still remember my mother talk about the fear of the Yellow Peril. It is a racist expression describing the people of Asia.

I was reminded of my mother’s words watching the military might as the Chinese army paraded its power in Tiananmen Square earlier in the week.

Today a Chinese middle-aged woman assured me that Xi Jinping is a great Chinese leader and of course Taiwan is part of China and will one day be reunited with the mainland.

And all the time US President Donald Trump is talking nonsense and behaving accordingly.

Workplace stress can add to mental health issues

An interesting article from The Irish Times.

Employee assistance programmes are becoming more popular because they represent win-win measures for workers and companies

It was eight years before Anthony O’Reardon spoke publicly about the mental health struggles that afflicted him back in 2010, but, once he started, he says with a laugh now, “I couldn’t seem to stop again”.

Then a driver with Dublin Bus, now with Irish Rail, O’Reardon reckons financial worries were the biggest factor affecting his health at the time. He suddenly started finding himself overwhelmed and thinking about suicide. “I didn’t realise what was going on at the time, although I did make one appointment with my GP and then a counsellor.

“I bottled the GP appointment that morning, though. I was thinking about the stigma of it all: ‘How can I talk to the family doctor about all of this?’ But then I hit on the idea of writing the doctor a letter. I think that was the start of things turning around for me. I’d reached out for help and that was sort of half the battle.”

Setting down all he was going through certainly helped him, he believes, but O’Reardon’s finances also started to improve and, as other external factors contributed, he began to feel much better over time.

Eight years later, though, he was helping to organise a Pieta House, Darkness Into Light event in Sandymount and started to recount his experience to a group when, suddenly, he began to appreciate the impact it had all had on him.

Wanting to explore the issue more, he went back to UCC, and then Trinity, to study and became an ambassador for Shine, originally the Schizophrenia Association, one of a number of Irish charities with a focus on supporting people with mental health issues and their families.

O’Reardon now delivers the group’s six-point programme on workplace mental health to business leaders and their employees.

As it happens, work for him was always a positive. “There’s not too much daydreaming you can do driving a bus and I always enjoyed it, the focus was good for me”, but he is keenly aware workplace stress is a factor that contributes to so many others feeling unwell.

The World Health Organisation, which estimates 15 per cent of adults had a mental health issue in 2019, suggests all sorts of issues can cause stress that leads to other problems, from under- or over-work, bullying, poor or unsafe conditions or conflicts between the demands of work and home . . . the list goes on.

The training is particularly focused on ensuring people are able to raise issues without feeling there is a stigma attached, as well as the creation of a psychologically safe workplace environment.

Talking openly

“Psychological safety is about feeling comfortable enough to talk openly in the workplace, or anywhere I suppose, and not just about your mental health, but about anything,” he says. “It could be owning up to mistakes or having questions for people. There’s big research behind this and how important it is for people.”

It is important for the organisations that employ those people too. O’Reardon cites research that found 50 per cent of managers said absence from work due to stress, depression and related conditions has increased in recent years.

In fact, the scale of the increase is remarkable. Various Irish studies have highlighted the issue, but, in the UK, the most recent figures for the NHS, which employs 1.5 million people, suggest 25 per cent of all working days lost to illness are down to mental health conditions, roughly twice as many as are attributed to colds or flus and three times as many as for the next cause listed, gastrointestinal issues.

A related study, by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, found the number of days off attributable to mental health issues among its members jumped about 50 per cent between 2019 and last year.

O’Reardon makes the point that happier, healthier employees affect a company’s bottom line – Ibec has previously put the cost of poor mental health among staff at up to €2,000 per employee per year – but Shine’s chief executive, Nicola Byrne, says “organisations and businesses also have an obligation to protect people’s mental health in the workplace. Often that’s not realised.

“They focus on slips, trips and falls and the physical elements, but psychosocial risk is as important as the slips, trips and falls. Just as there should be measures in place to ensure employees’ physical safety, there’s a responsibility to provide for psychological safety, and that applies, whether they’re a small company or a large multinational.”

It’s a point echoed by the Communication Workers Union’s Pat Kenny, a long-time union representative at the Health and Safety Authority and Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). “It’s one thing when you are talking about improving safety on building sites through having more inspections, but it’s particularly hard for outside bodies to safeguard employees in something like mental health . . . what are you supposed to inspect for?”.

ICTU’s Laura Bambrick says legislation has still helped to improve things, with the Employment Equality Acts making the issue one that can result in discrimination cases. “Traditionally, a lot people thought that if you couldn’t see an illness it wasn’t real – the laws around it have focused minds and thankfully attitudes are changing too.”

Feedback received suggests Shine’s training programme, recently trimmed down to make it more accessible, does help to tackle issues such as the stigma around mental health and that improved working environments are something of a win-win for both staff members and the wide range of employers they have worked with.

“It can be the public sector, it can be corporate, it can be small companies, although we do find them harder to reach because many organisations that are small end up with a few people having a huge amount of responsibilities and not enough hours in a day,” says Byrne.

“We understand that and we work with them, put them in groups with other small companies so that they can hear from others. But really it’s employers full stop, and it’s free, and it’s a way of them actually meeting their own responsibilities, but also working towards a better workplace.”

Neil McDonnell at small business group Isme accepts that many members of that organisation do not have the budgets to emulate the programmes run by some larger firms and multinationals but, he says, a growing number encourage managers to engage positively with employees on the issue.

“Listening, checking in and creating space for honest communication can make a big difference to employee’s mental health at work.”

Isme also offers an employee assistance programme (EAP), through Laya healthcare and Spectrum Life, something that has become increasingly popular with larger employers in recent years.

Offering supports

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) suggests more than half of workplaces, 56 per cent, offer some such supports.

Its recently appointed new director for Ireland, Alison Hodgson, says a growing number of companies are coming to realise the importance of tackling the issue by taking more time over the formulation of detailed mental health policies and how they are implemented.

“Progress is certainly being made, but employers can still be so much more proactive in this space,” she says.

“If you’re well informed as an employee, you’re more likely to flourish. So employers can play a bigger role in raising awareness and breaking down taboos. They can do that by fostering open discussions about mental health in the workplace, and that will result in lowering anxiety and that can be done through regular check-ins, through anonymous feedback channels, by creating a stigma-free environment.”

The current environment, she says, provides many things to get stressed about, not least the rapid rise of AI and the threat it is perceived to pose to many jobs, but EAPs, she says, can provide significant psychological supports, even if it is important to remember they are no substitute for a positive workplace culture.

“When people are anxious it can impact their sleeping, their concentration, their physical health and it ultimately affects their work performance, which quickly becomes everybody’s problem. One simple way of helping to address that is by creating an environment in which it’s okay for the employee to simply say: ‘I’m not feeling the best today’.

That, says O’Reardon, is what it boils down to – communication – because in most modern workplaces now, “it’s all KPIs (key performance indicators) and Go! Go! Go!”.

High numbers working, high numbers Australian bound

At present there are 2.8 million people working in Ireland. This is a 50 per cent increase on the low point of the financial crisis.

Last year 6,100 people left Ireland to live in Australia; it’s the highest number since 2013.

Trauma leaves an indelible mark on our psyche

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper

Michael Commane

It must be 40 years since I first heard of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly known as PTSD. It became something of a ruse as people were using it as a way of claiming recompense from their insurance company as a result of an accident, it was usually an injury that caused whiplash. If all else failed, try the PTSD trick and you just might get compensation from your insurance company.

No doubt there were and are tricksters who try it, but don’t fraudsters and tricksters try every method possible to steal and cheat.

That’s not to say that PTSD is not real. My eyes were opened having attended a day-long seminar on trauma. Okay, I can hear you say; after a day’s course he’s now pontificating on the subject. That’s fine, but the day set me thinking of how events in our lives influence what we do and say. 

I’m forever asking, who am I, what do I believe, why do I behave in such a manner, do I know who I am? Do any of us know who we are or why we act and speak as we do? 

After 75 years on this planet I’m coming around to the idea of so much of what I do began to take shape in my mother’s womb. If our parents are kind and loving people, surely that rubs off on us and in turn we behave in a like manner. 

I have learned over the years how fragile we are.

If I had been born a Muslim in 1949 it’s almost certain I would not now be a Dominican priest.

I remember a violent incident that happened me in school. I am sure it had a profound effect on my life. 

Any events that harm us impact on our lives; they play a significant role in deciding  who we are and how we behave.

No two people are the same; every situation is different.

Just think of the damage that all forms of violence cause on people.

Shakespeare in one of his sonnets hints at the terror and loneliness that can befall us: ‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,/When I've fallen out of favour with fortune and men,/I all alone beweep my outcast state.’ (Sonnet 29)

I’m a strong believer in the work counsellors and psychotherapists do; they have the skills and empathy to help us on our own individual road to discovery. 

Life is a journey with many twists and turns, all of us are in process. Somehow or someway most of us have been wounded along the journey. It’s how we handle or maybe interpret the trauma we have experienced that matters. 

And then in our dealing with other people every individual has to be recognised for who they are. If we see a physically vulnerable person on the street we might help them cross the road. What about the person suffering trauma?

If I had a magic wand it would be my wish that everyone had the opportunity to avail of benefiting from a counsellor or therapist. We regularly go to the doctor and dentist; why not give the same care to our mental health?