GAA, County Antrim, BBC, RTE all making sure you miss the match?

Antrim’s once in a life time, for most, run in the All-Ireland Football Championship came to an end last Sunday. For many it was among their best and most unexpected experiences. The absolute disbelief over them getting to an Ulster Final after many years in the wilderness, playing well against the current champions and then some level of hope coming up to facing Kerry, one of the best teams to grace the competition ever.Many ended up disappointed/furious with the non-TV coverage/efforts at transport for what was Antrim’s 2nd most important match in 38yrs, the Round 4 qualifier with a Quarter Final and match at Croke Park as the prize.

Clubs across the county had run increasing numbers of buses during the Ulster Championship but once it hit Round 4 these buses evaporated. Non-drivers were left to trawl GAA websites, plead for a space on a family friendly bus to Tullamore and while Kerry had such buses run by the County, Antrim fans with children were left with the option of getting on a bus with drinkers, begging for a lift or ‘not’ watching on TV.

‘Not’ watching TV was raised in today’s ATN by Fra McCann, the BBC pointed out they weren’t contractually obliged to broadcast the match and declared they would be putting it out on radio. Not the FM channel people found, that’s the one that can be picked up easily and of course was given over to Hugo Duncan but MW – try picking that up.

So RTE came to the rescue with a live web stream didn’t they? Well a live web stream that wasn’t available in the 6 counties unless you contact your ISP and got them to get in touch with RTE to unblock your address – doesn’t work and they know it.

So, lesson learnt – if you want to follow Antrim, or any team from the north don’t be counting on the GAA, RTE or BBC to help out – learn to drive or find a mate with a car and get there. It is the only option and a bloody disgrace. Or just hold out for some schools rugby or Gary Lineker in a big balloon – you’ll get that easy for your licence fee.

(Though it’s a credit to the Antrim fans that managed to get there – I’m gutted it didn’t work out for me and I couldn’t get to experience any of it properly due to both broadcasters treating Gaelic games and Antrim as an afterthought)

Categories Uncategorised

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.