The great Kilkenny hurling star, the late Jim Langton, must be turning in his grave, An Fear Rua believes ….

Not, of course, at the unseemly defeat of the Black and Amber in this year’s Leinster hurling championship – though that must not have been easy for Jim to accept in the heavenly playing fields above – but at something even stranger … The fact that the Kilkenny City pub named after the famed hurler has now become the weekend Mecca, so to speak, of young Dublin lads and lassies out for some drinking and a good time….

This piece of social anthropology (bedad, there’s no flies on An Fear Rua when it comes to using academic jawbreakers … Them Trinity lads have nothin’ on him … ) came to AFR’s attention when his finger accidentally touched the radio tuner in his trusty Ford Cortina the other day and he caught a piece of Gerry Ryan’s morning programme on 2FM. Normally, An Fear Rua’s radio dial would never be next, nigh nor near the same Gerry Ryan’s airwaves outpourings. The local radio station of whatever part of Ireland he happens to be passing through, or indeed Radio na Gaeltachta, would be far more to An Fear Rua’s taste.

In this instance, An Fear Rua was travelling to Monaghan to administer some strict disciplinary measures against a number of camogie players whose activities in the border county were bringing the game into disrepute. No smarter man to administer same, than An Fear Rua himself. This was an appropriate trip for An Fear Rua since the trophy for the camogie Senior All Ireland Final is, of course, named after a Monaghan man, General Eoin O’Duffy. AFR’s younger readers might need to be told that this eejit was Ireland’s pathetic answer to Mussolini, Hitler, Salazar and Franco during the rise of Fascism in the Thirties. Indeed, as the birthplace of O’Duffy, Monaghan is a county where its denizens are well used to a touch of the old stern discipline. Shure, the General himself was a great man for the oul’ leather belts and boots in the Thirties and was reputed to keep a very close eye indeed on some of the young athletes whose careers he got involved in – too close for comfort, some would say.

Anyway, the word on the Ryan Show is that Jim Langton’s bar in Kilkenny City is rapidly replacing Temple Bar as the place of recourse for trendy young Dubliners arranging stag parties. Apparently, the behaviour of some of the Jackeens on the streets of Kilkenny leaves a lot to be desired. Boys-a-dear, what would the late, great Jim have to say about all this ? Maybe a Citizens Patrol, armed with stout hurleys from Falconers of Piltown might be part of the answer. And for a real touch of nostalgia for older Kilkenny hurling followers, they could wear blue shirts on the lines worn by the same General O’Duffy or the famous Black and Amber stalwart of the Thirties, Lory Maher. Now, wonders An Fear Rua, what other famous GAA pubs around the country will fall victim to the ravages of these young thugs…. Fad Browne’s, John Keane’s or Philly Grimes’s in Waterford, Bernard Flynn’s in Navan or even Paddy Cullen’s in Dublin. The thought is enough to put any dacent drinker off his pint or large bottle !

Still, the Dublin crowds won’t be flocking to Kilkenny for the Gaelic Football. Not at all. Sure, Kilkenny County Board have really made sure of that. Having refused to nominate a team for this year’s Leinster Senior Championship, the County Board have now refused to put forward a team in Division Four of the National Football League.

An Fear Rua has written on this disgraceful stance several times before. The GAA at headquarters must take immediate action to have this decision reversed. No county – no matter how eminent – should be allowed, as it were, dine a-la-carte at the GAA table. In plain language, there should be a minimum of competitions for which county representation should be compulsory, at the risk of elimination from all competitions. For example, the bare minimum should be Senior, Minor and Under-21 teams from every county in hurling and football in both championship and league. Anything less is not acceptable. Quite frankly, it’s an insult to the decent footballing strongholds of Kilkenny – places like Ballyragget and Dunamaggin – that the Board will not field a team. Meanwhile, neighbouring counties like Waterford and Carlow (who enjoy a lot less Senior hurling success than the The Cats) at least struggle to produce county teams across the full range of grades and competitions. The whole spirit of the GAA is as much about taking part as it is about winning. If Kilkeny get away with this, many inter-county GAA competitions run the risk of becoming showcases only for the strong, with the numbers of counties participating greatly reduced. I mean why should the hurlers of counties like Meath or Down or the footballers of Waterford bother their barney togging out, if Kilkenny are left off the hook on this ?

Meanwhile, the number of counties in the Connacht Football Championship will be augmented next year by the addition of New York and London. Those additions, of course, will push up GDP levels per head of population in the ‘Wesht’ to record levels, so they need to be sure the EU buck cats in Brussels don’t misunderstand what’s happened and start cutting back on the premiums for hill sheep, suckler calves and the like. The Western ‘formers’ – as an Fear Rua’s old pal Ray McSharry used to call them – would not be keen on that. With the loss of Kilkenny, and the addition of New York and London, the number of ‘counties’ competing in premier GAA competitions next year will be 33 (32 – 1 + 2 ). What about the men and women who struggled and died to achieve a 32 County Republic, An Fear Rua asks. Is the GAA to render their efforts as naught ?

Connacht and Munster in football, and Leinster in hurling both intend to experiment next year with a so-called ‘back door’ system in their championships. Dan Fortune, Gowlnacalley-John Redmonds’ minibus driver, when told of these plans one night recently in Ma Molloy’s drinking emporium, drily remarked that at this rate, the GAA will have more back doors than a Soho clip joint in the Fifties…. Dan should know. Didn’t he spend more than thirty years of purgatory employed as a conductor on the buses with London Transport….