Bright spots on sport's bleak horizon

Events within and outside the sporting arena in recent times might, quite easily, make a person cynical about sport of all kinds. Apart from serious lack of discipline on the pitch, even during training in one well-publicised incident, there have been widespread reports about drug-taking, marital infidelity, greed, rampant alcoholism and an overall lack of decency and honesty.

In such a climate it is good to be able to report that all has not been negative in Ireland, at least during the last week or so.

The International Rules match between Ireland and Australia was a most enjoyable affair. Thirty seconds of madness was allowed, in some quarters, to be characterised as though it epitomised the match. This was a complete distortion of what happened.

It is, of course, important to say that the 30 seconds should not have happened, but the fact is that a good crowd of some 22,000 people watched a fascinating match with a high level of skill.

The result was a highly entertaining afternoon's sport and one which will, surely, attract an even bigger crowd to Croke Park tomorrow afternoon.

It may even be expected that the sell-out crowd of 34,500 at Lansdowne Road on Wednesday for an important international soccer match may well be topped.

That, in turn brings me to another event which lifted the heart during the week - the same match at Lansdowne Road. Apart from the fact that the Irish team went about their work with lots of effort and style, it was delightful to witness the presentation before the match of honours to the Ireland under-18 squad which won the European title recently under the guidance of Brian Kerr. The knowledge that there is a crop of players of that age available to the Irish side within the next few years is heartening indeed. The two goals by Robbie Keane, the first which made him the youngest player to score for the Republic of Ireland, brought back memories of the day when Johnny Giles scored in his first match against Sweden, just short of his 19th birthday.

Although Malta seemed out of their depth as the match wore on, it was good to see so many young Irish players show that they have the potential to gel into a very strong side. Roy Keane was even more impressive as he proved, once again, that he is now one of the top players in the world.

Nostalgia began to set in when memories of the youthful exploits of Liam Brady, Dave O'Leary and Frank Stapleton came flooding back as the youngsters from the under-18 European champions were given a well-deserved and rapturous reception.

The only pity of it was that more people could not have been able to gain admission and that, in turn, brings me to another positive move in Irish sport from earlier in the week.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minister for Sport Jim McDaid met the media to announce a feasibility study on a National Stadium for the new millennium.

Some cynics will say that this is pie in the sky and maybe it is. Cynics were, memorably, described by Oscar Wilde as people who "know the price of everything and the value of nothing".

The fact that three of the Government's most senior members were willing to lend their support for a feasibility study for this project should be taken at its face value. With people like Liam Mulvihill, Syd Millar, Tom Kiernan, John Treacy, JP McManus and many others also lending their moral support, the chances of success must be bright.

If the matter never gets beyond the feasibility stage, at least sports people in Ireland can be happy that their interests are not being ignored. There was a lot of cynicism around when the grant of £20 million to Croke Park was announced. Many even chose to misrepresent the grant as taxpayer's money when in fact it had come from the National Lottery which was set up specifically with sport and the arts in mind. With massive work still going on at Croke Park we are now well on the way to getting a wonderful stadium of which all Irish people can be proud. These positive developments during the past week can be turned to our advantage and give the coming generations something to look forward to.