Prayers for the (sadly) faithful

Everybody else is doing it so why can't we. Back in the bad old days the Easter Message to the faithful was the preserve of the Pope and Republicans. Each, in their own differing ways, assessed the state of the nation and looked tentatively towards the future. But now everyone is at it - Loyalists, the IRA, Non-Conformists, atheists, the farmers - and it has become abundantly clear that if you're not delivering a message to your people at this time of year then you are a nobody. Out of the North has watched these developments with growing disquiet. It has now chosen this year to break its silence and deliver its own sporting Easter Message.

Irish League Football

With falling attendances, dwindling faith about its future and scepticism about the leadership being provided from the top, Irish League football is the sporting equivalent of the Catholic Church. In the year ahead we expect it to limp along principally because that is what it has always done. As with the GAA Congress, it cannot be long before clubs have to consider placing security men along the perimeter walls of their grounds to prevent people trying to flee at halftime. Some sponsors have severed their ties: time may be running out for this sport.

Northern Ireland Football

Things here are just as disturbing but for a totally different reason. Sammy McIlroy's side have their first home outing tonight against Hungary at Windsor Park. Another good performance would make it three in-a-row and have the many sceptics who have been finely tuning their cynicism for a decade reaching for the smelling salts. Having made a seeming return to such old-fashioned concepts as scoring goals and genuinely trying to entertain people this Northern Ireland team and its IFA masters will have to be careful. If they keep this up, people might even start turning up to watch them again.

Gaelic Football (1)

The rise and rise of the Gaelic Players' Association over the past year continues to cause concern. For months this Donal O'Neill character has given the impression that he is a go-ahead kind of guy and someone who is tuned in to the lucrative commercial aspects of modern sport. But much of that good work was undone by the ultimately unsuccessful attempt of the GPA's chief executive to get into the Saturday afternoon session of the GAA's Annual Congress. Everyone knows that any sane man or woman under 50 unfortunate enough to be a delegate to Congress is duty bound to do his or her level best to escape from the conference hall using whatever means necessary.

Maybe O'Neill should have been welcomed into the fold in the hope that exposure to the full horror of a Congress debate would scare him off for good.

Gaelic Football (2)

The lingering decline of Ulster football has been a constant irritant. That situation is not helped by the fact that the only shoots of hope are to be found in a resurgent Derry team. One of the enduring truths of Ulster football is that nobody likes to see Derry winning anything. Within the other Ulster counties heads are down and spirits are low. Down have taken their traditional indifference towards the League to new lengths by contriving to get relegated. Armagh have shown that they have no intention of building on last year's provincial title by managing the same trick.

But it is in Tyrone, the sick man of Ulster football, where the situation is most serious. What is being done to Tyrone's water supply to stop the growth and development of its promising under-age players into men big enough for inter-county football? The tampering has to stop.

Bowls

One of the great sporting mysteries of the modern world and, spookily enough, something at which Northern Ireland seems to excel. With two world champions, wall-to-wall television coverage and newspaper interest, bowls is flavour of the month here which should give you some indication of the sporting cul-de-sac in which we find ourselves. Worse still, it appears to be spreading. All over the country callous and uncaring old people are inflicting this most dubious of sporting pursuits and an unsuspecting young public. Already outbreaks of unorganised and anarchic late night bowling sessions have been reported in towns right across the North.

Parents try to encourage their children to try football or tennis but once the young people are cruelly given a free taste of the poison that is bowls they are hooked and defenceless. How far does this have to go before something is done?

Golf

Yet another sphere in which our young people are at risk. Darren Clarke's rebirth after his World Matchplay victory over Tiger Woods has been almost universally lauded but this widespread adulation has ignored at least one significant downside. Inspired by some of the memorable images of that win, some impressionable young golfers have taken to chomping on huge cigars as they head out for a quick nine holes after school. Already on golf courses from Derry to Newcastle there have been disturbing sights of clouds of cheroot smoke wafting into the air from bunkers as copycat Darrens take their hero-worship to extremes.

Rugby

It brings us no joy whatsoever to record that Ulster's end-of-term report reads "could not do much worse". This is a society obsessed with remembering and celebrating the past and already disparate groups of careworn veterans have begun to set up "Spirit of 1999" societies to keep alive the memory of last year's European Cup win. Commemorative marches are already being planned through non-contentious areas and limited edition hip-flasks have been commissioned as enduring mementoes. The sceptics, though, are growing in confidence. After this year's dismal campaign, a significant rump of revisionist historians have even begun to question whether the victory happened at all. The battle for hearts and minds is likely to be hard-fought over the next 12 months. We will be monitoring the situation carefully.