It Occurs To Me: GAA Plus? Minus for supporters!
‘It's not so much the money but I morally object to having to pay to watch my favourite sport behind a bloody paywall!’
It’s almost a year since I wrote the following: “As regards ordinary Donegal supporters who couldn’t attend all the matches…I’ve heard from quite a few people whose GAA+ screens buffered to such an extent that viewing was a nightmare.
And it wasn’t because of poor Wi-Fi! While RTE were breathlessly announcing that they will broadcast the All-Ireland Senior, Intermediate, and Premier Junior Camogie Finals live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player as part of a multi-year deal, ensuring free-to-air access for these games.
"Additionally, RTÉ will provide coverage of other GAA championships, including the Tailteann Cup. Would it have been too much too much to ask to broadcast Donegal V Louth and the Monaghan game on previous Saturdays? Let’s have ‘free-to-air access’ for those crucial games that the majority would like to see!”
What has changed in the interim? Like thousands of others, I watched Mark McHugh's Westmeath's victory over Kildare on GAA+ reaching their first Leinster Final since 2004.
Well done to them - but my experience with GAA+ over the years has been negative in the extreme...bufferings and shut downs.
True to form, GAA+ lost 20 crucial minutes of the game...it's nothing short of disgraceful. Now, as it happens, I watched it (minus the 20!) in Ardara in the comfort of a pub, but previously, I’ve endured similar frustrations at home.
‘The Champions Cup rugby final between Bordeaux and Leinster, on 23 May, clashes with Kerry V Donegal and will be broadcast live and free to air on ITV’
Last month, GAA+ apologised to its subscribers over the interruption to its coverage of the Connacht Championship game between Roscommon and hosts New York.
They explained that the outage was due to a complete failure of the broadband internet connection at Gaelic Park. The interruption continued while technical staff worked to establish a reliable alternative connection to restore the stream. All the more reason to watch games on subscriber free TV that doesn't require wi-fi. Now, I don't expect every game to be shown on RTE but look at this list:
Saturday, May 23rd
Kerry v Donegal, Fitzgerald Stadium, 3pm - GAA+
Cork v Meath, Pairc Ui Rinn, 5.30pm - GAA+
Galway v Kildare, Pearse Stadium, 7.30pm - RTÉ
Sunday, May 24th
Roscommon v Tyrone, Dr Hyde Park, 2pm - GAA+
Ah come on! The whole controversy is now beyond farce..I saw this headline in the Irish Independent: “GAA championship stuck in Groundhog Day as promotion and live coverage are selling games short...Despite facing well-documented issues, valid concerns don’t seem to be making a ripple in Croke Park.”
Not a ripple? They don't give a damn! Interestingly, the Champions Cup rugby final between Bordeaux and Leinster, on 23 May, clashes with Kerry V Donegal and will be broadcast live and free to air on ITV.
Any chance of our county powerbrokers raising their heads above the parapet and expressing our 'valid concerns'?
Fair play to Brian McEniff who supports RTE showing the game, and former hurling great John Mullane was brutal in his Independent headline: “The GAA is being driven by utter greed – we need to stop this money grab before it’s too late, With clubs struggling and volunteers dwindling, Croke Park needs to listen to its grassroots and keep our best games on free-to-air TV.” And so say all of us!
Ryanair and drink tolerance
I see where Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has called for tighter alcohol restrictions at airports, including a proposed two-drink limit, arguing that disruptive passenger incidents have risen sharply and now force nearly one Ryanair diversion per day. Fair enough.
In February last year, I witnessed the chaos caused by a shower of drunken yahoos from Strabane who were the reason for a delay in a departure to Tenerife.
A 50-minute delay! The two airport police on duty told me that once the said passengers were on board, it was out of their hands! But surely, they should have been prevented from boarding in the first instance? Subsequently, they were served more drinks on board and passengers, particularly children, were terrified.
At one stage, I thought there was going to be a diversion, such was the abuse the staff were subjected to. One gulpen ended up stripped to the waist and staggered off in Tenerife, to be followed by a woman who fell down the last few steps. How they then got past the Spanish authorities is beyond me!
Before last Christmas, Ryanair flight FR7031 operating from Faro to Dublin was forced to divert to Cork Airport after the crew reported concerns about a passenger’s behaviour on board. The aircraft landed in Cork, where gardaí were already waiting on the tarmac and removed a man in his 30s from the flight.
The diversion occurred less than an hour before the scheduled arrival in Dublin. Gardaí confirmed the passenger was arrested under the Air Navigation and Transport Act 2022 and was detained at a Garda station in County Cork, with investigations ongoing.
The aircraft remained on the ground in Cork for around 90 minutes before resuming its journey to Dublin.
Recently, Ryanair has secured a court judgment for more than €15,000 plus legal costs against an Irish passenger whose alleged disruptive behaviour forced a Dublin–Lanzarote flight to divert to Porto in April 2024.
The airline claimed the passenger’s conduct caused significant disruption for 160 passengers, requiring an overnight delay and generating costs linked to accommodation, passenger care, and landing fees.
After the defendant failed to respond to the proceedings, Dublin Circuit Civil Court entered judgment in Ryanair’s favour in February 2026.
Ryanair said the case reflects its zero-tolerance approach to unruly behaviour onboard and follows another recent court victory in France involving disruptive passengers on a Stansted–Ibiza flight.
Surely, prevention is better than cure? Whatever about the amount of drink consumed before boarding (and O’Leary has a point…albeit late in the day), a zero-tolerance approach should simply ban those unruly drunks before they board at all.
The very fickle UK vote
British actor Hugh Grant once remarked: “Brexit was a fantastic example of a nation shooting itself full in the face.”
Since Keir Starmer swept to power in 2024 with the Labour Party winning 411 of 650 possible seats, he has managed to shoot himself with great accuracy in both feet. The shot in the face awaits.
In June 2016 the UK voted to exit the European Union, and this formally happened on January 31, 2020. The majority was slight, 52 percent voting to leave the EU.
The pro-Brexit slogan “Take back control” promising better control over immigration and no more bureaucratic EU regulations promised to boost economic growth. Without being tied to the EU, Brexit promised, the UK could strike improved global trade deals.
However, contrary to the promises, businesses faced much more bureaucracy and the UK lost its influence in Europe. Paradoxically, overall migration levels increased significantly, especially from outside the EU. Brexit became the failure of the century. Brexit became a colossal financial failure for the UK.
Multinational companies, financial institutions and thousands of jobs moved out of the country. Banks moved their offices and more than €1 trillion in assets out of the UK.
By April 2019 Brexit had cost the UK economy € 75 billion, it triggered a decline of the British pound, increased inflation, eroded household spending power and led to weaker exports.
Although the Brexit majority was small - it included many fickle voters who needed somebody to blame - it was a mixture of Tories, 58% voted Leave and Labour around 37%. UKIP. who would morph into Reform, voted 96% to Leave, and that latter vote has now manifested itself in Reform cleaning up at the UK council elections.
In other words, as Maggie Thatcher and Tony Blair realised, it's not so much an ideological war in the UK but one of blame apportion, and as Thatcher more or less said to the British middle classes“....you're greedy, aren't you? And I can help you with that.”
She destroyed the working class and trade unionism, and decent politics has never recovered. Farage may have his day in the sun now, but if he doesn’t fully appreciate the very fickle nature of UK voters, his ambitions for Number 10 may be thwarted.
As political commentator Peter Kellner reflected: “Behind the impressive tally of Reform’s gains – likely to end up well over 1,000 – Nigel Farage should be privately worried. In last year’s local elections Reform won 41 per cent of all seats contested across England. On the basis of the overnight figures, this year’s tally is around 33 per cent. If there were no polls, and there had been no elections last year, this year’s figure would be astonishing. But we do have the record of recent polls and elections, and it seems clear that Reform has peaked.”