Colm Fitzpatrick
Galway hurler Joe Canning 
Feature
Colm Fitzpatrick reports from a conference dealing with the complexities of ethics in sport
Gambling addiction, mental health awareness, the role of comedy and fond memories of our sporting past were among a vast array of talks and discussed at a conference this month exploring the relationship between ethics and sport.
“Sport is a huge part of the fabric of Irish society,” said Dr John Scally, organiser of the conference hosted by the Department of Religion and Theology in Trinity College Dublin.
“The ethics of sport has not got the attention it deserves. There are issues in sport that need to be critiqued and seen from a new perspective.”
This was the fourth Ethics and Sport Conference organised by Dr Scally, an Assistant Professor in Ecclesiastical History and author of a variety of sports and ethics books. The line-up this year included key figures in the sporting industry, Irish sporting legends, academics and broadcasters.
Oisín McConville, former Armagh Gaelic football player, was the first speaker, addressing the issue of mental health in sport and giving a painfully honest account of his own struggles with gambling. He made clear that his gambling was not a result of any financial gain following his success in sports but was part of his life beginning in his teenage years. Gambling was his ‘drug of choice’, and the addiction became more progressive.
“I was financially and emotionally bankrupt, I hid behind my career”, he said. “There was a lot of pressure of keeping up a persona. I felt people thought I should be a certain way and I didn’t want to let them down.”
Support
After his gambling addiction spiralled out of control following his father’s death, he turned to sport and to the help others offered for support. “The only thing that was giving me direction was football. When I was training I didn’t have to gamble. Sport kept me alive, and gave me new opportunities. It changed my life”.
Oisín also expressed concern about the culture of gambling in Ireland, especially in online gambling and in the sporting context. Perhaps surprisingly, most people who gamble online are women between 25-45, and those who play competitive team sports are more three times more likely to gamble, he said.
Gareth O’Callaghan, broadcaster and author of the book A Day Called Hope expressed some of his reflections on depression and addiction, including the importance of mental health in sport. A recent head injury he experienced gave him an insight into injury in sport, he said, and made him realise how serious this issue actually is.
“Vulnerability is something we should remind ourselves every day,” he said. His lasting message for the audience was, “What would you say if no one was listening?”
Also tackling the issues of head injuries was Dr Kate Liston, lecturer in Sociology of Sport at the University of Ulster and former top ladies Kerry footballer, who discussed the concussion crisis in Ireland and its prominence in a growing number of sports. She pointed out that concussion isn’t taken as seriously as other physical injuries and that it is often trivialised in the sporting environment.
Concussion
“The diagnosis of concussion is avoided so that sport can be continued. It’s diagnosed in a frame unique to sport,” she said, explaining that it’s always in the context of the minimum time the player will be unable to play.
Dr Liston also emphasised that our sporting culture normalises “pain and injury”, meaning that players can feel shamed or stigmatised for sustaining injuries and taking time out. Dr Scally said that she engaged with these topics in a “critically significant and humanising way”.
Fintan Drury, founder and Chief Executive of Platinum One, gave a robust talk on the ethical dilemmas and corruption behind the scenes in the corporate environment of sports. He spoke about his joy in representing players but also the challenges that it can involve.
There’s this notion that footballers live glamourous lives, but players deal with anxiety and depression.”
He said that wholesome players don’t need to be just physically fit but also mentally healthy.
The ethics of sport was also the focal talking point for Mike Cronin of Boston College, sports historian and co-author of a number of books including The GAA – An Oral History. He discussed whether there are ethical limits in sport, and if Ireland has a distinct ethic. He argued that sporting players in Ireland are put on pedestals and so criticised more for actions in their own personal lives. People in ordinary jobs are not held to the same degree of accountability as these players, he said.
Galway hurler Joe Canning also mentioned this problem, saying that it is difficult, as a player, to drink alcohol in the public sphere without being questioned. In the same respect, he warned against the drink culture in the GAA, maintaining that there are unhealthy attitudes towards alcohol. He also touched on several topics including his relationship with the media, his parents’ diagnoses with cancer and the difficulty in dealing with the tragic death of his friend and teammate Niall Donoghue in 2013.
“It’s difficult to know how to react – it was difficult – you don’t realise what’s going through people’s heads,” he said.
He is now Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland and is currently focusing on the Syrian refugee crisis. He emphasised that refugees have had to flee their country in the hope of one day returning. “They want a place of refuge”, he said. Dr Scally presented Canning with the “Fair Play” award at the conclusion of the interview.
Sunday Game analyst Colm O’Rourke concluded the event, stating that there was a sheer lack of ethics in sport, pointing to his 20-year experience in the Meath senior team and the behaviour of his teammates throughout that time.
“We believed in winning. It’s easy at a distance to moralise, but not so much in the heat of the battle, adding, “I have to think there is no ethics in most sport.”
Commercialisation
He did, however, passionately argue that the GAA’s commercialisation was morally reprehensible, and that the Sky Sports deal flew in the face of what the game was intended to epitomise. The corporate move, he explained, affected the core familial and communal values of the game. “By mixing up commercialisation and sport, you lose what the GAA is about”, he said.
Amid these serious conversations, RTE commentator George Hamilton and comedian PJ Gallagher brought some levity to the discussions, jovially reflecting on some of their funny sporting experiences.
Hamilton, best known as the chief football commentator for RTÉ, delighted the audience with some captivating anecdotes, with topics such as the Seoul Olympics, Italia 90 and the 2010 World Cup. He also addressed some ethical quandaries in sport, drawing upon the example of Paulo DiCanio who was banned from football temporarily after pushing over a referee, as well as Thierry Henry’s handball in 2009 against Ireland.
PJ Gallagher also lightened the mood with his endearing personality and jokes, including conversations about his early comedy career and his adventures on Naked Camera, the most famous of which was his encounter with the late Bill O’Herlihy. Bursts of the laughter filled the room as the video clip of it was watched, with Gallagher remarking that he was the “only man to make Bill O’Herlihy curse in private”.
