February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Pierce O’Reilly
There will be no TV cameras or slow-motion replays for GAA pundits to see in the U.S. this weekend. Neither will there be any packed Bronx or Queens bars with New York supporters cheering on the Empire State as they face raging favorites Roscommon in the Connaught championship this weekend. Bar owners in the U.S. and in particularly New York, Boston and Chicago are outraged, so too is the New York GAA.
In Ireland, a game between Roscommon and lowly New York doesn’t merit broadcasting any longer.
"I’m delighted with their attitude," an ever positive New York manager Paddy Kearney said. "You can bet, if it was some other county team playing, they’d have no problem asking for thousands of dollars to broadcast it. When it’s our own lads — the guys that grind out massive performances at Gaelic Park every weekend and train like dogs for the county team — nobody cares."
RTE has decided not to televise the game live and therefore it is unavailable to Setanta Sport, which provides feeds of GAA games to U.S. subscribers.
A Kerry native, Kearney isn’t upset with the negative attitude of the Irish media. He just feels that county players, be they hurlers or footballers, deserve more.
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"There isn’t a county team in Ireland that has trained as hard as we have, and that’s a fact," he said. "Not alone that, but we had to battle with snow, freezing rain, atrocious pitches and often not a drop of hot water afterward to have a shower. That’s commitment to me, and the lads on the panel did it all without ever complaining."
Setanta Sport spokesperson Robert Ryan said the company was also disappointed the game was not being broadcast to the U.S audience.
"We had the games against Mayo and Galway for the past two years and they had huge door receipts," he said. "If RTE or TG4 don’t show the games live in Ireland, then there is nothing we can do to bring them in. In this case, our hands are tied behind our backs, and like all New York supporters, we’re bitterly disappointed."
The replay between Ulster rivals Donegal and Fermanagh is being shown live in Ireland instead of the exiles’ game.