When I started out in this game, and even as a kid, there were certain pillars of society that demanded and were given authority and respect. We were all taught to respect the guards, teachers, priests, nuns, the elderly, the doctors the vulnerable...the list went on.
As a young journalist on the crawl for a good yarn in the highways and byways of the country, the verified sources back then were not Googles or Storyful...but the matron on the hospital ward; the garda sergeant at the local station, the parish priest or the talkative curate; the postmaster/postmistress.
They were all members of a hierarchy upon which you could depend if you were constructing a story upon a foundation of some local incident. People you looked up to
Over the past few years and for a variety of reasons, that hierarchy has changed; the adherence to the ascending order that was there slowly eroded and soon, what was respected became material for chat and banter and then the idea of respect itself, became disrespected.
And in the same way that the idea of fake news came about because fake people decried what they did not want to agree with, the diminishing respect in society had its consequences. More so in other societies than Ireland’s.
When I go to football matches in the UK, I am shocked at the abuse that is thrown the way of the police who shepherd crowds to and from the stadium. Grown adults who should know better showing kids that to shout abuse is OK, if you can get away with it.
Everything becomes a justifiable target. The opposing fans, the police, the players, the referees.
And that filters down through all of society. Social media has no doubt fueleld it, it has handed carte blanche to people to shout abuse and threaten who they wish.
In recent months, this has raised its ugly head with many unsavoury incidents at sidelines across the country.
Referees and match officials enable our games to be played within the rules. If we drive them out of the game, then we are denying people the chance to play a sport within the rules. But we are also teaching a generation that it ok to be abusive in our discourse when we disagree with something.
Every weekend in counties, including Galway, match fixtures have to be altered because of the shortage of referees. And this shortage is related to the abuse they get from the sidelines.
Many grounds across the county have signs up (aimed at adults and parents ), reminding them that this is not the Champions league final or Croke Park and to take a chill pill. Only by making our referees feel safe and respected, will we enable our children to play games in which they can believe it is the Champions League or Croke Park. That dream must be protected.
Since the Roscommon incident, there has been an increased intolerance of abuse coming in to match officials. We all need to play our part in ensuring that everyone, including officials, feel safe on the sports field. If we don’t we will drive good people out of the game, and deprive everyone of the regulated games that make sport the wonderful feast that it is.
And if we allow that to happen, wider society will pay the price for a generation raised on a bed of disrespect.
