It must be high time for an academic paper on how techno, house and electronic music have influenced Gaelic games. We know from our encounters with academics that they are almost as mad as newspaper columnists when it comes to finding new and novel topics to write about. (We did say “almost”, okay.)
If they are looking for something to get them started, look at the manner in which the Dublin team tore into Mayo last weekend. In those odd moments in-between the punching, sledging and thumping – when a game of football threatened to break out – it really looked as if they had something to prove.
Perhaps it's all down to techno superstar Carl Cox. There were reports after the drawn match that Diarmuid Connolly and a few others had to pull a trip to Ibiza because of the replay.
If these players missed Cox's last stand at Space as a result of their inability to deal with Mayo the first day out, perhaps that explains the spirited manner in which they took on the men from the west at the second time of asking. That being the case, Dublin County Board chief John Costello should get onto Cox's agent pronto and book him for some upcoming dinner dances.
Surely, though, the Dublin team are not the only ones featuring a couple of would-be ravers in their midst? It always strikes me that county teams with pumped up teens, twentysomething powerhouses and thirtysomething stragglers must have at least a few lads who favour the hard musical stuff off the field.
Yet you are lead to believe that everyone is reading from the same handbook when it comes to the musical likes of the squad. There are always dark horses, so it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that a few would plump for Berghain over Coppers any night of the week.
Musical sins
Indeed, the fact that a club soundtracked by pretty dire chart music has become synonymous with Gaelic games surely rankles with some of your favourite players. (That’s not the only musical sin, but we will tackle the pipe bands who lead out the parades at games up and down the country some other time.)
There will also be footballers and hurlers who look on with scorn and snobbery when they see who the GAA lets loose in Croke Park to make a few million bob. There has been some appalling vistas in recent years, with the likes of Bon Jovi and The Script stopping off at Jones' Road, though next season's appearance from Coldplay takes the notion of the bland and the beige into a whole new realm. You'll never speak ill of a Leinster hurling semi-final again.
Commendable musical likes are not just the lot of the current crop. Some Kerry acquaintances of ours swear that Donegal prophet and Irish Times columnist Jim McGuinness was a regular in Horan's in Tralee back in the day when he was studying in the town. When you look at how his teams rolled in some pivotal games over the years, it makes sense that Slam's Positive Education featured on the McGuinness playlist once upon a time.
Maybe a sea change is coming. Maybe more and more players will see what the lure of Ibiza has done for Connolly & co and make a break for the Balearics for warm weather training, complete with some gentle stretching in DC10 or Uschuaia. It could be the start of a whole new look.
