Hypersensitivity in the media, GAA held to stricter standards than any other organisation

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Betsy Og

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This refers to Ballyragget, if you haven't heard (where have you been), 2 strippers turned up at a pub on Tuesday, there happened to be a few lads still celebrating a county final win, they happened to still have the cup with them. Cue hysteria.....

Firstly strippers are not my thing, its total cringe. It shouldn't have happened blah blah blah. Of course the conversation is - "this is not what the GAA is supposed to be about", "its a disgraceful example to kids". I wasn't bothered enough to write about this until I now see Ruhama are onto the Guards about it - I'm flabbergasted, are they just trolling for cheap publicity or what??

Its unfortunate there was a GAA trophy present but other than that it has nothing to do with the GAA. What happened there was, to the best of my knowledge, not illegal. The ladies involved seemed to be willing participants, were above the age of consent (by many decades) - if even consent were needed for what may or may not have happened.

I'm sick of headlines of the flavour "GAA star in dog fouling disgrace". So you read on and Johhny Mac (who you never heard of) failed to pick up after his dog. By the way, he used to play a bit of Junior B in goals when they were stuck. So is this what the GAA represents??, what does the GAA have against public health initiatives like cleaning up after your dog??, are they doing enough??, should sports grants be withdrawn???

Have the PC lynch mob moved on from Hook to the likes of this?

The most obvious example of what I'm talking about relates to alcohol. Rugby can have its competitions known by alcohol brands, it can be served throughout the game and not a peep. Then the GAA gets slated for far less entanglement. Colm Cooper stages a private event, again people are not having it (admittedly a good chunk of 'GAA people' don't agree), but what gets on my goat is people who know zero about it still think they should be on radio and TV having their cut.

I'd say St Peter himself would baulk at the standards to which the GAA must be judged.
 
The real issue here is the gross invasion of privacy of the people at a private event.
It is disgraceful that someone recorded and then distributed those images. It is more disgraceful that national media outlets ran with them. If the Gardai are to get involved it should be from that angle.
 
Strippers in Ballyragget? Heavens above! I was down there a couple of times and the most exciting event ever was the fire brigade having to hose down a smouldering powdered milk silo at the Avonmore creamery.

No, I don't think the GAA are held to higher standards than anyone else. I do think the media's main product nowadays is gossipy tripe, ably abetted by hordes of professional offence takers. Strippers at a 21st birthday party is pretty low class, but hey, if the youth of today want to be low class it's none of my business. Taking a prurient interest is pretty low class too.
 
100% agree Betsy. The media pounced on this as yet another stick to beat the GAA with and it's yet another sign that there are no depths low enough for certain media outlets. One of them even sent out a "reporter" to interview one of the lasses, giving her a second payment for her part in it all.
If there was no cup they wouldn't have run with this story at all as it is hardly a unique event.
As you say Purple, the real culprits in this are those who send out photos and videos and subsequently the media for printing these.
As for Ruhama, if they are really trying to portray the two lasses as victims in all of this they really have a warped sense of the world. The poor lad in the center of it all is the only real victim here.
 
Ruhama get involved so they can point to their donors at year end to show what great work they've done throughout the year blah de blah. It gets them publicity and coverage which helps in the turf war between NGOs/SJWs for funding. This big salaries for the lads and ladies at the top need to be paid every year!

The GAA angle is interesting. I agree with Betsy that the GAA title is dropped into any story possible but probably as click bait. But there is no doubt that the GAA in general comes in for a lot more scrutiny than you'd think it should. If I could allude to some points made on the United Ireland thread, perhaps the GAA is a bit to 'Irish' for some and seen as a throwback to olden times and to rural Ireland. So that makes it a candidate for abuse.
Witness the foaming at the mouth when ever the GAA gets money for some new project. You'd swear they were heading to Vegas with it the next day!
 
Ceist Beag said:
As you say Purple, the real culprits in this are those who send out photos and videos and subsequently the media for printing these.
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Steady on there. If you are at an event and everyone has their phones out filming, you can assume it's going to make it onto social media. You can hardly act all surprised when it does.

Ceist Beag said:
The poor lad in the center of it all is the only real victim here.
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How is he a victim, though? He just had a good night out, getting semi-naked and performing or simulating a sex act in a public place with two strippers in front of cameras which, as everyone knows, is perfectly normal and conventional nowadays. If anything it makes him a hero.
 
dub_nerd said:
Steady on there. If you are at an event and everyone has their phones out filming, you can assume it's going to make it onto social media. You can hardly act all surprised when it does.
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True but sometimes young lads might have had one too many and might not notice they're being recorded. I'm glad there were no camera phones around when I was a young lad (not saying I did anything quite like this young fella mind!).
dub_nerd said:
How is he a victim, though? He just had a good night out, getting semi-naked and performing or simulating a sex act in a public place with two strippers in front of cameras which, as everyone knows, is perfectly normal and conventional nowadays. If anything it makes him a hero.
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I don't think all young fellas are quite as confident as you might make out dubnerd. Plenty of young lads might act all macho and bravado at the time and feel like a bit of a clown afterwards. Luckily for most it's not recorded and staring at you from the front page of newspapers the next day!
 
The whole thing is a non-story; strippers and drunk lads at a party. Everything consensual, all adults. The only thing that could possibly be seen as exploitation was by the strippers, depending on how much they charged for their services.

I agree that the GAA gets attacked more than other organisations but that comes with being the biggest sporting organisation in the country and the best run organisation period.
 
My image of GAA after match speeches is of men in Roman collars speaking in the Holy tongue. So the GAA can’t feel too martyred if they are judged by higher standards.
 
Did they do something illegal??? Depends how they hired the *ahem* 'strippers' ...

Prostitution itself is not an offence under Irish law. However, the Criminal Law(Sexual Offences) Act of 1993 prohibits soliciting or importuning another person in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution (this offence applies to prostitute and client).
 
Didn't hear anything about it til now. I then unfortunately indulged into the reports from The Scum.
I agree with general sentiment here, big fuss over nothing. If the 'shocking' and 'wild' pictures displayed in the Scum were taken on a beach in Spain, they would simply be holiday snaps.
Best thing that could happen out of this is that GAA members stop buying the Scum - it relies on advertising that induces randy teenage boys to call sex lines at premium phone call rates. Then accuses grown adults of 'shocking' behavior.
 
Betsy Og said:
Duke, I think its time you splashed out on a colour TV, that black and white yoke you have is only picking up transmissions from the 60's.:p
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All the same, they did present themselves as epitomes of DeV's "pretty cailins dancing at the crossroads" paradigm. If they have become all modern since then and denounce that image I am not so sure that is progress.
 
Jaysus Duke, "they", just how homogenous do you think hundreds of thousands, into millions, of people could be? Somewhat counter-intuitively the GAA is over-represented in posh parts of Dublin, but more generally is found in every corner of rural Ireland and most urban areas. So I'm thinking there's as many gougers & saints as there is in the general population. Its not a SF scenario where there's a script or anything....
 
Betsy Og said:
Its unfortunate there was a GAA trophy present but other than that it has nothing to do with the GAA.
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I'm trying to see your point here Betsy. As I understand it you personally disapprove of the activity and you believe it is against the fine traditions that the GAA upholds. So you seem to be arguing that it is just a bit of bad luck that there was a GAA cup present and that it happened in a GAA club. Could happen to a Bishop I think is the expression, except I think that if a Bishop did entertain such shenanigans at his palace he too would be rightly castigated.
 
Duke, crucially it was not in a GAA club it was a local pub, it wasnt a GAA function, the club comm-it-tee was not present. I gather it was a 21st. The players happened to be out with the cup (not unusual as had won 2 days previous). So the GAA link is tenuous.

Re strippers, it not my bag but sure no-one left me in charge. Wouldnt bother me much either way. I dont recall going on about GAA traditions but, true enough, I cant say I ever read a special rule about it. My overall point is people love to have a cut off the GAA, with inverse relationship between people with general interest in sport and the... err... knockers (sorry).
 
Betsy Og said:
Duke, crucially it was not in a GAA club it was a local pub, it wasnt a GAA function, the club comm-it-tee was not present. I gather it was a 21st. The players happened to be out with the cup (not unusual as had won 2 days previous). So the GAA link is tenuous.
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The IT reported that it was in a GAA club and that GAA officials were looking into the matter. Sadly it appears that the IT have taken to Fake News.

The Sindo has it as its lead story with articles inside as well. It appears the event took place in Fitzpatrick's Bar on a Tuesday and the cup had been hanging around since Sunday so your version is the correct one. All the same if any crime has been committed then the full force of the Law must be brought to bear even if they are GAA stars.

The Sindo notes that the Two Johnnies are playing in Fitzpatrick's tonight and suggests that this is a signal for the GAA players to play safe:rolleyes:
 
Seems to be very easy to become a GAA 'star' these days. Had the Sindo nothing better to be bothering it. Amazing how one alleged breach of the law has taken such prominence, are the Garda vice squad doing dawn raids on strippers??, I doubt it Ted.
 
Considering the indo is now just an Irish version of the daily mail with similar appalling / non existent journalistic standards (and very few actual journalists too), filling their pages / website with such gutter rubbish is par for the course now.

I don't remember seeing anything in the Irish times about it - thankfully there's still one half decent news outlet still about
 
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