COVID and sport in Ireland
COVID and sport in Ireland: covid hit our shores with a bang last March but after some time the new norm came, and bit by bit then the country restrictions were slowly being lifted.
Suddenly businesses started to reopen we were allowed to travel further, we could go to the gym again. Little things like being able to meet friends for a coffee, children going back to school sport got back on the agenda again.
People of all ages could go back to training again, albeit under certain guidelines. In a sporting sense, a lot of questions still had to be answered that supporters, committee, coaches were asking :
– When will the Premier League be back?
– When will the Champions League and Europa League be back?
– When is the League of Ireland back on?
– When can Local leagues commence?
– When can ball work and full contact training come back?
– When will GAA matches at club and inter-county at all grades start back?
– When they do come back, what guidelines will be put in place to ensure the safety of all during matches and training?
– Can dressing rooms be used before and after games? If not why not?
– Is there any Grant’s or funding available to sports clubs at all levels across the country and if so what Grant’s are available, how go teams apply and how much?
– can supporters support their team on match day? If not how can supporters watch the games?
These questions were answered in time as the weeks and months that followed.
A new era began in the GAA at club level as due to the restrictions that applied to GAA activity, unfortunately, at first, supporters were not allowed into matches on match day so credit to the Roscommon GAA county board and other county board around the country, games at club level were streamed which enabled supporters from around the county, province, country and around the world were able to follow their clubs from anywhere in the world for very reasonable fees.
The county board and indeed the clubs themselves started streaming games.
I am a sports Therapist but I also present Rosportsview every Wednesday from 6 pm to 7 pm on Rosfm94.6 Community Radio.
I and Ray Lannon do a weekly Podcast called Roscommon GAA Memories then we started doing Matchday Commentary Podcasts at men’s Gaelic Football and Hurling at Junior Intermediate and Senior as well as Roscommon LGFA Club games at Junior Intermediate and Senior level.
All podcasts are available on www.rosfm.ie you can tune into ROS FM on the radio on FM94.6 or on the website www.rosfm.ie/live or on the TuneIn app.
Sport being back on at local level and national level lifted the spirits of this great nation it was great to see it.
Things started to pick up for me with patients starting to return for treatment to AR Sports Therapy Clinic and also the teams I was involved with the fixtures re-commenced and we got promoted.
As time went on…..we adapted to the new norm and we started to appreciate the little things in life which perhaps we didn’t before as we took them for granted. We could travel again and go on holidays and the new buzzword ‘Staycation’ came into play and we all felt that we should support our own economy and go to places in Ireland. Life was still not the same but a lot better than when we were in lockdown.
