WRITTEN in 1875 by WE Henley, Invictus is very much a poem about defiance and stoicism.
Little wonder, therefore, that it helped to sustain Nelson Mandela during his long period of imprisonment as a political prisoner in South Africa before being released in 1990.
Mandela, who would become the first black president of his country in 1994, spent 27 years in a cell on Robben Island, and spoke afterwards of the sustenance he drew from Invictus.
Henley’s poem is quite short – just 16 lines – yet it captures the indomitable spirit of human beings in face of trials and tribulations. Its last four lines read as follows:
“It matters not how strait the gate/
How charged with punishments the scroll/
I am the master of my fate:/
I am the captain of my soul.”
No surprise, therefore, that when Clint Eastwood came to make a film about a defining event in the history of the ‘new’ South Africa, he chose Invictus as the title for the movie.
This was all the more appropriate given that the event in question was a sporting event. A match – but not just any match: it was the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
In the build-up to the tournament, Mandela, in a stroke of political genius, saw the chance to re-cast the Springboks from the traditional symbol of white South Africa to an integrated team representing the brand new society over which he now presided. The inspiration he helped to generate resulted in a famous victory for the Springboks over the All Blacks in the final.
A comment from an old man sitting next to me in a pub during a recent Manchester United-Liverpool match in the Premiership put a fresh angle on this for me. Having just watched one of these grossly overpaid prima donnas taking a dive in the penalty area, the old man shook his head and said: “Any of them wouldn’t last five minutes in a Munster final in Thurles”.
That simple observation spoke volumes about the dedication, pride and courage that typifies GAA teams up and down the country. Pride in the jersey, the parish, the county is so commonplace that we take it for granted.
To outsiders, in particular, it is a constant source of amazement and admiration that amateur sportsmen (and sportswomen also) should display such passion and unflinching commitment in games that, of their very nature, make demands way above what is required in the money-saturated environs of Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge.
But for how long more will effort, sacrifice and commitment at this level (and I’m thinking especially of the inter-county championships) continue in unremunerated form? Can the GAA, in other words, take it for granted that, in an era where sport has increasingly embraced professionalism, players will continue to play without financial reward?
I’m suggesting that we are moving rapidly to a situation where the question becomes not will the amateur status of the GAA survive, but for how long? The initiative on amateurism by the director general of the GAA, Paraic Duffy, puts everything in the melting pot.
Mr Duffy has decided the time has come to review payments to intercounty managers. This is necessary because it is no longer acceptable for the GAA to pay lip-service to amateurism while brown envelopes are surreptitiously changing hands. In other words, the association cannot go on pretending that amateur status is a core value while turning a blind eye to under-thetable payments to managers.
But will the players stand idly by? If payments to managers are officially sanctioned, why should the players themselves lose out?