The Clare Champions
September 16th, 2008 by Steve BowbrickAnother documentary masterclass from the Irish. I’m not going to go on about it because I’ve said all this before but over at RTE Radio One they have a strand called Documentary on One: a long-running series of handsome, entirely artless 45-minute features on different aspects of Irish life. Here’s the latest show, which is about the legendary 1995 All Ireland Hurling champions from County Clare in the West of Ireland. Ther’e nothing fancy about this: the only voices you’ll hear are those of the documentary’s subjects and the only other sounds are the match commentaries of the day and some gorgeous, evocative wild tracks fom the blustery West. Pure pleasure.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:53 am
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September 18th, 2008 at 7:57 am
That’s sheer joy to listen to.
Being Irish, I remember that 1995 final and what it all meant to the people of Clare. Worth mentioning, for those not familiar with the sport, hurling is an amateur sport and the documentary illustrates beautifully the sheer intensity of pride between the fans, players, coaching and management team.
A sense of pride that appears lost in the dressing rooms of other team sports, in particular premiership football and rugby union where all the talk is usually about multimillion transfer deals rather than Wordsworth or how an old traditional song helped inspire a team to new levels.
It’s not only a sublime piece of radio production, it’s also perhaps a reminder of what sport is really all about.