John Giles did not know Aodhán Ó Ríordáin was going to become a politician but he's still happy to play ball.
At an event on Tuesday promoting the net benefits of football in the community – but really supporting Ó Ríordáin's re-election campaign – the Ireland soccer legend said it was all about the candidate's history as a headmaster in working-class Dublin as opposed to his history in politics.
"Well I'm supporting Aodhán," he replied without hesitation, when asked why he was backing Labour.
“It goes back to when Aodhán was headmaster in Sheriff Street and he wasn’t involved in politics at that time.
“I think he did a great job in Sheriff Street, a working-class area. I liked him and I didn’t know he was going to go into politics. But I still like him.”
Queue the nervous laughter of those attending this political, pre-election gathering on Dublin’s north side, focusing on Labour’s sporting ambitions for a future, non-assumed return to office.
Giles's relationship to Ó Ríordáin stretches beyond the latter's time at St Laurence O'Toole's national school, or his involvement in raising a plaque to the footballer's honour on Ormond Square where he grew up before rising to sporting stardom in England.
Ó Ríordáin and sport
Much like John Giles’s self-titled foundation, Ó Ríordáin is convinced of the impact the sport can have on communities. His “Family Learning Through Football” project employs the game as a means to enhance communication between (school) staff, parents and students.
“Football is a great social situation [for] the parents in particular,” said Giles. “I think Aodhán works [with] fathers who maybe left home and whatever relationship they have with their children, soccer brings them back together again. It’s a very, very social way of doing it.”
Ó Ríordáin described the game as “a wonderful language” of unification.
“It’s something that young people and their parents really enjoy together. So we use football as a mechanism of getting parents and children to communicate,” he said.
His commitment on Tuesday was that – in the event he and his party return to power – Labour would invest in sports funding for local communities through the Sports Capital Programme and shift its focus toward joint funding applications between local clubs and schools or youth organisations.
It would fund more “world-class” sporting facilities at the National Indoor Arena and National Sports Campus to back athletes.
Also in the mix are plans for a sport “bidding entity” to try and lure “top events” to Ireland. Even if, like Giles and politics, they don’t always seem a natural fit.
