There are days when the prospect of an easy, trouble-free life seems mighty attractive. Just imagine, week after week of musings free from references to sectarianism, politics, policing, antagonism and ice hockey. Thousands upon thousands of words ruminating on matters no more significant than the colour of Enda Muldoon's boots or the merits of David Humphreys' back-to-basics fancy new haircut.

Life must be simpler on The Swiss Times and their equivalent feature "Out of the Alps". Do you think they concern themselves with whether members of the local police force should be allowed to take part in Alpine skiing competitions? Do they have to concern themselves with football matches where members of the home team are as likely to be abused as those on visiting teams? Not likely.

And what about The Peruvian Express. Does the weekly "Out of the Andes" column find itself agonising over the sectarian divisions that are setting one faction of mountain climbers against another to such an extent they now have to hold their competitions on neutral mountains with rows of police separating one group of hikers from the other? Didn't think so.

This place does have its moments. Peter Canavan in his prime before all the years of punishment wore him down. Mickey Linden, still fighting and winning against those same ravages of time. Darren Clarke doing battle against the world's best golfers armed only with a huge cigar. Any one of the scores of local motorbike riders who blur the boundary between sporting achievement and pure naked courage. Tony McCoy, cementing his position as the most driven jumps jockey of the modern era.

So it's not as if the good bits are ignored. Sporting worthies of whatever hue are as welcome here as anywhere else. But it has to be earned. A few months ago there was one jaw-dropping telephone call from someone involved in promoting the Belfast Giants ice hockey set-up asking why the only things that were being written about his team in this space were negative. The apparent premise seemed to be that the only function of the local sporting media was to act as some type of cheerleader for what was after all an unashamed commercial venture.

In a way that sort of attitude is easy to deal with. Much more difficult are the petty little squabbles that run through sporting life here. Picture the scene just over a fortnight ago. The first Old Firm game of the season has just ended at Ibrox. Hundreds of Rangers and Celtic fans have travelled over to the game.

The game itself kicked off early to avoid some of the drunkenness that has blighted the games in recent years with the result that by 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon it was all over bar the shouting. And it was then the problems started. As crowds of supporters gathered at Glasgow Airport for the short jaunt back to Belfast the atmosphere became increasingly taut and frayed.

Rangers fans outnumbered their rivals' fans and given the Celtic victory the mood was not exactly congenial. At a certain point the captain of one of the planes due to carry the groups of supporters and a significant number of other non-football passengers decided no one would be allowed to board the flight. The plane subsequently set off for Belfast with no one on board and those left in Glasgow had to transfer to other flights, most of which did not leave until the following morning.

Those basic facts are agreed by all concerned. After that opinions and viewpoints tend to diverge dramatically. The airline officials maintain safety considerations were paramount and they believed that because of the amount of alcohol consumed by some supporters and the general poisonous atmosphere the flight could not proceed.

Not surprisingly, there was no shortage of aggrieved fans willing to be interviewed on radio and television to the effect that the airline had over-reacted. More than one conceded that there was "banter" between both sets of supporters but that it went no further than that.

Of all the words that have been written and said about events in Glasgow that Sunday evening, "banter" stands out as the most telling indictment of what went on. Anyone who has sampled the Old Firm experience will know that "banter" is not the anodyne, harmless concept it might appear - for "banter" in this warped Northern Ireland context read "sectarian bigotry". Anecdotal evidence from people who were at the airport suggests an intimidating and frightening atmosphere and one in which there were genuine concerns for the personal safety of those involved. As a squalid little scene which typifies the problems endemic in sport and culture here this takes some beating.

All of which in its own was bad enough. But in the two weeks since the initial disastrous impression has been compounded by the communal hand-wringing from those involved. This was still rumbling on through the letters pages of local newspapers over last weekend and reading some of the comments you might have been forgiven for thinking this was little more than a charitable trip by a group of eager young boy scouts foiled by some dastardly do-gooders. The original behaviour was reprehensible enough. The continuing refusal to confront or to concede even that it happened makes it even worse.

The timing could hardly have been more apposite because while we appear content to continue to wallow in the sectarianism of Scottish football, there are people on the west coast of Scotland who are anxious to do something about it. Celtic's Bhoys Against Bigotry dates as far back as the days of former chairman Fergus McCann and last week both clubs were supporting a new cross-community campaign aimed at addressing the issue of sectarianism.

Initiatives like this count for little if they are not followed by concrete action. But even a talking shop of any kind is an advance on the head-in-the-sand approach that prevails here. Sectarianism will continue to pollute daily life, culture and sport here until such time as there is at least a consensus it is a problem. Apologies if that sounds unnecessarily simplistic, but that is about the level and standard of debate here.