There should be anger about the injustices facing people

I think he did at the weekend in his Sunday Independent column in which the proud GAA man bared his soul about the hurt he still feels about his treatment when overlooked for the post of senior manager of St. Brigid’s despite being the obvious candidate with a brilliant plan in place.

After coaching underage teams in a labour of love, he was all set to carry on the fine work into the senior arena. He was surely nailed on. But it was not to be.

“I have never recovered from that. I feel the hurt yet,” he wrote.

But this was no personal gripe, no feeling sorry for himself. It was a man whose passion for the principles and community ethos of his beloved GAA still burns brightly enough for him to be a critical friend in pointing out some harsh and uncomfortable truths.

Joe Brolly described Tyrone legend Mickey Harte’s appointment as Derry manager as “the worst thing to happen to Derry since the Plantation.”

Hyperbole? Perhaps. But his column’s raw honesty delved into many issues of conscience for the GAA and wider Irish society. We should pay heed.

I often say sport can teach us so many lessons about life and somewhere in Brolly’s column is a warning about us all abandoning community values of caring for each other that bind us all together.

I like and admire Brolly. There I’ve said it. He’s clever, brave and has a great sense of humour. The former president, Mary McAleese waxed lyrical about his exceptional intellect and abilities the other week on the first Kielty “Late, Late Show”.

I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’d have him in the trenches with me any day; he’s a man of social conscience who has raised many societal issues such homelessness and, among other things, donated a kidney to a complete stranger. If I fell on hard times, I’d be guaranteed he’d have my back and would speak up for me.

You don’t have to agree with everything Joe Brolly says, but you should at least be challenged by it. His public comments come from a good place.

In recent weeks, this newspaper has been challenging us to wake up to some of the tough times that our own people have been going through.

I hear some people say that the paper’s coverage is too negative; but if you think like that you’re not just forgetting the concept of a community all in it together, you are devoid of the basic human instinct of empathy which the book of Romans says means we should “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

Or “the ability to objectively relate to another person’s situation.”

Do we really want to bury our heads in the sand and pretend it’s not that bad?

Which would mean ignoring the reports in this newspaper that over 2,000 food parcels have been distributed in this area in six months and that teenagers, farmers and pensioners are in real need.

Were you not touched by the story of the mother of two teenagers, one with special needs, who is embarrassed by having to make excuses to the teacher when she can’t afford to take them to school?

There are many problems in our county, including our own people with mental health issues or suffering domestic abuse. And those in physical pain due to our failing health service.

I was in Enniskillen on Tuesday and chatted to a man I know who has been suffering with arthritis in his knees. He’s been waiting two and a half years for an operation and has been told it will be another four years, at least, before he will get one.

Sadly, he’s just another statistic and such tales are commonplace.

There are many areas of life in which our neighbours find life difficult. Meanwhile, Stormont sits empty.

Of course, there are many positive aspects of life in this county and many of us are OK. Fine, but if there is any sense of community, it beggars belief that those of us who have enough don’t have any sense of responsibility for those who don’t.

So fair play for the Impartial’s columnists for speaking up. Brian D’Arcy quotes Nelson Mandela: “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental right to dignity and a decent life.”

Paul Kellagher highlights the reality of child poverty and says he has never seen such pressure on families merely to survive.

Bernadette McAliskey says if you are wholly or largely dependent on social security, you deserve a medal for getting out of bed and facing another day. “Meanwhile, the political noise from an out-of-tune fiddle gets louder, and the smell of something burning is undeniable,” she writes.

Fair play to them, and other contributors, for raising their voices for the voiceless. And fair play to the Impartial for giving a platform to these columnists. Tell it like it is.

As important as political and constitutional issues are, I’m often told by people I encounter that they’re fed up listening to the same old, same old, when the important things about what people are facing every day should be shouted from the rooftops.

There should be a righteous anger about the injustice and poverty facing many people.

That’s why I would always salute people like Joe Brolly for highlighting the wrong direction that we take. We should all care about doing the right thing.

He was referring specifically to the GAA in his column last Sunday, but he may well have been talking about the greed and selfishness of wider society when he said: “Something precious has been lost. Something more important than football.”