What is black and white and read all over?
***
WRITTEN FROM THE riddler’s perspective, this conundrum falls apart.
If not hearing what one assumes are the colours black, white and red being listed, there is no misdirection at play and, if the listener is somehow unaware that “a newspaper” is the intended answer, it loses all potency.
So, the irony of this age-old puzzle about print media is that it doesn’t really work on the page.
According to the Mediahuis Ireland chief executive Peter Vandermeersch, however, the idea that newspapers (which haven’t been printed exclusively in black and white for some time, admittedly) are widely read is now fallacy all of its own.
The publishing company responsible for the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent and a host of regional publications here in Ireland, Vandermeersch told RTÉ over the weekend that “it is clear that in the 20s – in this decade – many printed newspapers will disappear.” Whatever the rights and wrongs of this outlook, some solace could be taken from Vandermeersch’s insistence that journalism more broadly remains a priority.
Allowing for some nostalgia, it was in the sports pages of daily newspapers that my passion for sports media was first engaged. There was strength in seeing something printed. Compared to what one can now access online in the constant churn of written material, there was a relative scarcity to this daily sports update and that made it feel more valuable, perhaps.
I think this is what inspired my father to once cut the opening line of a Martin Breheny match report from Kerry’s 2009 hammering of Dublin from the paper and tape it to the inside of a kitchen cabinet door: “When the laws of nature are disturbed, the backlash can be ferocious.”
Some onlookers had the temerity to suggest that Kerry were there for the taking. Long story short, they weren’t. Living in Sligo without any vested interest in the match itself, how Breheny managed to capture that in a line entertained us greatly, nevertheless, and it remained on the back of that door for a few years.
Of course, that kitchen unit and the newspaper clipping pasted to it are both long gone now, and to accurately quote Breheny’s line I had to look online for a 14-year-old match report that took only a matter of seconds to find.
There will be some sadness when the newspaper’s decline is ultimately fulfilled, but it is the work that matters. Not without threats of its own, the message should not die with the medium.
II
What is black and white and red all over?
***
It isn’t exactly what Con Houlihan had in mind when talking about Italia ’90, but I missed Sligo’s Division 4 title win on account of being in Sligo on Saturday evening.
The journey home had been planned before Sligo’s footballers confirmed their place in the final, but anyway, I had other plans. Instead of Croke Park, I would be going to the Showgrounds where Sligo Rovers were hosting Bohemians.
It is perhaps true of most smaller counties that carry a League of Ireland club and a proud inter-county tradition for some antipathy to exist among ardent followers of one team toward the other. This has always felt acutely short-sighted to me where instances of such begrudgery have arisen in Sligo.
The manager who guided Sligo’s Gaelic footballers to success on Saturday, Tony McEntee has previously been guilty of feeding into such unnecessary strife.
“The biggest problem we have in Sligo is the soccer,” he told OTB AM in September 2021. “Soccer does well, [but] I think in my view it is slightly fool’s gold looking at the soccer piece because I’m not sure there’s that many homegrown Sligo players playing with Sligo [Rovers].
Looking out for his own interests and those of Sligo’s senior football team, McEntee touched upon a way of thinking that was not exclusively his own.
Given the amateur/professional nature of Gaelic football and soccer, it is true that a sensationally talented young sportsperson who opts for the former over the latter will likely provide more enjoyment for Sligo in a sport where his allegiances are pre-determined.
The vagaries of such a situation were apparent last weekend.
Niall Murphy was rightly celebrated for scoring 1-4 for Sligo in Croke Park. Meanwhile, Johnny Kenny, an U21 Ireland international who left Sligo for Glasgow Celtic in 2022, could only show Rovers fans what they are missing as he scored his second goal for the other Rovers in their 4-0 defeat of Dundalk on Friday evening.
Professional football at this level of the game conditions us to understand that homegrown heroes, for all that they are adored, will generally have been unable to take the step beyond. There is a trade-off to this reality, however. Where talented players from within the county may depart, there is an opportunity for external talents to emerge.
It is a source of local pride that the Republic of Ireland captain Seamus Coleman made his move to the Premier League after spending three years in Sligo. Alternatively, Joseph Ndo had already gone to two World Cups with Cameroon before joining Rovers in 2010. That he still calls Sligo home all these years later is indicative of a bond that could only have been forged by professional football bringing both the man and the club together.
In a county of this size and population, cooperation should underline the inevitable competition for players and interest. Sligo at its best is black and white and (a bit o’) red all over.
III
What is black and white and Red all over?
***
It has been a year since Red Óg Murphy’s tragic passing.
We will never know what he could have achieved in a sporting sense, but it is through this prism that most of us expected we would come to celebrate him in the years ahead.
Following Saturday’s win in Croke Park, Niall Murphy, speaking from the Hogan Stand, underlined the manner in which sport was but one way in which Red Óg left an impression on those he encountered, however.
“We lost a very special person last year in Red Óg Murphy,” the Sligo captain began, “he left a huge legacy in Sligo football. We all miss him dearly, and this one’s for Red.”
Sligo in black and white; Red Óg forever.