Ireland seems to be the land of the shambles these days with a continuous downpour of corruption clogging the drainpipe. The government seem to be completely out of touch and have actually resorted to saying prayers before work in order to fix the country. Sometimes I think we’re more and more like an episode of Fr Ted than Dermot Morgan could ever have portrayed.

For every backward notion the government come up with it, it seems like the people’s best defence is to rely on the strength of community and hope that the lads in the Dail aren’t being that serious.

That’s why Junior Justice Minister David Stanton’s attack on the GAA has really bothered me.

There is no doubt in my mind that Ireland is now suffering deeply with problems created by unregulated gambling, with more Casinos popping up in Dublin city than Starbucks global five year expansion plan. If it continues to grow at this pace Dublin will end up looking like an impoverished and tacky Las Vegas strip. There are also huge concerns with the way licensed bookmakers operate both on the street and online, completely unrestricted and unregulated they operate from far afield destinations such as Gibraltar & Morocco, these are the real vultures Ireland needs to be worried about.
However David Stanton is looking to break the back of bingo halls and small community fund raisers with his priority to outlaw GAA lotteries that exceed €5,000.

"Some commentators have described it as the wild west out there," he said. "Every time you pull a string in the gambling ball of twine other things emerge. For example, most lotteries at the moment are not legal. Most raffles that occur are not legal. There is a lot of stuff going on out there that is not legal at all."

"Some of them, not all of them, may be acting without proper authority and regulation." He said people can "mean well", but could be flouting the law due to a lack of awareness.

For me the GAA is one of the backbone organisations of rural communities, it is one of the subtle threads that makes Ireland such a great place to live and like everything in Ireland has suffered greatly as a result of recession economics and poor government, which has seen mass migration and cuts in funding in the last decade.
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For the government to turn around now and target local fund raising efforts in a guise to tackle problems created by unregulated and out of control gambling corporations is absolutely despicable. This government will continue to damage Ireland and its communities while doing absolutely nothing to stop vultures prying on the weak and addicted. GAA raffles are a pinch of salt compared to the thousands of fruit machines which have infested O’Connell Street. This is really an issue we need to put the horse before the cart on and start introducing bans on gambling advertising as well as online promotions which target our youth. Remind your TD that you’re focused on the big issues and not the bingo hall.  

I just can’t help being amused by the ’sexism’ storm brewing in the twitter tea cup after  Ian Cohen asked Eugenie Bouchard to ‘give us a twirl’ last Wednesday night.

The shockwave’s of an athlete enjoying the limelight after a huge victory which resulted in ‘Twirlgate’ is the most bizarre reaction to sporting achievement that I’ve ever come across.

Personally I’m a football fanatic and I love a good celebration, many of the top footballers in the world have crafted their own signature celebrations, its part of the sporting carnival, the athlete’s brand which is so important to players that seek out celebrity status and lucrative product deals. The media attention that surrounds sporting professionals has turned athletes into sex symbols for as long as I can remember, because we all love the glamour and roguery that comes with the event or the individual.

Sport in itself is a product, sportswear is branded and sponsored in most cases with nearly every single sporting event you can think of being heavily commercialised by big brands and endorsement deals.

Athletes can hardly be expected to fly the flag of gender equality when we all prop up the commercial world in which they’re crowned. Athletes such as Eugenie Bouchard who dedicate their lives to sporting achievement are naturally going to achieve a state of physical eliteness which results in a degree of idolisation, we see this happening across the board with male and female athletes. If you Google search Christiano Ronaldo the first image you’ll see is a picture of the man with his top off, with the only debate being if he is the best or the second best player in the world right now, while contemporaries such as Lionel Messi carry on about their business without the six pack media hounds.

I do acknowledge the suggestion that “It treats female athletes as quaint curiosities rather than serious athletes” (Erin Riley The Guardian), but I think this is boxing off the young tennis player in a negative way, both as an athlete and as an individual.

To assume she is some shy victim of media old men is beyond daft, she may be only 20 years young but I think she’s savvy enough to know how to act in front of the camera which gives her access to the world stage.

“I think it was an in-the-moment thing and it was funny” Eugenie Bouchard

Even a household name and seasoned pro like Serena Williams was quick to comment on this so called act of ‘sexism’ in sport:

"I didn't really want to twirl because I don't need all the extra attention. But, yeah, it was fine... whether I twirl or not, it's not the end of the world”

Perhaps that’s the difference between an athlete looking to build a brand and an athlete with a well established profile, perhaps it’s the difference between someone buzzing in new found media attention and someone who’s lived with camera’s in her life for the last ten years, or perhaps it’s just the difference in personality or humour on the day.

Furthermore some female athletes just love being, well fabulous, sure society has created a socially acceptable niche for girls to bask in a certain brand of femininity, but if Eugenie Bouchard enjoys that mould why are people so quick to dictate how she promotes herself as an individual or as a sports personality/brand. Perhaps the reaction has been so negative because the reporter was male?

Now I don’t mean to suggest that just because you’re wearing a pretty little pink dress automatically means you’re seeking out degrading media attention, just so you can land yourself the next big Adidas deal, but I think we have to be realistic and acknowledge the fact that some athletes enjoy the camera and some athlete’s enjoy being both celebrities and the face of big brands.

Footballers like David Beckham have made good if not better careers as brand celebrities than they have in their chosen profession, and if Eugenie Bouchard was to exploit this position she wouldn’t be the first female tennis player or female athlete to do so, and she may very well become the biggest name in tennis over the next few years but one thing is for sure, she’s not going to get there on twirl’s alone, which is why she’s focusing on her game unlike the ‘Twirlgate’ obsesses who are probably already tuned in to the next serve of media hype as we speak. 

Drink Responsibly is a tagline drink companies use to distance themselves from the carnage of alcohol abuse, they're basically saying 'if you were responsible this wouldn't have happened, it's hardly our fault'.

These companies sponsor horrific ‘don’t drink & drive’ advertising campaigns to further distance themselves from their responsibilities. After all it’s against the law to drink and drive, if you were responsible this wouldn’t happen. These campaigns also act as a benchmark of the meaning of responsibility. If we consider actually murdering someone by driving whilst intoxicated as our meaning of being irresponsible then everything else between brushing your teeth in the morning to getting blitz out of your mind on a Friday night, prior to murdering a pedestrian by means of operating a moving vehicle, falls within the bracket of responsibility.

The fact is if we want to be responsible about how we drink we need to change our perception of what drink is and what it does to us. To do this we need to take more control over how drink companies advertise. They are very clever at clouding the negative effects of alcohol and extremely savvy at promoting the momentary bliss that comes with complete intoxication.

We need to learn that despite what the adverts tell us, drinking alcohol does not mean everyone is suddenly having fun, it doesn’t mean we are at a party, it isn’t the only source of meeting new people, it doesn’t mean we can now dance or sing better than before, it doesn’t increase your chances of finding the things you’re looking for in life or whatever it is the drink companies are telling us these days.

We need to be more aware that the consequence of too much alcohol isn’t just outright murder. We need to take a mental note that alcohol is a drug and just slightly too much can leave you feeling depressed and/or stressed. If we want to drink responsibly we need to know what the results will look like, otherwise it’s rather an empty message.

Ultimately I think if society is to be responsible over preventing the truth from being diluted we need to ensure that the cash rich drink industry doesn’t control the perception of alcohol. Tobacco companies aren’t allowed target us with tv advertising, billboards or radio ads and I don’t believe drink companies should be allowed to either.  France, Norway, Russia, Ukraine, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Kenya have all banned advertising on television and billboards so this is not a new concept. I think it’s just about time we answer the drink companies call to take responsibility and look to make changes in the way we perceive alcohol, and that begins with putting an end to their propaganda.