This is a subscriber-only article
If memory serves me right, it was in the summer of 1997 when I got a pair of Air Max runners. They were white and blue, with a pink Nike swoosh. It was also around that time that I chased a girl down Grafton Street to ask her where she had gotten her three-stripe tracksuit bottoms. I had seen these in a magazine but not in “real life”. Her response, “Tokyo”, was not the one that I wanted. My sister Enrika had Adidas rom runners, which she got in London on a visit to our Dad. These were not available in Ireland at the time, so it made her the envy of the school. And I remember wearing rip-offs into a nightclub in Kilkenny when we ended up “going out” after a match (how I was let in is anyone’s guess).
Gym gear in the supermarket is seen as pretty normal these days, but in the 1990s you didn’t even fake the exercise part. The Nike and Adidas logos were just pure fashion statements. Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls and their six NBA Championships between 1991 and 1998, probably had a lot to do with that. But as many Irish kids of the 90s lived in two-channel land, we didn’t know it.
In my working life, I sat across the table from a lot of people who I didn’t like over the years, but I did respect them
While a lot of people have been getting their lockdown series fix from Normal People, I have not taken the time to watch it yet. Instead, I invested TV time in the Michael Jordan documentary "The Last Dance". Although I really enjoyed it, I liked Jordan a lot more before I watched the documentary. He accepts that his attitude to winning, and how he treated his teammates, may lower his appeal. But his unapologetic response was: “That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way.” That, I respect. In my working life, I sat across the table from a lot of people who I didn’t like over the years, but I did respect them and I hoped that respect was mutual.
On Sunday, it will be four months since the general election. And yet we have no Government and no leader. With a pretty bleak economic outlook and COVID-19 now omnipresent, we do need strong leadership. As I write, negotiators from three of our main political parties are discussing where agriculture will fit in a programme for Government. Will there be sufficient mutual respect among the three to enable a Government to be formed?
I wonder how much challenge and pulling in a certain direction the agriculture industry can take if it finds itself in a programme for Government with a green focus
When asked if being a demanding leader came at a cost, Jordan replied: “Leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged.” I wonder how much challenge and pulling in a certain direction the agriculture industry can take if it finds itself in a programme for Government with a green focus.
Gambling
On pages 14 and 15 this week, psychologist Enda Murphy writes about gambling during lockdown. Reports suggest that COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem, particularly for women. In relationships, there will generally be a desire to support a partner through an addiction. Reading the lines, “go into survival mode. With other addictions you can let the person go - with gambling they will drag you down with them” is a cold reminder of the damage that gambling do to a family.
While there was some detail, I felt that Jordan’s own gambling issues were white-washed in the documentary. The only tarnish allowed to his reputation was his single-minded focus on winning at all costs. Should you find that a negative?
SHARING OPTIONS: