In attics and sheds and down the back of wardrobes there are boxes which are filled with the history of the lives people lived across many decades. These boxes stand as the record to immense voluntary endeavour that has sustained sporting organisations in the modern world. In many respects, the minute books and letters and accounts which fill these boxes record the aspect of sport that is usually hidden and generally disregarded, but without which modern sport could not exist.
Anyone who has ever served on the sporting committee of a local club knows just how thankless the task is. There is no mileage allowance, no meat-pack, no holiday fund, no government grant. At best, there is a sort of grudging respect – but even that melts away when there are controversies or hard decisions which force people to take positions that do not please any or all.
And yet, without the volunteers who sustain every sports club by serving as officers, there can be no sport. It is usually such officials who preserve the history of a sport. It is true that modern media documents the actual playing of games and much that flows from it.
But the story of what goes on beneath the bonnet is often neglected. A raw truth is that when such officials pass away or lose interest, the material they have recorded often disappears. There are many skips that have been filled with the records of club officials.
The result is a record that is grossly incomplete. A prime example of this is camogie. For generations.
