Plenty of British viewers have discovered the joys of our national sports over recent weeks with the start of the Sky Sports deal to broadcast GAA.
GAA President Liam O'Neill was in Belfast recently and he met one of hurling's latest fans - the Queen of England.
O'Neill sat at her table when she visited City Hall and she told him that she had come across it one evening.
I was privileged to sit a table for lunch with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of England last week — we had met before in Croke Park when she had visited — and we touched the topic of hurling and she said yes, she seen it.
She saw it on television on Sky, she said ‘I’m not quite sure how I got it’ but she said it was wonderful. She made a side-to-side motion with her head saying it was very fast and it was a wonderful game.
I’m not sure whether it was Offaly v Kilkenny or Wexford v Dublin, we didn’t go into detail on that because you can only engage her for a certain amount of time in a group of nine but the fact of the matter is that she says she saw it and I just think it’s interesting that she did. I know she’s only one person but it’s interesting she was there, she was engaged by it and she said it was a wonderful game.
I like the idea that the Queen sits around on a Saturday evening channel hopping.
Liam O'Neill really should've dug deeper and asked what she thought of Sky Sports expanding the use of stats in GAA.
Also, surely Liam managed to crack a smile upon hearing this news.
Picture credit: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
