It was like that famous scene from Indiana Jones where, according to the map that was leading him to the Holy Grail, Indiana must cross an invisible bridge; the only way for the bridge to materialise is to step out into what appears to be a void. Before he made that leap Harrington was absolutely convinced about the bridge.
In the same summer that Harrington made his breakthrough at Carnoustie, the Irish rugby team were trying to convince themselves they could win the World Cup in France. At a training camp in Poland the players were given a day-by-day itinerary for the tournament that didn’t account for their movements beyond the quarter-final. No Irish team had progressed beyond that stage in a World Cup, but that wasn’t the point.
The old and beloved “give it a lash” mentality in Irish sport is dead. Maybe it worked for Mick Doyle’s Irish rugby team in the mid-1980s and Jack Charlton’s football teams that followed soon after, but if that attitude was empowering it was also limiting. A certain permission to fail was built-in. It was like getting a Covid jab: you might still contract a bout of losing, but with the “give it a lash” vaccine it won’t feel so bad.
Rhys McClenaghan is another story. When he won gold at the World Gymnastics Championships last weekend it triggered a memory of something he said in the mixed zone after he bombed out in the Olympic final in Tokyo 15 months ago. He congratulated the athletes who had beaten him to the medals, but that was the extent of his deference.
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