Blue In The Face . . . with Brian McDonnell
RON Byrne, PRO and assistant secretary of the supporter's club, helpfully dropped in a copy of the new Limerick 37 fanzine 'Out on a Lim' last week.
Although it's a little rough around the edges 'Out on a Lim' is a worthwhile read, but for Leader Sport the fanzine's very existence begs a question: we can't be doing our job very well if supporters feel a need to issue such a publication, can we?
We won't hold that against you though lads, in fact it's great to see a group of Limerick 37 supporters add their own footnote to the famed history of football fanzines.
Fanzines
Most people might not realise than fanzines first originated during the 1970s with the emergence of punk music with fans, who felt they were not being represented accurately, or not at all, in the national media deciding to publish for themselves.
This phenomenon was mirrored during the '80s and early '90s in the English footballing community.
Following disasters at venues like Heysel and more notably Hillsborough, football fans were treated and characterized in the national media with a certain disdain.
For a time, in the eyes of the government, sections of the press, and even the game's authorities, there were few species lower than the football supporter - in a speech to the House of Commons in 1989 then Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher described the common or garden football supporter as "someone from whom normal society would have to be protected".
In reaction to Thatcher's choice description fans began publishing their fanzines to represent themselves and their community - as a general rule they were/are compiled by fans and are characterized by a passionate need to publish as opposed to an agenda based upon making a profit - supporters were no longer prepared to accept a brand of journalism which was handed down to them on engraved tablets.
When Saturday Comes
'When Saturday Comes' (initially a Liverpool fanzine) was established in 1986 and has proven the most successful of all - its subsequent move into the mainstream of publications reflects a broader shift in the respectability of football fanzines in general.
The venerable Eamon Dunphy, writing for the Reading Evening Post in 1976, best described the motivation which nourished the production of football fanzines.
Reflecting on his efforts to make the Millwall first team Dunphy wrote: "I think it is fair to say that the saturation coverage the media affords to pro-football tends to encourage our belief in our own self-importance. Our daily diet of football news has a high hysteria content. The words and thoughts of Big Mal or Big Mac assume earth-shattering importance, despite their overwhelming banality. Therefore the emergence a couple of years ago of 'Foul', a satirical football paper was most welcome.
"Started by a group of football-loving Cambridge under-grads 'Foul' regards itself as an alternative football paper. Alternative that is to the everyday nonsense that passes in many popular papers for sports coverage.
"Foul is irreverent, in very bad taste and very refreshing. It has not taken the world by storm - distribution is a problem, as, indeed, is the variable quality of its contributors - but it survives and deservedly so for all its minority appeal.
"Basically 'Foul' is a reaction to bad sports writing. Journalism had and has its own agenda and it doesn't reflect the real agenda that players and fans have.
"The existence of fanzines is a terrible reflection on the standards of journalism."
All the best
Everyone at Leader Sport wishes 'Out on a Lim' all the very best. There is no great science to finding, assembling and publishing information.
Put another way, any bloody fool can hammer a nail, but a decent carpenter costs a lot these days, and with good reason. Good luck lads you'll need it.
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Monday 21 May 2012
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