“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”. Possibly the most famous lines from any speech of the Twentieth Century, uttered of course by John Fitzgerald Kennedy in his inauguration address on a cold January day in 1961. They still resonate to this day, almost half a century later.

There has been much nostalgia for that era of history with the launch recently of Ryan Tubridy's book covering JFK's trip to Ireland in June 1963. Many of you may also have seen the documentary that was aired last week on the topic, featuring extensive footage from that historic trip to these shores by Kennedy.

What this whole era seemed to encompass was a commodity that is currently in short supply – hope. Here was a young man, in his early forties, occupying the most important job in the world. He was the first President of the United States born in the Twentieth Century, and seemed to perfectly encapsulate the freshness that erupted in the sixties.

Watching the documentary I was struck by the contrast between the freshness, the newness of Kennedy and the staleness that seemed to pervade Ireland at the time. Many of those who watched Kennedy's trip spoke of how he seemed to bring Technicolor to an Ireland that was still living in black and white. The dichotomy of a young and vibrant Kennedy being greeted by an aged and almost blind de Valera at Dublin Airport perfectly captured the differences between their two nations at the time. A picture certainly does paint a thousand words.

Of course we all know that just five months after his visit here Kennedy was cruelly shot down by an assassin's bullets (or assassins' bullets, depending on where you stand on the whole conspiracy theory issue). The dream had died and America (along with much of the world) was brought back to reality.

In today's world we need that kind of dream, that kind of hope that Kennedy instilled in a generation. Barack Obama was inaugurated two years ago, with many viewing him as JFK's successor. Hope was his message, a beacon among a world that was laden with terrorist threats and a general air of tension. But the hope that accompanied Obama on his campaign and in his early days in office is now evaporating as reality takes over – the dream is slowly dying as a massive financial crisis, crippling debt and surging unemployment conspire to create talk of Obama not even getting the Democrat nomination in two years' time.

There are not many places where our hopes and dreams can survive in today's world. Look all around you and you will see cynicism, lies, bullshit and general mistrust.

Which is where sport comes into it.

Sport, that most egalitarian of pursuits, is what many people have been turning to as the recession threatens to engulf all our lives. Talk of bond margins, budget deficits and job losses can only be taken for so long by the average person before they collapse under the enormity of it all (perhaps not as spectacularly as Lehman Brothers, but a collapse all the same).

People need a release valve, something that will allow them to express themselves and to dream a little. Participation in sports such as running has grown immeasurably since the recession began – it's free, it burns off stress and releases endorphins that make the participants feel better.

Fervently supporting a team helps to take a person's mind off of every day stresses and worries, enabling them to inhabit an alternative sphere where, for a couple of hours, the only important issue is whether their team wins or loses. In this alternative world there are no bond markets, job losses or tax increases – just the currency of goals and points, the markets of league tables. Recession is replaced by relegation as the dreaded “r” word.

Escapism has its place in every society (in moderation). Sport assists this, creating heroes and villains who all have their part to play in the theatre of dreams. It is real life drama that, in reality, probably shouldn't affect our lives to the extent that it does.

Hope - it's a special and priceless commodity. As a Clare man, I know well what hope means. A famine was endured among our people, disappointment and heartbreak our lot until one fateful summer in 1995. Ask anyone from the county and they will tell you that the success of that summer gave the people of Clare an extra pep in their step, fed them confidence and allowed the county as a whole to brand itself a winner.

That summer of 1995 saw hope and reality combine in perfect unison. There was no cynicism, no bullshit, and no lies. Just the pure unadulterated honesty of sport at its best, producing heroes and making a whole county believe in itself.

In these troubled times for our country, we need hope more than ever. Sport can give us some of that hope, with its crucial commodities of truth, honesty and joy.

At a time of recession it is sport that contains all the riches...


JFK... one of the boys of Wexford...