Australian writer Martin Flanagan is like a modern day shanachie. In Irish tradition, every village, no matter how small, had a storyteller, known as a shanachie, who told stories about their people and the society they lived in. The shanachies effectively helped preserve Irish culture and a sense of history; they instilled a sense of justice in their children.
Flanagan’s writing is like the story-telling of the shanachies on several levels.
He too addresses issues of fairness and history, and tells the untold stories of the ordinary person. Through that process,he looks at many of the major issues confronting Australian society today.
Both in his daily journalism, writing for The Age newspaper, and his books (there are eight to date), Flanagan is a beautiful writer. He writes about Australian culture, Australian people and the games they play. The relationship between black and white Australia has long been a focus of his work. He has been called Australia’s best sports writer but his work deals with much more than sport. Of course, sport embraces much more than just a game. ‘Any popular game properly understood will always tell you about the values of the society at the time,’ Flanagan says.
His latest book, The Game in Time of War, was inspired by the events of September 11 and the subsequent attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. In short, it is the story of three men going to the football, and the events in the world around them during that time.
In the book, he examines society using the medium of sport—from World War I to the present day. Flanagan found solace in the football at a time when the world seemed to be going mad. ‘So all of a sudden this bloody war’s coming and the only thing which provides me with any sort of degree of relief is going to watch this game. I’m as aware as anyone that that’s almost absurd but equally it was the reality.’
So what is it about Australian Rules that provides that relief? ‘There is something about the Australianness of it ... going and watching a game of footy—which some people would say is violent, but to me isn’t ’cos it’s sort of codified Greek conduct—and just the earthy candour that surrounds the game that was no longer in our public life. And the egalitarian nature of it, all those sort of things.’
The Game In Time of War deals with culture