They were tapes media outlets deemed to be disturbing enough, to the point warnings popped up before play was pressed. This around no more than a coming together of the most basic idea of a young family with immigration policy, of children from poverty with border officials.

On Tuesday, ProPublica released the horrifying noises that gave an insight into what society is becoming, as a dangerous build-up of far-right tendencies seep out, even in the place that lauds itself as a bastion of freedom and decency.

The sounds were of children not even old enough to know they are from Central America, being taken from their parents and put into metal cages for no other reason than they are from Central America. At one stage a little girl can be heard screaming out for her dad.

Think about all that for a moment.

And then for another moment.

What the scandal produced though was a rare flash of unity, clarity and basic morality that led to bi-partisan revulsion in the United States as this was no longer about playing politics. Laura Bush’s op-ed in ‘The Washington Post’ signalled that even moderate Republicans knew there was a line crossed. Indeed for many red-faced, jingoistic supporters of Donald Trump, there was a feeling this wasn’t one to start showboating over, with polls showing a huge 67 per cent are against splitting up these families.

How long that anger and focus lasts though is another story as we lurch from one outrage to the next at high speed, all the while never being given the time to properly take anything in, never mind to fight back against it. As comedian Patton Oswalt noted, people have it all wrong about Trump being a gift to his profession for he can’t write a joke about a presidential scandal – by the time he goes on tour, it’s outdated. There’s nothing to hold on to, so we can find our footing and draw breath.

Then again, it was promised and these are policies that everyone knew were coming.

Including Rory McIlroy.

During the week, when those tapes came out, he was still raking over the coals and the inconsistencies in his game that have been behind his struggles lately. At the US Open, his first-round and second-round back nines differed by 11 shots and, by the time he missed the cut, he had arguably played the best stretch of golf of anyone in the field. It was all kinds of crazy.

But more and more that pales into insignificance for the person and their choices come before the player and their shots. The bubble of major events should not and cannot always take precedence over reality. Because of that, as Trump goes down the road that he said he would, it’s impossible in a sporting sense not to think of McIlroy and of the pass he has been given. It has been remarkable.

And it still remains bang out of order.

* * *

Long after he’s gone from being a contender, there’s a round of golf that could and should always define Ireland’s biggest and best-known sports star. On the morning of 19 February 2017, he took to the Trump International Golf Club course in West Palm Beach for a quiet 18 holes.

We don’t know what he scored.

We don’t know how he played.

But we do know who he played with.

That’s really all that matters for it was the most important moment of McIlroy’s career.

In the aftermath, the abuse started. McIlroy even released a statement days later, countering claims that he was a “fascist” and a “bigot”. But that was poor-me stuff and, worse, it was straw-man stuff. No one in their right mind thought or thinks he is either of those, however, what he did that morning was legitimise someone far more powerful than him, who does exude those traits.

It was at a key juncture in Trump’s presidency too, when the shock was still strong and he was far from on firm ground around pushing his biley agenda. He needed normalising, and he needed to be seen as accepted by those that people look up to. In a world of celebrity worship, this did that. McIlroy had done his part. In a big way.

He’d even posed for the cameras, showing the world that this hate-filled man who had engaged in xenophobia and sexual harassment ought to be rewarded. That present earned was to play the sport he has always loved with one of its greatest ever proponents.

Golf is a strange world for it is a soft-and-cuddly closed shop of excuse making that makes tennis look cutthroat. Take last weekend’s US Open alone. When Jordan Spieth missed the cut after making a mess of an up-and-down at 18, the commentators found ways to explain it away without criticism when no other sport works that way around the best high-paid stars; when Phil Mickelson cheated and showed no remorse, he was given another chance to put it right so his corporate sponsors could be kept happy when no other sport works that way around the best high-paid stars.

That’s their choice but McIlroy’s past actions and present silence go beyond the threshold of golf. If he wants to use his massive profile to influence politics, then this cannot be soft and cuddly too.

Around the time of his round last year, the brilliant Paul Kimmage tweeted: “One of my favourite questions is ‘What would I have done?’” But almost anyone who is offended by Trump’s views, regardless of age or the lure of his title, would absolutely refuse. Thus this is not just a round of golf and, to suggest McIlroy saw it as merely a harmless game, is to hugely insult his intelligence.

Worse though has been his reaction ever since, and in this sphere we can bring in another Irish sporting hero too. Pádraig Harrington back in January said on The Late Late Show that if our government asked him to play with Trump on a visit, he would, and by February in the Sunday Independent he admitted: “I was basically trying to avoid the Trump question”.

Across from him in that interview was McIlroy who, asked if he would do it again replied, “From a self-preservation point of view probably not. But I have no problem saying I had a great time.”

This is as good as we’ve got?

Not everyone can be John Carlos and Tommie Smith but is this the level of the Irish sporting great?

With time for reflection, and with time to see if Trump changed, we had Harrington refusing to take a stance and McIlroy engaged in selfishness. It was astounding. Rory wouldn’t do it, not because morally it is an abhorrent act, but because it would make him look bad.

Distasteful…. Disgraceful… Disgusting.

There’s a theory if you ran McIlroy up a flagpole then he’ll blow whatever way the wind goes, and this is just part of that, but it’s far too easy an out and it’s also not true. Instead, he’s always spoken outside both sides of his mouth, which at times has shown him as a hypocrite and, at other times, as a coward.

At fleeting moments in his life, for instance, he admitted he sees himself as British – and that is an area Irish people need to accept and understand far more – but at the Olympics he refused to play for Ireland and made up some nonsense about the Zica virus. Around that tournament, however, he consistently said he didn’t want to get involved in politics, avoiding the Northern Irish debate, yet six months on he was golfing with Trump.

Bullsh*t.

Those wishing to be apolitical don’t reaffirm the legitimacy of radical politics, and McIlroy must take ownership of his actions as he’s a big boy who’s been happy to use his status and position when it was beneficial to him. And if he can’t, then it’s up to us to stop the move-along-nothing-to-see attitude. McIlroy for sure has every right to play golf with whoever he wants but the flip-side is that once, by association, he enters into what are extremist politics by any standards, we have every right to judge him and his moral fibre.

Our Irish history around this isn’t good sadly. The IRFU in 1981 sanctioned a tour to South Africa against the wishes of the government, and many shrugged and still do, saying it’s just sport. Seán Kelly and Pat McQuaid broke that blockade under assumed names and once again, we shrugged. Now this? Contrast it with Germany’s outraged reaction to Mesut Özil’s and Ilkay Gündoğan’s pre-World Cup normalising of Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

When upset you are supposed to speak up regardless of the celebrity. Is it so hard for us to do the decent thing and take the right stance too?

Don’t underestimate the importance of sport and sportspeople around politics either. This is not so different to those examples in apartheid, as what exactly does Trump have to do for people to say, wait a minute, we can actually start making scary claims, that it isn’t hyperbole or sensationalist or lacking in historical knowledge to draw comparisons and associate with radical past wrongs?

But with each of those wrongs, McIlroy has had a chance to turn around, and look back at what he did, and admit fault. That would be a hugely important moment as he, through basic decency, could act as a voice for those that have none. But all we hear after the golf talk is what? Bad enough were his choices, but as kids’ scream looking for their parents, worse again is his silence.

It means that no matter what McIlroy does in sport, he shouldn’t be remembered for it.

History will brutally judge his golfing buddy Trump. But we ought to judge Rory right now.

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