On tonight's US sports slot on Off The Ball, our own Donny Mahoney ran through many of the stories making headlines Stateside. But he also spoke about the issue of the Confederate flag and its place in US Sport, particularly in NASCAR ...
This horrible massacre last Thursday night in Charleston with nine people killed in this famous black church has caused a big conversation about the place of the Confederate flag in American society - and on the back of that, American sport.
You'll often see the Confederate flag flying in the stands as the cars go round [in NASCAR].
There's a motion being introduced to the South Carolina State Legislature. If you were to drive down downtown Charleston when you pass the head of the State Capitol, you would see the Confederate flag flying over the building.
The Confederate flag is a flag of a fledgling republic that tried to break away from America and keep slavery in the laws of the country.
That flag has no place flying over the official state building of any American state.
So the governer is under a lot of political pressure and has brought a law before the state legislature to have the flag removed.
But a conversation about the Confederate flag in American life has been triggered on the back of this.
NASCAR has come out interestingly today and backed this law and they've said 'look, we'll support this'. But if you watch NASCAR, you'll see the Confederate flag quite often and NASCAR is very aware of this.
They even have this programme where you can go to a NASCAR event and hand in your Confederate flag and they'll give you a NASCAR flag back.
So, they are trying to remove this from their own sport.
But I have to say this: if you ever watch a Cork GAA match, you will sometimes see the Confederate flag in the background in Hill 16 or whatever.
I don't know if people really know what the flag symbolises or what it means. But flying that flag in any kind of sporting context in this country or any country is wrong and it has no place.
People - and this is as an American - should realise just how deeply offensive that flag is. What it stands for is institutionalised racism and much worse, and the people who bring those flags to games should think twice.
Listen to Donny on the big stories in US Sport via the podcast.
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