An Uachtarán, Aogán Ó Fearghail

manfromdelmonte · June 04, 2015, 03:03:32 PM

GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail has taken RTE's 'The Sunday Game' to task over their 'nasty' and 'abusive' analysis in recent weeks.

The Association's top official has hit out at Pat Spillane's comparison of the Donegal defence to the Taliban and Shane Curran's dismissive comments on London's participation in the Connacht SFC.

"I think when you're disrespectful to individuals, you go over the edge," he pointed out to The Irish Independent.

"I'm not saying RTÉ, I think anywhere that it happens. I dealt with it all my life as a teacher in the school playground. It's nasty. It's wrong.

"I have to say one aspect of that evening annoyed me because London were attacked in a disgraceful way as having no right to even be in it and nobody said anything.

"Fair enough, if you want to criticise but to be nasty and to be abusive and to use language to associate certain counties with the Taliban. That's not disrespectful, that's actually dangerous.

"The most dangerous force in the world today are the Taliban. To be associating anyone in GAA with that type of mentality, that's a type of mentality that builds and it becomes easy to say anything after that. I think that is dangerous and I don't accept it."

On the analysis of his native county Cavan's Ulster SFC defeat to Monaghan, Ó Fearghail added: "We saw loads of hexagons and triangles and honours maths-type diagrams but all it proved to me was that the man did honours maths. I saw very little real analysis.

"Nobody was saying anything good and then they were all very upset because another individual had been called ugly but what about Cavan football which has made huge advances?"

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More of that please.

longballin · June 04, 2015, 03:11:52 PM

Is his role not to lead the Association not jump on the bandwagon?... nothing to see here... been said by everyone for last few weeks...

magpie seanie · June 04, 2015, 03:15:46 PM

Quote from: manfromdelmonte on June 04, 2015, 03:03:32 PM
GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail has taken RTE's 'The Sunday Game' to task over their 'nasty' and 'abusive' analysis in recent weeks.

The Association's top official has hit out at Pat Spillane's comparison of the Donegal defence to the Taliban and Shane Curran's dismissive comments on London's participation in the Connacht SFC.

"I think when you're disrespectful to individuals, you go over the edge," he pointed out to The Irish Independent.

"I'm not saying RTÉ, I think anywhere that it happens. I dealt with it all my life as a teacher in the school playground. It's nasty. It's wrong.

"I have to say one aspect of that evening annoyed me because London were attacked in a disgraceful way as having no right to even be in it and nobody said anything.

"Fair enough, if you want to criticise but to be nasty and to be abusive and to use language to associate certain counties with the Taliban. That's not disrespectful, that's actually dangerous.

"The most dangerous force in the world today are the Taliban. To be associating anyone in GAA with that type of mentality, that's a type of mentality that builds and it becomes easy to say anything after that. I think that is dangerous and I don't accept it."

On the analysis of his native county Cavan's Ulster SFC defeat to Monaghan, Ó Fearghail added: "We saw loads of hexagons and triangles and honours maths-type diagrams but all it proved to me was that the man did honours maths. I saw very little real analysis.

"Nobody was saying anything good and then they were all very upset because another individual had been called ugly but what about Cavan football which has made huge advances?"

************
More of that please.

The only one allowed to criticise is the President.

5 Sams · June 04, 2015, 04:15:25 PM

"An tUachtaráin, Aogán Ó Fearghail"

The genitive police will be along shortly

Syferus · June 04, 2015, 04:20:09 PM

The new pres is starting things off in the same manner the last one did. Disappointing that the man at the top is so easily made look like a bold child.

Whatever about the methods used both had valid points. Fighting a semantic battle is completely worthless, particularly for the GAA president.

He sounds like he's auditioning for a role on the Sunday Game himself.

manfromdelmonte · June 04, 2015, 05:15:35 PM

My Irish isn't what it once was.

He is trying to protect the players and games from a constantly negative RTE and the personal attacks on players and other GAA figures

AZOffaly · June 04, 2015, 06:18:18 PM

I think what he says is spot on. But so what?

tiempo · June 04, 2015, 07:00:04 PM

Quote from: Syferus on June 04, 2015, 04:20:09 PM
The new pres is starting things off in the same manner the last one did. Disappointing that the man at the top is so easily made look like a bold child.

Whatever about the methods used both had valid points. Fighting a semantic battle is completely worthless, particularly for the GAA president.

He sounds like he's auditioning for a role on the Sunday Game himself.

The new "pres" wasn't delivered to the Association last week in a basket, this guy has his head screwed on and hopefully he won't tolerate the shite we've been hearing out of RTE this last 20+ years. How he makes himself look like a bold child i'll never know?

It might come as a suprise to you but a role on the Sunday Game is not the be all and end all, at the end of the day its a few couch potatoes sitting around pontificating in their spare time, I get the impression Aogán Ó Fearghail has better more worthwhile things to be doing with his time, but he is well within his right to call these flat track bullies out any time he feels like it, he is President of the Association after all.

5 Sams · June 04, 2015, 07:10:18 PM

Read Brolly in the Gaelic Life today. Basically saying how great it is that RTÉ give them free rein to say whatever the fcuk they want.

Syferus · June 04, 2015, 08:19:54 PM

Quote from: tiempo on June 04, 2015, 07:00:04 PM
Quote from: Syferus on June 04, 2015, 04:20:09 PM
The new pres is starting things off in the same manner the last one did. Disappointing that the man at the top is so easily made look like a bold child.

Whatever about the methods used both had valid points. Fighting a semantic battle is completely worthless, particularly for the GAA president.

He sounds like he's auditioning for a role on the Sunday Game himself.

The new "pres" wasn't delivered to the Association last week in a basket, this guy has his head screwed on and hopefully he won't tolerate the shite we've been hearing out of RTE this last 20+ years. How he makes himself look like a bold child i'll never know?

It might come as a suprise to you but a role on the Sunday Game is not the be all and end all, at the end of the day its a few couch potatoes sitting around pontificating in their spare time, I get the impression Aogán Ó Fearghail has better more worthwhile things to be doing with his time, but he is well within his right to call these flat track bullies out any time he feels like it, he is President of the Association after all.

The 'pres' sounds as petty as a child that was smacked on the arse up above. That's not how you want the president of the GAA to come across.

He's starting things off in the same manner O'Neill did, getting himself invovled in pointless scraps with journalists and pundits. Absolutely nothing to be gained from that.

But when people are silly enough to praise him for it is it any surprise?

Conallach · June 04, 2015, 09:58:44 PM

I can see why he'd make the effort to defend London, but he might have been best to leave it there.

That said, he spoke very well earlier in the week on TG's coverage of the Comórtas Peile.

macdanger2 · June 05, 2015, 01:55:26 AM

Not sure how he thought those triangles looked like honours maths

If the general gist was rte's negative angle on things, he's correct but he might be better putting it across in private. In all likelihood he knows this so perhaps this is just to be seen to be defending the organisation

omaghjoe · June 05, 2015, 04:04:30 AM

Quote from: macdanger2 on June 05, 2015, 01:55:26 AM
Not sure how he thought those triangles looked like honours maths

If the general gist was rte's negative angle on things, he's correct but he might be better putting it across in private. In all likelihood he knows this so perhaps this is just to be seen to be defending the organisation

Ahh those triangles..... feck that was the funniest bit of TV I've seen in a while (yeah I dont watch it much) ...Was he actually serious or doin it for the craic to make an arse outta the thing?

Eamonnca1 · June 05, 2015, 04:32:18 AM

He's a very polished individual, he's absolutely spot on on this, and I'm happy to see him giving the association a robust defence instead of letting those gobshites the RTE studio bad-mouth the game week in week out. If they hate the game so much then we should take that into account the next time the broadcasting rights come up for negotiation and give TV3 or TG4 a shot at it. They might actually be professional in their coverage and might have something positive to say for a change.

Hardy · June 05, 2015, 10:41:16 AM

Quote from: Eamonnca1 on June 05, 2015, 04:32:18 AM
He's a very polished individual, he's absolutely spot on on this, and I'm happy to see him giving the association a robust defence instead of letting those gobshites the RTE studio bad-mouth the game week in week out. If they hate the game so much then we should take that into account the next time the broadcasting rights come up for negotiation and give TV3 or TG4 a shot at it. They might actually be professional in their coverage and might have something positive to say for a change.

Indeed. Except that wasn't what he complained about. That was my immediate reaction - time someone called out those gobshites, but not for saying unkind things about individuals. Take them on for their relentless rubbishing of the game and pathetic production standards.