Casement Park in line for major overhaul - 40,000 all seater Stadium.

[Lecale2]

Surely there are mediators who can act as honest brokers and resolve this before they tear all apart ?.

Too late for that I suspect. The lawyers will be the only winners as usual.

[orangeman]

The GAA can behave in strange ways at times. Where do Ulster council fit in here ?

Can they not step in and sort this nasty business out ?

[johnneycool]

The GAA can behave in strange ways at times. Where do Ulster council fit in here ?

Can they not step in and sort this nasty business out ?

There is a line of thought that the Ulster Council are behind these goings on. I don't believe that myself. The reason being - whatever about Ryan Feeney et al, they do actually have a functioning organ in their heads, unlike Jim Murray & Frankie Quinn. IMO, there is no chance they would have let this develop the way it has.

It must be remembered that had Antrim GAA treated the members of Casement Social Club with a small bit of decency and respect, they were prepared to leave, annoyed but without any hassle. This would have been over long ago. But no, Antrim GAA needed to show these blackguards who was boss and ended up getting people's backs up.

Frankie is Ulster council HS, he just so happens to be Antrim secretary, but his bosses are the Ulster council, not anyone in Antrim.

[bannside]

As I said before on this I cant see JM or FQ going solo on this. They must have the backing of county "board", county committee, trustees possibly, and definitely run this past the Ulster council delegate Ryan Feeney before making such decisions.

I dont pretend to know anything more than the rest of the five eighths, but would expect that there are two sides to this story.

We all have club delegates who I will be surprised if they haven't some sort of clue, or at least must have been appraised as this went through the phases. Would be very surprised if JM/FQ are going back with bills of £100k without some level of support or approval from some source. My hunch is that Ulster council have given them a green light to do what they need to do to get the building freed up from any third party involvement. Time will tell though.....

[orangeman]

Can anyone give a breakdown of the £100k figure that it has cost Antrim CB so far ??

[orangeman]

Club delegates had a vote to take Casement Social Club to court over an outstanding bill of £36000. They voted in favour. It is thought that they have been hoodwinked by this and our county executive will tell them that they voted to start legal proceedings which ended up costing.........

I wouldn't blame club delegates. Club delegates were blamed for the strikes in Cork at one time as well, voting routinely according to the way Frank allegedly told them to raise their arms.

It's interesting that the controller in Cork is Frank and in Antrim there's a Frank as well. Coincidence only I'm sure.

But in any case, club delegates can be swayed. It's time this whole thing was opened out and the truth revealed, whatever that truth is.

Someone said there's 2 sides to the story - I'd be certain there's at least 3 sides to the story. Antrim county board want the social club closed in order to facilitate the redevelopment and in using a sledge to crack a nut, have understandably got the backs of the social club members up. It doesn't matter how many pints they have drank or not nor does it matter what price the pints are, there was a protocol that should have been followed in order to close the place down in an orderly fashion. Antrim didnt do that for whatever reason.

They have dug a big hole for themselves and seem intent on digging some more.

The hole is only going to get bigger. The development is going to get delayed. The contractor is going to put in a claim for delay and loss and expense and more good money is being flushed down the drain.

Two wrongs don't make a right and Ulster council and Antrim CB should review the situation, bring new people in to sort it out if necessay but ultimately they should cop themselves on and face the music. You can't tr**p over the top of people. Especially not Belfast people who have had to suffer all down the years with external forces trying to ride roughshod over them. For your own people to try to do this isn't on.

[Bingo]

This problem will be repeated or has already been played out in many other GAA centres over the country.

How many club houses or club premises have entered into agreements with other organisations or community groups with a view to securing grants or getting an income stream. Once this changes and someone needs to be moved on, the sh*t hits the fan and verbal promises and all sorts of legal rights are claimed.

I know it has happended in other clubs and caused massive divisions. This seems to be now happening at county level in Antrim. I expect the GAA at provincial level and national will leave it to be sorted before they get involved, may provide guidance in the background.

It'll not be the last either to end this way.

[theskull1]

It's interesting that the controller in Cork is Frank and in Antrim there's a Frank as well. Coincidence only I'm sure.

both men no relation to the adjective 

[johnneycool]

Can anyone give a breakdown of the £100k figure that it has cost Antrim CB so far ??

I've pmed you there but the two major hits they took came from:

The illegal closure of the club.
Their refusal to pay the redundancy of full time bar staff which saw them taken to an industrial tribunal.

Who employed the bar staff, Antrim county board or the Casement social club?

[Milltown Row2]

Can anyone give a breakdown of the £100k figure that it has cost Antrim CB so far ??

I've pmed you there but the two major hits they took came from:

The illegal closure of the club.
Their refusal to pay the redundancy of full time bar staff which saw them taken to an industrial tribunal.

Who employed the bar staff, Antrim county board or the Casement social club?

They are club men, players, ex county players, and current referee also. It's getting uglier by the day

[orangeman]

Can anyone give a breakdown of the £100k figure that it has cost Antrim CB so far ??

I've pmed you there but the two major hits they took came from:

The illegal closure of the club.
Their refusal to pay the redundancy of full time bar staff which saw them taken to an industrial tribunal.

Who employed the bar staff, Antrim county board or the Casement social club?

They are club men, players, ex county players, and current referee also. It's getting uglier by the day

That tends to be the nature of these disputes where respective positions become entrenched, then where one side is seen to have a victory of sorts, the other side becomes even more entrenched.

A solution needs sorted if this ugliness is to stop.

What do Ulster council have to say about it if anything ? I wouldn't accept this dispute has nothing to do with them nor can they wash their hands of it and shrug their shoulders. It's time for positive leadership on all sides.

[T Fearon]

Evidence of poor foresight and planning and lack of meaningful prior engagement with stakeholders etc. Seems like a case of grab the money,pat ourselves on the back and to hell with the (relatively) small minority this will adversely impact.

[Tony Baloney]

Evidence of poor foresight and planning and lack of meaningful prior engagement with stakeholders etc. Seems like a case of grab the money,pat ourselves on the back and to hell with the (relatively) small minority this will adversely impact.

The scale of redevelopment was nothing more than a vanity projector day 1. This is down to the vanity and egos of people in Antrim and Ulster being involved in a project way beyond their capabilities.

[THE MIGHTY QUINN]

It was development for the future.  You could have said exactly the same about those who decided on the Croke Park redevelopment.

[Maguire01]

It was development for the future.  You could have said exactly the same about those who decided on the Croke Park redevelopment.

Not really. The demand for a high capacity stadium was always evident for Dublin.