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[It was a day of peace, tranquility and triumph when Ireland declared her independence, when we all started singing from the same hymn sheet. It was a day when all creeds and classes united on a sporting occasion and showed dignified respect for each other, a quality that had previously been absent for hundreds of years.]

The following was published in the Roscommon Herald in a column by a Mr T Kenoy, who is apparently the Roscommon rep on Central Council.

"WHAT'S THE SCORE
Anniversary of a Memorable Occasion
Attending Ireland's Six Nations game against Wales in Croke Park recently was disappointing from a sporting perspective. But it also brought back memories of a historic occasion exactly one year earlier when the 'Auld Enemy' ventured onto Croker's sacred sod and got kicked off the pitch by Eddie O'Sullivan's heroes.
How times can change in a short period. ...Some believed that there would be a riot on Jones' Road...
But the opposite happened. It was a day of peace, tranquility and triumph when Ireland declared her independence, when we all started singing from the same hymn sheet. It was a day when all creeds and classes united on a sporting occasion and showed dignified respect for each other, a quality that had previously been absent for hundreds of years.
And no the sky didn't fall. Indeed that day was the cornerstore of a new Ireland, an Ireland that has matured beyond recognition, has moved on to a new all-embracing and more tolerant mode.
A year later and there was hardly a word written or spoken anywhere about the fact that a foreign game was being played in Croke Park. There are still a few of the "no change brigade" around but then in any democracy they are fully entitled to their opinion, different though it may be from the vast majority.
Ireland's history, as my generation learned it, reflected generations of ideological bigotry. The new history is little over than a year old, written on a day when a new generation marched unshackled through the debris of centuries of racial and religious intolerance. It was a proud day for Ireland, a proud day also for the GAA as a historic moment was played out on the history laden sod of its headquarters.
A year later foreign games on Croker are no longer news worthy. How times move on.

Angry Farrell rejects GPA professional slur


By Colm Keys
Friday February 29 2008

DESSIE Farrell has dismissed the latest document from the 'Of One Belief' group opposed to the inter-county player grants as "something you would see in an American presidential election".

An email from one of the lobby group members, which is currently taking a case to the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) over the impact on the grants proposal on the amateur status rule, claims that Farrell and the GPA privately harbour long-term aims to create professional Gaelic games.

Wexford club hurler Gerard O'Donoghue has circulated a page taken down off the GPA website in 2002 where, in a private members' questions and answers forum relating to the merits of expenses and pay- for-play, Farrell made some revealing comments.

"We need to crawl before we can walk and also in the current climate the expense rate is more acceptable in media circles as how we are perceived is very important at present," wrote Farrell at the time.

Battle

"Having said that, it should not prevent us from harbouring private opinions on this with long-term objectives. At the moment though, let's take it one battle at a time until the war is won," he adds.

The 'Of One Belief' group -- which expect to learn today when their DRA hearing will take place -- believe this is evidence of the GPA's true ideals.

Farrell admits he "probably" did say that at the time but stressed that the remarks were written in a much different climate than exists now

"At the time the £100 (€127) expenses for inter-county players was in the domain. Shortly afterwards it was Charlie McCreevy and tax breaks, then it morphed again into Government grants," recalled Farrell yesterday.

"The relationship was very different back then, it was one based on hostility and suspicion. Thankfully that's not the case now."

Farrell says the GAA have accepted their "bona fides" on preserving the amateur status.

"We're on the record countless times saying we are not about pay-for-play. In the grants document we have re-emphasised the need to uphold the integrity of the amateur status."

Meanwhile, GAA presidential candidate Sean Fogarty has challenged the GPA to produce a constitution and evidence of a proper membership structure before they can be formally approved by the association.

Fogarty has accused the GPA of using a "settled form of guerrilla warfare" against the GAA with the threat of strike.

Fogarty feels a strike may have been no harm last year. "A strike is a dangerous weapon until you go and use it. The players have a very short life span and I don't think players would stay out too long. It would also give us an indication of strength of the players' organisation which I'm not sure about."

From Hoganstand


Anti-grants group heads back to DRA
20 February 2008

The Of One Belief group has gone back to the Dispute Resolution Authority with its claim that Central Council has acted, and continues to act illegally on the grants issue.

The group of members from across the GAA opposes the breaking of the GAA's Rule 11 that the payment of cash "grants" to inter-county players would entail. They went to the DRA back in January and have now taken up the offer the DRA then made of a reconvening of its hearing.

The re-convening is sought on the basis that the motion passed by Central Council last Saturday is out of order and the Council has caused a breach of trust according to the Of One Belief group.

"When we got an adjournment at the initial hearing of the DRA case," said Joe O'Brien from Longford, "it was on the basis that Central Council's solicitors claimed that no decision had been made on grants. Central Council also undertook to bring any future proposals properly to Congress. We accepted all this in good faith but now find that, along with the DRA and the rest of the GAA, we have been misled on both points. The press-release from Saturday's Central Council meeting referred to its 'previous decisions' on this issue. Three weeks ago we were all assured there were no such decisions. And in the GAA if you take things to Congress, you take them there in the right way, according to the Rules. You don't make it up to suit yourself as you go along. On Saturday our Central Council agreed to put a motion to Congress that is clearly out of order."

"It's time people were properly tested on this and this constant misleading was ended. The DRA - our own proper GAA arbitration system - is the means to do that."

The group believe that the Central Council motion is out of order because Rule 85 (b) says that if Central Council wants to submit a motion to Congress for approval of its interpretation of rules, it must seek to change the Rule accordingly. Any amendment to Rule 11, the amateur status rule, would need to be structured correctly and get a two-thirds majority in order to be passed they claim, but the motion from Saturday's Central Council meeting merely asks Congress to vote that it is "satisfied" with the grants scheme and doesn't seek the necessary change of Rule.

"It's obvious by now that Central Council is trying to sneak this fundamental change through on the nod," said Tyrone's Mark Conway.

"It's wrong that Counties like Fermanagh, which debated this whole issue openly and honestly, have their motion on it ruled out of order yet Central Council puts in a motion its members didn't even debate on an agreement it says isn't yet agreed. Trust has gone out the window in all this and it's just further proof of how the people who want to foist pay-for-play on us won't do their business through the GAA's proper democratic processes and rules.

"Central Council's solicitors' amazing claim at the last DRA hearing that there was no grants agreement or decision was made because they knew that the grants breach Rule 11. Like the rest of us they knew full well that "a Lord Denning-type appalling vista" would result, with Central Council found to be blatantly breaking rules it is meant to enforce.

"The longer this goes on the messier it gets. The people who want to introduce pay-for-play have now had three months when every Club in Ireland and beyond and every GAA member could have been properly consulted on this. They've stubbornly refused to allow that consultation to happen. Why is that? Where have the honesty; integrity; and openness that used to underpin the GAA gone? And as for proper corporate governance, well the smallest Club in the GAA wouldn't be allowed to do its business this way."

People opposed to the grants - and even many who favour them - feel this whole issue needs to be properly debated at all levels in the GAA claim the group, who now say that the debate is not being facilitated.

"It just gets stranger and stranger," said Martin Ryan, Tipperary. "Saturday's Central Council meeting asked that all Counties discuss the suggested re-opening of the Australian Rules connection, but it steadfastly refuses to open up the pay-for-play debate. Even basic legal research shows that if these "grants" are paid then EU commercial law comes into play and overrides any internal GAA rules we might have. The grants will change the GAA irrevocably. Those who care about that won't let it happen. That's why this all is so critical."

I'm just after reading yesterday's Irish News, and I thought the following revelation about a Belgian judoka (judo competitor) was hugely significant -

"Following a case taken to the European Court of Justice by Christelle Deliege, the Court ruled in December 2005 that since Mme Deliege received money, including some from her own judo federation as grants to improve her sporting performance...as a result of taking part in judo, her sporting activity actually constitutes an economic activity and therefore enjoys the full protection of Community law."

Surely this shatters any notion that the proposed grants scheme for GAA inter-county players is not pay-for-play.

I shudder to think of the consequences - Bosman ruling, etc etc - if this is allowed to go ahead.

 16 January 2008

Dublin latest to oppose payments of grants, says Harrington

By Brendan Larkin
DUBLIN has joined the growing list of counties opposed to grants being paid to inter-county players according to chairman Jerry Harrington.


The issue was discussed in detail at Monday night's Board meeting with delegates voicing their concern the proposed deal.

Said Harrington: "Since the convention many of our clubs had discussed the matter at their own meetings and that helped to swell Monday's county board meeting when the issue was again raised.




"I'm aware of at least one club in Dublin who conducted a debate on the matter and the majority of their membership, which consisted mostly of young people, voted against the grants.

"It's refreshing to learn that the youth membership of the GAA clubs in Dublin are opposed to this grants scheme, and all along I thought it was people of my vintage who were against it."

He added: "At least 35 delegates spoke at Monday night's meeting and expressed concern for the amateur status of the GAA.

"The question was asked if the grants issue was in contravention of Rule 11 of the official guide.

"The matter was discussed at length. At the end of the discussion there was no proposal from the floor for a motion to be submitted to Congress, and it was agreed that it be left to the discretion of our Central Council delegate, county secretary John Costello to raise the issue at the next Council meeting.

"He was left in no doubt how the clubs of Dublin feel on this particular issue. It would be fair to say that our clubs want the amateur status of the GAA protected and are opposed to the grants scheme.''

He added: "Another issue that came from Monday's county board meeting was that clubs and delegates were concerned that they had not been part of the discussion up to now.

"Most of the discussion was done at a higher level and did not come down to county boards or clubs similar to what happened when the issue of the opening of Croke Park to rugby and soccer was first discussed.

"We are forever being told that the club is the bedrock of the GAA, and delegates at our meeting let it be known in no uncertain manner that they had no hand, act or part in the decision making.

"As far as they were concerned it was a done deal and they had not been consulted. Many delegates thanked the county board for affording them the opportunity to discuss the matter. The Dublin County Board now knows where their clubs and delegates stand on the matter. I'm on record as saying our clubs run the GAA in Dublin, not the officers. We are only mere organisers."