What has happened to the GAA Family

[concernedgaa]

It is with a heavy heart that I have taken to writing into this forum and express my horror on what I witnessed on Sunday at an Ulster minor hurling tournament.   The whole ETHOS and ETHICS of the GAA talks about the "Respect for and from all participants ON AND AROUND the field " and the GAA's commitment to the "PROTECTION AND WELFARE OF PLAYERS".  All of this was sadly missing from yesterday's match which only lasted 17 mins and the events of what happened after were nothing short of callous and inhuman.  As a GAA man for many years this left a bad taste in my mouth to see that the Officials both on the pitch and those concerned with the location it was being played in had only interest in whether or not the game was going to continue and no concern given as to the well being of the young lad that lay for over 40 mins at the side of pitch after collapsing and had to be hospitalized.  The indifference to the suffering of the young lad, his family and his team members who were also distraught was nothing short of embarrassing on the part of all these people concerned.  If this is what has become of our GAA family then the GAA has been brought to an all time low.  There were many things wrong with what went on but basic understanding of the need for a presence of at least St John's ambulance was a basic error. Sad times

[muppet]

While the story is obviously emotional for you, it would be better if you present the just basic facts again please.

Is the issue that a player collapsed and that there was no facilities? Or that many people didn't seem to care?

The former is very poor obviously, but the latter, well, there will always be people who think the game is more important than life or death. The issue is not that those people think like that, it would appear to me that the issue was was there was no plan, and no people in situ, to deal with an injury such as you describe.

Could you outline exactly what happened.

Did he collapse on the pitch?
What happened then?
How did he get to the sideline?
What happened after he got to the sideline?
Who brought him to the hospital?