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It was Waterford and Kilkenny. Des Fahy tore the GAA a new arsehole in the Irish Times for not postponing that match

Christ almighty. In what way is this any different to the hammering West Ham got at Reading?

that was not the rationale for pulling the plug on the charity game and well you know it. the GAA had to make the contribution because everyone in Omagh was so pissed off with them.

Ah right. The GAA couldn't have done it because its membership has many generous people, it must have been as part of some Machiavellian plot!

You really give the GAA too much credit . . .

Im glad money not getting to a worthy charity amuses you 

3 x accomodation for the visiting sides 3 x insurance 3 x stewarding costs etc while a suitable venue was closed to them down the road, despite the locals wanting it opened to soccer on an exceptional basis, because of the pettyness of the GAA leadership.

hilarious

Well, the allegation made by the BBC was that the money did not go on paying for Ales Ferguson's digs but on clearing Omagh Town's debt. And yet, as this thread demonstrates, the GAA still gets the flak. You couldn't make it up.

The three friendlies that Omagh Town FC had took place at St.Julian's road with an attendance of over 7000 each against Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea which in turn raised over £200,000 but it ended up that only £15,000 of it went towards the fund.

The Beeb did a big splash about how much of the money ended up paying for this that or the other expense. Now THAT was funny

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die" - Mel Brooks

Its a boycott Deiseach, its done on principle. The principle for some soccer guys is that sitting in CP is tacit agreement with the TD stance.

Anyway, im sure staunton will do more to empty seats than narked off EL heads.

As principles go, it's akin to saying that people who take an aspirin are in tacit agreement with the Holocaust. And if the FAI are relying in EL heads to fill Croker . . . 

is it? the FAI give the GAA money, the GAA give money to TD who use it to stop the FAI getting money. I have heard worse reasons for boycotts.

It is. If people want to boycott Croke Park because of disgust at the whole Tallaght affair, fine, it's a free country. But even if Croke Park were empty, it wouldn't make one jot of difference to the case ("sorry, TD, we didn't get enough money from renting out Croker so your court case will have to go") so it would only be 'reasonable' in the same way that cutting off your nose to spite your face is reasonable. Who would be the biggest losers if such a boycott were to be successful? Hint: it wouldn't be the GAA.

as may be, but there has been a clear deterioration in relations between the blazers in both codes and Tallaght isnt far from the surface. Whatever happened to the formal complaint the GAA made to the Dept over an FAI blazers comments at an xmas function?

Just because there has been a deterioration in relations does not mean the reasons are, well, reasonable. To make a connection between the rent on Croke Park and the funding for Thomas Davis' case is deranged.

No, but they are furious over the Tallaght thing and see the FAI as funding the GAA going to court to stop soccers capital grants. There are always nutters, but a lot of very resonable soccer guys are taking about boycotting soccer in CP over it.

I don't know how how a 'reasonable' person could trace a path between money paid to the GAA for the use of Croke Park to Thomas Davis' case. It's akin to someone saying their tax pounds / euros built Croke Park so they should be allowed free use of it, ha ha!

Oh . . .

the vast majority of soccer supporters also support gaa. the comments of a few nuts shouldnt be taken out of context....

Many of the soccer heads on that thread seem quite reasonable, live and let live etc.

Fine, you believe this is a manifestation of the troglodytes in the GAA, of which there are plenty - did someone mention Fearon? However, some of us object to this on the basis that a professional soccer club is being parachuted into an area and effectively given a free stadium. Can we all have free grounds please, of a size many times what could reasonably be required??

Begrudgery of the highest order. Like I said earlier. Who cares if Rovers end up in Tallaght. It shouldn't bother the GAA one Iota. Careful pointing the troglodyte label. You're looking more and more like one.

It's not Rovers ending up in Tallaght that bothers me. If the people of Tallaght embrace them, good luck to all concerned. It's Rovers being given an almost-free stadium. No one defending the authorities who brought this to pass seem willing to face up to this. When GAA clubs and junior soccer clubs start receiving these kind of blank cheques to develop their facilities, I'll quit carping.

im not denying they got debt written off. but what have TD even offered to put into the project?

At the terms offered to Rovers, a bag of magic beans should be sufficient to get a large stake in the project 

Rovers have a couple of dozen of underage sides, womens sides, a leinster senior league side, scholarships to the IT, a basketball side all playing in tallaght. they have pitches in kiltipper where the kids play and the adults train. as you well know there is a lot more to a club than its senior side. TD are trying to close the gate to soccer 10 years too late.

Fair enough, that's all good and wholesome. I'd guess that there are many junior sides who have been doing much the same kind of thing in Tallaght for a lot longer than ten years. Given the ideological hostility that you clearly think permeates Thomas Davis as a club, perhaps you could detail the efforts they've gone to to stymie those clubs' development over the years

[GAVE]

shamrock rovers have had a prescence in tallaght for more than 10 years. the only part of their set up not out there is the loi side. they havent parachuted anywhere. they have put in €2m to the project, so it aint free. cut the hysterionics.

Around the same time that Rovers made a deal with the SDCC, the SDCC GAVE 30 odd acres in Rathcoole to to the DCB to play with. The DCB were given free land where the Luas is being extended to and we are begrudging Rovers?  . And everyone knows a few clubs who got handed land at some point.

As someone said, its the kid who wants the other ones present.

Define 'presence'. Perhaps you think half (quarter? one-tenth?) building a stadium amounts to a presence, but has a ball ever been kicked by the senior Rovers side in anger in Tallaght? I'm sure there are many, perhaps even dozens, of indigenous junior soccer clubs in Tallaght who are far more worthy of support than the nomads of Milltown.

As for your €2m, I refer you to the €1.5m tax write-off. Add in the €4m you yourself claim is coming from South Dublin County Council and you have what amounts to a free stadium.

If the GAA can secure such favourable terms from the authorities for the building of its facilities, then I wouldn't begrudge Rovers a cent. But considering the hysteria that were attached to the funding of Croke Park, I won't be holding my breath

the figures are accurate, which is why as a member of a club backing this move, im angry.  im convinced this is an attempt to stymie rovers, not get access to the stadium.   and it lets the DCB off the hook for not building the promised southside venue.

Fine, you believe this is a manifestation of the troglodytes in the GAA, of which there are plenty - did someone mention Fearon? However, some of us object to this on the basis that a professional soccer club is being parachuted into an area and effectively given a free stadium. Can we all have free grounds please, of a size many times what could reasonably be required??

Yes it's not as simple as that deiseach. It doesn't matter who serves them. They will get drink if they want it because people just roll their eyes and tolerate the fact that young people drink, because they watch possibly their mentors and their senior players drinking. Here's a question for you? Should the bar be open for an U8 or an U10 presentation?

I don't ever recall U8 or U10 presentations being done in the bar in our club (though that might reflect the lack of trophies our club won at that level in my day). In fact, kids were pretty much barred from the bar. So yes, leave the bar open.

It's not the revenue from the club's bar that I think would be missed were the GAA to stop selling alcohol. It's the whole social side that comes from drink. To close that side of the GAA down so as to curb any underage drinking that comes with it strikes me of being as case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater