Boycotting The International Rules Series

[stephenite]

Was at the last U-17 tour in Adelaide, it was in April 2006 - can't remember the full list of players - Pierce Hanley from Mayo won the player of the tournament,

Point of order - Hanley is not FROM Mayo. He just played for them at Minor and U21 because his club is affiliated to the Mayo Co Board.( the shower of traitorous ************s)

He is from Mayo - he says so himself, are you denying him this right? Would you say that a Northern Nationalist has no right to say they're from Ireland?

Point of order - he also played for his native county at Senior level not just underage.

[spectator]

[quote author=Rossfan link=topic=9556.msg388006#msg388006 date=1222980642
Point of order - Hanley is not FROM Mayo. He just played for them at Minor and U21 because his club is affiliated to the Mayo Co Board.( the shower of traitorous ************s)
[/quote]

Ouch, that's very harsh on the misfortunate disenfranchised Rossies there, Rossfan

The Ballagh club website is well out of date - just like the official policy of facing exclusively over towards Mayo - but ye'll enjoy picking well known names out of the Interesting Facts page, methinks.

http://www.ballaghaderreengaa.com/facts.htm

I see those eagle eyed, progressive google folk are on the ball though with an advert for Roscommon GAA Gear on the the mainpage  

Seriously though, the club and the two county boards should come to a gentleman's agreement and let the players decide which county they wish to declare for themselves without fear or favour. This craic of Mayo not letting Ballagh lads declare for Ros because they might lose a good player is all a bit dated at this stage.

[Tubberman]

Well the way some of the Rossies portray the situation here, you'd think the Ballagh players were desperate to play for Ros and were forced against their will to wear the Green and Red.
Andy Moran was behind me at the minor replay in Longford and was roaring Mayo on the whole game. Never stopped the whole game through and was asking a young lad beside him "Do you think we'll win it? Ha? I don't know either!" 

Didn't sound like a man being forced against his will to me 

[stephenite]

Seriously though, the club and the two county boards should come to a gentleman's agreement and let the players decide which county they wish to declare for themselves without fear or favour. This craic of Mayo not letting Ballagh lads declare for Ros because they might lose a good player is all a bit dated at this stage.

I love this - if the shoe was on the other foot you'd be all for a gentleman's agreement alright 
Dated my arse, how is wanting to ensure you have the best players at your disposal dated? 

[Doire abú]

Would Joe Diver not be a man to try for this International Rules craic? He's a beast of a man, decent fielder, kicks some great long-range points. Admittingly also kisks some great long-range shots into the corner flag.

[rrhf]

and a born winner too..

[cavanmaniac]

As regards the game itself as a spectacle, I'm not dead set against it.

But the humiliation of Aussies outperforming us with the round ball, coupled with the embarrassment of effectively having to ask them to please 'ease off' before we're willing to go out and play with them again, it's just cringeworthy. (I'm talking about watering down their legitimate physicality there by the way, aside from the scattergun thuggery beloved by that headbanger Kevin Sheedy who is single-handedly responsible for killing this thing off).

We're just not able to take them on in a proper contest like we could back in the days of Bomber Liston and so on, our game has lost its physical edge now and what's more, we're totally abject at kicking the ball accurately because all we do in gaelic football is handpass ourselves into oblivion.

If we can't truly compete, skills or physicality-wise, then why bother??

For those reasons, I'm no longer an advocate of the IR series like I was back in the day but that said, I'll almost certainly take a look out of curiousity.

[spectator]

Well the way some of the Rossies portray the situation here, you'd think the Ballagh players were desperate to play for Ros and were forced against their will to wear the Green and Red.

That's a mis-interpretation imo, the issue is that Ballagh lads don't have the choice to play for Ros. They must play for Mayo if they wish to play ic.

If Andy Moran had the choice, he'd have played for Ros as a promising youngster. He hadn't though and so had to play for Mayo. Good Luck to him, but the rulebook made him follow his ic ambitions with Mayo. Doubt he'd change back to Ros currently, as he has a way better better chance of winning a celtic cross with Mayo, undoubtedly he wouldn't want to desert his team mates at this stage of their quest for Sam either, and realisically Ros in their present poor state cannot match that sort of ambition. Nothing unusual in his comments really, considering he's an established player for Mayo.

Dated my arse, how is wanting to ensure you have the best players at your disposal dated? 

Dated in the sense that some Ballagh young lads won't put up with it in this day and age and are turning to soccer instead.
[Decoded, that's Ballagh-speak for 'given the strong Mayo orientation of the GAA club, some lads are steering clear and playing soccer instead.']

I love this - if the shoe was on the other foot you'd be all for a gentleman's agreement alright 

That's the most painless solution imho. Ballagh GAA is losing young lads to soccer, which is a shame. The club should be at the heart of the community, facilitating everyone. Why not give the few Rossies the choice to play for Ros if they wish? Would it be so hard to do that? I suppose, just like the Aussies in the IR Series, for the Mayo folks it's results that matter and to hell with sportsmanship, doing the right thing and facilitating young Ballagh Rossie lads sporting dreams.

Tis bad karma i tell ya stephenite, ye'll never win Sam until ye do the right thing and give the young Ballagh lads a free choice

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Seriously though, the club and the two county boards should come to a gentleman's agreement and let the players decide which county they wish to declare for themselves without fear or favour. This craic of Mayo not letting Ballagh lads declare for Ros because they might lose a good player is all a bit dated at this stage.

I love this - if the shoe was on the other foot you'd be all for a gentleman's agreement alright 
Dated my arse, how is wanting to ensure you have the best players at your disposal dated? 

Is there somewhere I can read the full story on the situation with Ballaghdeeren? What I've picked up is that its in Roscommon geographically but considered a part of Mayo? Is that just for GAA purposes or also administratively and what's the background? If its too complicated to explain, apologies!

[Rossfan]

I think Ballagh was regarded as Co Mayo till the Brits set up County Councils in 1898. Ballagh became part of Roscommon then officially -something to do with the local bigwigs the Dillon family using their influence in Westminster as  there would be higher rates in Mayo.
Ballagh has since been part of Roscommon as the townsfolk walk on Ros Co Council footpaths, drive RN cars on Ros Co Council streets, drink water from Ros Co Council watermains, flush their toilets into Ros County Council sewers, take part in the Roscommon Community games, play soccer in the Roscommon and district League and their lassies club is(was? do they still exist) affiliated to the Ros Co Board.
They also vote in the Roscommon South Leitrim Constituency and their handball club which like the GAA club is affiliated to the rhubarbs recently got grants from Ros County Council despite a number of patriotic Councillors objecting to giving money to a crowd of traitors.
Back about 10 or 15 years ago a group of patriotic GAA people in Ballagh tried to set up a club( St John's) which would affiliate to Ros Co Board,thereby giving choice to youngsters in the Co Ros town, but the Mayo Co Board with assistance from Galway and bloody Laythrum stymied it.
Still the Ballarossies fight on and as others used to say "Tiocfaidh ár lá" and I look forward to the day when a Ballagh lad leads Ros to the Sam and we parade it through the streets of the West Ros town.

[spectator]

Is there somewhere I can read the full story on the situation with Ballaghdeeren? What I've picked up is that its in Roscommon geographically but considered a part of Mayo? Is that just for GAA purposes or also administratively and what's the background? If its too complicated to explain, apologies!

Yeah, it's complicated but here goes anyway;

Ballagh GAA club was formed in 1885. It was one of the very early Mayo GAA clubs. Geographically, the town was in County Mayo back then.

In 1898, The Local Goverment Act moved the county boundary, which i understand a plebiscite in Ballagh endorsed. Ballagh then came within County Roscommon for all intents and purposes, with the Mayo border receeding four or five miles westwards. The club continued playing in Mayo, as some of the locals back then were understandably miffed at being moved out of Mayo and it helped maintain a link with Mayo.

In the intervening 110 odd years, the town has come to be seen as one of Roscommon's principle market towns. Administratively and geographically, the town and parish are in County Roscommon. The GAA club continues to play in Mayo, as that's where it historically played. Many club members remain very loyal and die-hard Mayo followers, although now living in Roscommon. They genuinely identify with Mayo and the football helps them to do so.

The Ballagh club playing in Mayo is acceptable under GAA rules, as a tiny part of an out parish of Ballagh still crosses the border into County Mayo. Club players of inter-county standard must play for Mayo under GAA  rules. Ballagh is unusual geographically, from a GAA perspective. While all of the town and surrounding half parishes are principally in Roscommon, small extremities of its area touch into Mayo and Sligo. From a 'Parish Rule' perspective, keeping Ballagh in Mayo for GAA purposes saves the GAA a whole lot of trouble with the parish rule, although in civil law it's legally untenable to tell Ballagh Rossies they can't play with their native Ros if they wish to play inter-county football. GAA law holds in Ballagh though for now, as a legal challenge has never been advanced.

From a GAA perspective, a few unsavourary incidents have drawn attention in past years, as referred to by Rossfan.

Over time, Ballagh Rossies had gotten weary of watching their best players being forced to play for Mayo. Tis terrible to see one of your own beating you in a Connacht Final, for example. For youngsters, they have no choice but to play for Mayo and can't really leave home to join another club, even if they wanted to. Why should they have to anyway? 

In the early nineties, an attempt was made to form an under-age club, St Johns,  which would be affiliated to Roscommon. The local existing club and Mayo County Board objected and brought this for adjudication to The Connacht Council. There, Mayo, Galway and Leitrim objected to St Johns being formed & so Ballagh Rossies were told to take a running jump.There are some interesting side stories relating to this, but i won't go into them here. Basically, Ballagh Rossies were told they could play with the existing club in County Mayo and play inter county football with Mayo, or not at all. Although they were living in Roscommon, in their wisdom officialdom in Mayo, Galway and Leitrim denied them the right to play club football in, or for their own county.

Another controversial incident occurred when the Ballagh Rossies set up a ladies club. Under the rules of ladies football, which are different to mens, a Ballagh team should play in Roscommon. A local GAA official stopped the Ballagh ladies from using a local playing field when they went to train there. This was the final straw for a lot of Rossies, and even to this day, they basically have little to do with the GAA club as they see it as being biased against them because they're Rossies. Terrible situation really, as the club should be at the heart of the community, instead of dividing people.

One or two of the current Mayo footballers from Ballagh grew up supporting Roscommon, but because of the GAA rules must play for Mayo. This is what we debate about with the Mayo lads on here from time to time. The parish rule could be blown out of the water by Ballagh Rossies, if they chose to advance a legal challenge. They could also form a new GAA club affiliated to Ros, although this would cause much turmoil again. The easiest solution though would be for the club and two county boards to agree to facilitate letting lads play for Ros if they wished. There'd be no need for any aggravation and everyone should be happy then.

The annoying thing, is that such an agreement would barely lose Mayo any players. At the moment, most club players would declare for Mayo anyway.

Meanwhile, some of the young lads disenchanted with the current set-up are turning to a burgeoning soccer club in the town. When I'm back there, they tell me they have no time for the GAA club's traditional hardline Mayo stance, which doesn't acknowledge their Ros affiliations. A little gesture like the GAA club letting them declare for Ros would go a long way to changing all that. It would also bring back a lot of the older disenfranchised GAA Rossies in the town to the club, imo. That smacks of win win for everyone to me anyway.

Sooner or later, the bad taste in Ballagh around the GAA question will have to be addressed & righted, for the good of the vast majority of decent GAA folks there as well as everyone else in the area. Hopefully that day isn't too far off.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Thanks for that spectator, glad we've only a simple county border to contend with, even though it (now) covers six of them!  Ballaghdereen abú!

[Rossfan]

!  Ballaghdereen abú!

The town - not the effin GAA club - till they see sense and abandon this clinging on to their former colonial power.

[Jinxy]

!  Ballaghdereen abú!

The town - not the effin GAA club - till they see sense and abandon this clinging on to their former colonial power.

Mayo?

[dodo]

Ricky Nixon spotted at a recent Mayo minor club match in Ballaghhadereen