Casement will not host Rules game

[Uladh]

Are ye all serious, coming up with paranoid reasons for why Casement didn't get the game!
Here's why,
1) Too small, Limerick holds around 20,000 more
2) Travel times from the south. Croker is only 2 hours from the North (at most)... Its 4 hours from Kerry, Therefor it makes sense to have a game accesible for us in the south.
3) The norths objection to the rules really hasn't stood well for them. (A La Mickey Harte)

Yeah mickey speaks for us all on the International rules. catch a grip o yerself

[ddc1990]

Are ye all serious, coming up with paranoid reasons for why Casement didn't get the game!
Here's why,
1) Too small, Limerick holds around 20,000 more
2) Travel times from the south. Croker is only 2 hours from the North (at most)... Its 4 hours from Kerry, Therefor it makes sense to have a game accesible for us in the south.
3) The norths objection to the rules really hasn't stood well for them. (A La Mickey Harte)

Yeah mickey speaks for us all on the International rules. catch a grip o yerself

No Im not saying that. I was just using Micky as an example. Many other ulster players and officials have come out against the Series, as have southern officials also i am sure. Im just saying that the most prominant voice in Ulster football at the moment happens to be Mickey Harte as they are AI champions. Therfor it doesn't look good when he comes out so strongly agaisnt them.
Just my opinion.

[fred the red]

Are ye all serious, coming up with paranoid reasons for why Casement didn't get the game!
Here's why,
1) Too small, Limerick holds around 20,000 more
2) Travel times from the south. Croker is only 2 hours from the North (at most)... Its 4 hours from Kerry, Therefor it makes sense to have a game accesible for us in the south.
3) The norths objection to the rules really hasn't stood well for them. (A La Mickey Harte)

Yeah, makes sense to have the game in Limerick over Belfast because its easier for people from Ulster to get to limerick, than it is for people of Munster to get to Belfast 

[ddc1990]

Are ye all serious, coming up with paranoid reasons for why Casement didn't get the game!
Here's why,
1) Too small, Limerick holds around 20,000 more
2) Travel times from the south. Croker is only 2 hours from the North (at most)... Its 4 hours from Kerry, Therefor it makes sense to have a game accesible for us in the south.
3) The norths objection to the rules really hasn't stood well for them. (A La Mickey Harte)

Yeah, makes sense to have the game in Limerick over Belfast because its easier for people from Ulster to get to limerick, than it is for people of Munster to get to Belfast 

No, please read the post again! I said that Croker is only 2 hours from Belfast (at most) so that game would be accessable for all from the north and from Leinster.
Limerick is halfway between Cork and Galway... two hours at most from either of them... So there is a game accessable for people from all  4 provences!
Jeez just because im from Kerry doesn't mean you have to disagree with Everything i say. 

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Even though he is from Kerry he does make some valid points here.

[ddc1990]

That's not true. And the province extends a good bit further north and west of Belfast. Try telling someone from Derry, Donegal or the north of Antrim that Croke Park is easily accessible for them.
[/quote]

I know i was going to add that about the Donegal people.... but that would have F()cked my whole argument up 
Having said that I still think Limerick was a far more logical choice, as was Galway two years ago.

[armaghniac]

Casement is not much use if you live in outer Donegal either, Healy Park might be said to help these people, but not a Belfast location. A location on the the West coast makes sense, given that Dublin is in the East.

[cornafean]

This row reminds me of the cliche of two bald men fighting over a comb. Who cares where the Aussie fight match is held? Putting the 2009 Ulster Final in Casement or else a decent All Ireland Quarter-Final (for example a leading Munster or Leinster team v Tyrone, Armagh or Derry) would be far more bigger draw, and far more use in promoting the GAA in Belfast, than the discredited International Rules slugfest.

[ziggysego]

The less games Casement gets the better in my opinion. The grounds is a joke. The disabled section is terrible. Down below, behind the stand. Can't see past the stand, up to the goals at the other end. A crowd are let in  to stand in front of you and the stewarts make no effort to move them, thus I end up missing most of the game. Ignorance stewarts who let their cronies into the disabled parking, leaving myself and other disabled users to park elsewhere, in a more busier part of Andytown. No to Casement for me.

[Rossfan]

the discredited International Rules slugfest.

Ehhh???

[BallyhaiseMan]

International Rules in Clones would be fun       

[Maguire01]

International Rules in Clones would be fun       

I'd expect Clones to be in the running when the IR comes back to Ireland again. By that stage it will have floodlights.

[saffron sam2]

Patrick Heaney hints at skullduggery in to-day's Irish News

Second-class treatment for second city's gaels
Against the Breeze
By Paddy Heaney
24/02/2009
DURING the International Rules tour in Melbourne last year, GAA President Nickey Brennan announced that Belfast was being lined up to host the first Test in this year's series.

Brennan wanted the game to be staged in IRELAND'S SECOND CITY. Unfortunately, others in Croke Park, including the incoming president Christy Cooney, didn't share Brennan's enthusiasm for staging the game in Casement Park.

When the discussion returned to Ireland, the GAA's management committee came up with an  alternative plan.

They asked the four provincial councils to make a case for a venue in their jurisdiction. At this juncture, Casement Park's bid to host the first Test was dead in the water.

How can we make this claim? Very simply. That's the way the GAA works.

Can anyone recall the Connacht Council having to submit a proposal for Pearse Stadium when the first Test was staged there in 2006?

The bidding process was a classic GAA smokescreen: its sole purpose was to give the illusion that Casement Park was defeated in a fair, democratic process.

It's all window-dressing of course. If there was a will by the GAA's management committee for this game to be held in Ireland's second city, then it would have been done and dusted with the minimum of fuss.

The notion that each of the four provinces had an equal chance is a total farce. After Pearse Stadium was used in 2006, no stadium in Connacht stood a chance. The same applied to any venue in Leinster as Croke Park is used for the second test.

As it panned out, a bid for Casement Park was submitted by Antrim secretary Frankie Quinn. The Cavan County Board also put in a bid for Kingspan Breffni Park.

Both submissions paled in comparison to the all-singing and all-dancing business plan that was submitted in favour of the Gaelic Grounds by the Limerick County Board.

Their bid for the Gaelic Grounds came with a letter of endorsement from the Munster Council and included letters of support from a range of third parties including media groups and commercial interests in Limerick.

The Limerick County Board and the Munster Council should be congratulated on their success – but it must be noted that the access to the Gaelic Grounds is awful and the changing rooms are no better than in Casement Park.

The irony in all of this is that Nickey Brennan, who campaigned to have the Test held in Belfast, received virtually no support from Ulster when he went head-to-head against Cooney in the race for the presidency in 2005.

Meanwhile, Cooney, who got huge support from Ulster due to his opposition to the opening of Croke Park, didn't seem to remember those votes when it came to holding the International Rules game in Belfast.

It's a pity that Cooney and his colleagues in the GAA's Management Committee failed to appreciate why this game should be staged in Ireland's second city.

The dire state of Gaelic games in Belfast is probably the single biggest problem facing the GAA.

Dublin is thriving compared to its northern counterpart. The contrast was illustrated at the start of the National League. With the help of Dublin's enthusiastic fan base, a total of 79,161 fans were packed into Croke Park for the county's opening game against Tyrone. The following day, a trickle of Antrim fans turned up to watch the Saffron footballers play Wicklow in Casement.

The vast scale of the malaise facing Belfast was rammed home to me a few weeks ago when I accepted an invitation from St Gemma's High School in north Belfast to speak to some of their pupils, and others from their feeder primaries.

Over the course of an enjoyable day, I spoke to four different groups of roughly 30 pupils. From approximately 120 children, about half-a-dozen were members of a GAA club (Ardoyne Kickhams).

In one group, not a single pupil had ever heard of Mickey Harte (some Irish News columnists are better known than others).

Like other inner city areas, north Belfast is afflicted by high unemployment, low incomes, poor health, fractured social structures, low educational achievement, and poor housing.

But these problems can't be used as an excuse for the virtual non-existence of the GAA.  Ballymun isn't exactly the French Riviera, but they have a first class GAA club.

Furthermore, the problems experienced in inner city Belfast are the very reason why the GAA should be trying to gain a foothold in these areas.

A sporting and cultural organisation that promotes a sense of individual worth, and fosters pride in place is exactly what these communities need.

Yet, let's not kid ourselves – while the GAA is struggling in parts of west and north Belfast, it's not exactly thriving in the south of the city. There are three primary schools within half-a-mile of the Ormeau Road and Gaelic football isn't being coached in any of them.

Again, the comparison with Dublin demonstrates the chasm between the country's two main urban centres. St Vincent's from north Dublin won last year's All-Ireland club championship, while Kilmacud Croke's from the prosperous south of the city have qualified for this year's final.

Dublin clubs have benefited from massive cash investment from the Leinster Council and Central Council. Belfast is playing catch-up, but the Ulster Council is in the final stages of completing a strategy designed to address the problems affecting the city.

Yet, just think how an International Rules test in west Belfast would have helped to generate some interest in the GAA.

Free tickets could have been distributed to primary schools. Yes, it would only be a start, but it would serve as an introduction to Cumann Luthchleas Gael.

But instead, the game goes to Limerick and Munster, the province of the incoming president, Christy Cooney.

Who knows? The schoolchildren among the 570,000 population of urban Belfast might watch it on television. Or then again, they mightn't even know the game is taking place.

Belfast. As far as some in the GAA are concerned, IRELAND'S SECOND-CLASS CITY.

[Rossfan]

It's about time ye Nordies realised that the Munster Mafia run the GAA.

[Maguire01]

A good article by Paddy, as usual. A million times better than the Friday column!

One thing however, is that he ignored the fact that the competition from Rugby in Munster, and particularly in Limerick, is a challenge to the GAA there, just as much as ignorance and indifference is up here.