The ordinary man is not the GAA’s enemy
THERE is something wrong when you make an enemy out of Christy Moore. The only surprising thing about the tumultuous events at St Conleth’s Park on Saturday night is that the Kildare supporters didn’t break into a rendition of Ordinary Man, the anthem of the workingclass hero being screwed over by the capitalist fat cats.
After all, it was the local singer, songwriter and social commentator who came out batting strongly for them.
The same man who will forever be linked to one of the country’s great sporting odysseys via Euro ’88 and ‘Joxer goes to Stuttgart’, with his long-time man-of-thepeople persona, reserved one of his most cutting stanzas for the debacle over Kildare being awarded a home venue in the third round of the All-Ireland football qualifiers and then having it declared unfit and moved to Croke Park on various dubious grounds — health and safety, fighting on the streets, ticketless families aggregating in dangerous numbers. ‘GAA dream quarter finals Garth Brooks v Bruce Springsteen Ed Sheeran v U2 The Dubs v The pope Rihanna v Conor McGregor #NEWBRIDGEORNOWHERE’
All that was missing was the name of Michael Bublé in his piece of online satire.
Who knew the Canadian crooner would become another symbol of the GAA losing touch with a disenfranchised grassroots?
Booking Bublé into Croke Park for Saturday night means that the venue is unavailable to host the Leinster hurling Championship final replay between Kilkenny and Galway. Instead, a provincial final between a Leinster team and a Connacht team is being played in the Munster venue of Thurles.
As a venue for a high-stakes Kilkenny-Galway game, Semple Stadium ticks a lot of boxes. It suits the travelling arrangements of fans and it’s perfectly suited to hosting the anticipated crowd instead of being slightly lost at Croker. But that’s not really the point. It’s about different rules being applied during the same Championship. It’s about double-standards and insults to the intelligence of supporters.
Derek McGrath made his live television debut on RTÉ on Sunday, his thinking man’s approach to hurling making him a natural fit as an analyst. He stepped down though after a Munster campaign that was a write-off, in part because of being deprived of home advantage for key games against Tipperary and Cork.
Waterford were told Walsh Park was not an option because of a restricted capacity based on health and safety regulations (roughly 8,000) and couldn’t entertain Nowlan Park because it is outside Munster. Then Kildare stick it to Croke Park over St Conleth’s (capacity 8,200), turn over Mayo, and the Leinster final hurling goes to Thurles!
A part of him must be wondering if it’s time to start a campaign to replay the Munster hurling Championship.
President John Horan made an important intervention on radio yesterday as the draw for the fourth-round football qualifiers was made, stating that in the event Kildare make the Super 8s, they will not have their home venue taken away from them.
But how come this inalienable right to host a designated home Championship game wasn’t granted to Waterford?
Or to the footballers of Wicklow, who saw their ‘home’ venue of Aughrim taken away from them against Dublin with the Leinster quarter-final moved to Portlaoise?
Dublin’s two ‘home’ games at Croke Park in the Super 8s is going to be the next battlefront.
Hiding behind the whims of provincial councils isn’t good enough and is merely fuelling the dissatisfaction on the ground that made ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’ such a cause célèbre.
Last Saturday in Newbridge was everything the inter-county game should be. Local pride, crowds mingling, helping each other out with tickets. The home ground packed and the town rocking. Emotional scenes and a pitch invasion at the final whistle.
The current, make-it-up-as-thesummer-goes-along attitude to the flagship Championship competitions in football and hurling is an insult to supporters.
The GAA’s controversy of the year may as well have been told through the lyrics of Christy Moore’s Ordinary Man.
‘And when the whistle blows, the gates will finally close
Tonight they’re going to shut this factory down Then they’ll tear it d-o-w-n.’ As a metaphor for St Conleth’s and the planned redevelopment, it snugly fits the bill.
The song was published in 1985, a protest at the prevailing political and economic culture of the time. There’s a reason it still resonates.
‘I never missed a day nor went on strike for better pay
For twenty years I served them best I could
Now with a handshake and a cheque it seems so easy to forget
Loyalty through the bad times and through good
The owner says he’s sad to see that things have got so bad
But the captains of industry won’t let him lose
He still drives a car and smokes his cigar
And still he takes his family on a cruise, he’ll never lose.’
Pretty much how the disconnect between the grassroots and the ruling class in Croke Park has been caricatured.
If the GAA really want to deconstruct that myth, then why not make public the salary of the directors in Croke Park, and the director general. Accountability and transparency are the watchwords of good business, especially when every person who pays a GAA membership is effectively a shareholder.
Making it clear that home advantage is an inalienable right is an important step in the same process.
In the meantime, perhaps Christy Moore can pen the sequel: ‘Joxer goes to St Conleth’s…’
The current attitude is an insult to supporters