Payment of team bosses is contrary to GAA way
FORMER Monaghan footballer Dick Clerkin’s recent intervention in the ongoing debate about payment to inter-county GAA managers was very incisive. Mr Clerkin makes a very compelling case for inter-county managers to be employed professionals. I’d like to provide a contrary perspective.
Volunteerism is the lifeblood of the GAA, rooted in love of club and county. The majority of GAA players and members are ‘one
club’ loyalists, who have a lifelong passion for club and county. Clubs are run by dedicated volunteers who devote countless hours to tasks that remain, by and large, unheralded – lining the pitch, stewarding, fund raising, etc.
Similarly, referees, linesmen and umpires turn out week after week to ensure that games are played.
Managers and team officials at all levels voluntarily dedicate their free time to preparing teams.
If professionalism in any form supersedes the amateur ethos and voluntary nature of the GAA, a wonderful association will be stripped of its heart and soul.
If professional inter-county managers are introduced, monetary reward, as distinct from
the Corinthian spirit of sportsmanship, fair play and love of the game, will quickly permeate all levels of the GAA.
I admire Dick Clerkin’s commitment to his native county and his astute deduction that ‘it is the homegrown sidelines that deliver the greatest rewards’.
Those sentiments effectively express what the GAA is all about.
Every county has homegrown management and coaching expertise at all levels, well capable
of managing their county and club teams. To manage your club or county is a unique privilege. No manager or coach should expect or request payment other than legitimate personal expenses. Paying managers and coaches is not the GAA way.
BILLY RYLE, Tralee, Co. Kerry
Poor grasp of reality
LATELY, some prominent economists have written articles in the papers with interesting analysis showing that the poorest in Ireland are, after all, better off than the poorest, say, in the UK and USA, and that Irish living standards are similar to those of the wealthy countries right across diverse income distributions.
The point is that these reassuring assessments do not match reality.
Since the Celtic Tiger era, Ireland enjoyed incredible economic growth and job opportunities as one of the smallest countries in Europe, with an enviable social welfare system and salaries above the European average.
But what is the flip side? A disproportionate demographic concentration in the capital city alone, on top of a pernicious housing deficit which is strangling
a large percentage of the population with spiralling, unaffordable, exorbitant rents which make Dublin alone one of the most, if not the most, expensive capitals in the world. Besides, together with lack of control and intervention in the rental sector, the squalor of what is on offer to renters is comparable to underdeveloped countries.
Perhaps those who write about the socioeconomic status of this country might conclude their articles by saying that the standard of living in Ireland is now at a crossroads between progress and regress, in a country which has – for quite some time now –been left to its own devices, developing too
fast without appropriate infrastructures and corrective measures, which the Government hasn’t either the time or the will to provide before it’s too late. CONCETTO LA MALFA,
Dublin 4.
Cyclists out of control
I SEE that the Minister for the Environment, Eamon Ryan, wants to give grants to people to buy bikes and ebikes.
Well, maybe he should first have some control over the people who already have them. Most cyclists that I see are out of control and continually break red lights.
I was crossing a main road in Dublin recently. The pedestrian lights were green and, as I was
halfway across the road, five cyclists ploughed through the red lights without even looking, even though I use a crutch due to a back problem.
Cyclists should have number plates and pay road tax. They must be held accountable for breaking the law as motorists are held accountable.
MARTIN HENEGHAN, Dublin 3.
Putin’s chilling threat
PUTIN’S mobilisation order is a hugely worrying development. In Russian/Soviet history of the 20th and 21st centuries, there have been only three mobilisations: 1914, 1941 and now 2022. The first two framed World Wars I and II. Dr YURI FELSHTINSKY, author of Blowing Up Ukraine: The Return Of Russian Terror, Boston, U.S.
Mars madness
YOU can run, but you cannot hide from consequences of your actions, a point to be discovered by those trillionaires when they get to
Mars, only to find that they haven’t the strength to get off their spaceship, never mind build a shelter.
A bit late, then, discovering that they don’t have the skills to survive in an environment a lot less hostile than ‘Dune’.
Welcome back to Earth, boys. LIAM POWER, Dundalk, Co. Louth.