Cummins: Open the Pairc now

BRENDAN CUMMINS believes that opening Pairc Ui Chaoimh for the Liam Miller tribute match would show the “human side” of the GAA.

Former Tipperary hurling star Cummins is unimpressed by how Croke Park bosses have addressed this controversy and the recent Newbridge or nowhere dispute – insisting that the association fuelled the fire a week ago with such a defensive initial statement on the issue.

The five-time All-star said: “From a PR point of view, they probably have to look at who is wording those statements and how they’re being put together – try and get ahead of these things and get themselves breathing space.

“We all understand the size of the GAA and what it has done for the country, that the people that are working in the GAA are lining the pitch, they’re involved in underage (development) in clubs.

“But when a statement goes out like that, that’s your first foot forward. And if that’s not right, you fuel all this.”

Following a massive outcry, GAA chiefs met with organisers of the tribute game on Wednesday but there has been no indication if a breakthrough was found.

“At the end of it all rules will need to be bent or redone,” said Cummins. “In this exceptional circumstance, we’re in a situation where for a PR exercise it would be fantastic to have a sell-out crowd in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

“I know I’d go to it myself and bring the young fella down. It would show the real human side of the organisation.

“Sometimes you just need to modernise. In the current environment you don’t get two days to work out what we’re going to do, we get two seconds, and things escalate then very quickly.”

Cummins, 43, acknowledges that the recent controversies have damaged the GAA in the short term.

However he added: “Sometimes you have to stumble a little bit before you learn lessons – and I think huge lessons have been learned in the last number of months within the organisation. Congress is going to be real interesting.”