How GAA made a mess of Liam Miller row
Congress inexplicably rowed back on progress made a year earlier over use of county grounds
IT may not have appeared significant two years ago but it sure is now, having landed the GAA in a controversy that is as embarrassing as it was avoidable. And for what? To uphold a rule that hasn’t applied to Croke Park for 13 years? Nor would it apply to some other grounds either if the 2023 Rugby World Cup bid had been successful.
So how has the GAA found itself in such a mortifying mess over the Liam Miller tribute game? The answer is simple. They not only voted to retain an outdated rule in 2016 but locked it in for at least another four years.
How that happened needs to be highlighted because it shows up how unfit for purpose Congress – the GAA’s supreme rule-making authority – really is.
The blame for the Páirc Uí Chaoimh controversy rests mainly with Congress which, for whatever reason, behaved very oddly in 2016. A year earlier, they considered a motion from the Miltown-Malbay club calling for county grounds to be put on the same footing as Croke Park, which can be made available for non-GAA sports events by Central Council.
It lost on 62-38 per cent majority, after which Noel Walsh, Miltown-Malbay stalwart and long-time advocate of opening up GAA grounds in certain circumstances, was happy to have made such good progress at the first attempt.
CONFIDENT
He said it took five attempts before Croke Park was eventually opened up in 2005 and remained confident that this would be quicker, perhaps even in 2016.
It looked a fair assumption. If Central Council can be trusted to decide on Croke Park, why not extend their powers to county grounds?
That would leave them free to consider a request at short notice if special circumstances arose, as in the Liam Miller game.
The motion was back on the agenda at Congress 2016, where, inexplicably, support dropped from 38 to 23 per cent. There was no obvious reason for the substantial downswing, but once it happened, the implications were far-reaching. A motion that fails to receive one-third support cannot be re-submitted for the next three years.
The sharp decline in support inside 12 months didn’t attract much attention at the time, even if it was puzzling. Why did around 45 delegates oppose what they had supported a year earlier? And why was there no new support? Walsh was very disappointed.
Here’s what he said in an interview with the Irish Independent prior to the 2016 Congress.
“If you had a situation where there was a request for a county ground to be opened at fairly short notice for a special event, Central Council should be allowed to make the decision, rather than being blocked by rule. It might not arise very often, but we should be ready.”
Prescient words indeed, since the Liam Miller game comes under the ‘short notice’ heading. The current controversy will pass but the underlying issue of decision-making for county grounds won’t, not in the short-term anyway.
The idea that only Congress can be trusted to make the right call is ridiculous. Those of us who attend Congress know exactly what it’s like. Most delegates never speak, yet return year after year.
Why should it take 280 people to decide what are essentially sporting matters? A proposal to reduce the size of Congress was tabled in 2012 but, yes, you’ve guessed it – it was rejected. Meanwhile, here’s something practical that can be done quite quickly once the current controversy passes.
The Management Committee have the authority to waive the rule which prevents motions beaten with less than one-third support from being re-entered for three years.
They should do that for next year’s Congress and discuss giving Central Council the power to decide on the use of county grounds. After the embarrassment of the past week, presumably it would sail through.
And if it didn’t, every delegate should be de-listed by their counties for the following year.
A final point. The GAA have taken severe hits, many delivered by bandwagoning opportunists, for their stance on the Páirc Uí Chaoímh issue but there’s no mention whatsoever about how Manchester United and Celtic have behaved.
Surely vastly wealthy clubs (United generated €676 million in revenue last year) have a responsibility to ensure that the family of a man who played for both are well looked after?
Those who are gleefully attacking the GAA might care to reflect on that. Or are the likes of United and Celtic always above reproach? Based on the lack of commentary on them in this case, we can assume they are.
As for the ‘Bandwagoner Supreme’ award, it goes to Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, who said that the GAA’s rules on ground use “belong to a past we no longer recognise”.
So too, Minister does an Ireland where almost 10,000 people are homeless, but it’s happening now under Mr Murphy’s watch.
Still, it’s easier to attack the GAA than deal with a real scandal like that.