CREDIBILITY BATTERED BY FORCE OF THE ‘TRUE GAEL’
Myth of the GAA purist exposed by self-interest and overriding ambition
‘HORAN AND RYAN TRUSTING MANAGERS TO BEHAVE WAS A FORLORN WISH’
THE VIRTUOUS volunteer is a persistent obstruction to plans for a fairer GAA.
This ideal individual has been elevated to saintly status over the years, canonised through the power of a million tributes and celebrated for their selflessness and commitment and love for the association.
You shall know them as a true Gael.
It should also be noted here that such a person has never existed, but this gallant volunteer, lining pitches, managing juvenile teams and never tempted by a thought that wasn’t conceived in unimpeachable goodness, has been regularly cited in recent weeks.
As calls grew for GAA grounds to be opened as early as possible in Ireland’s re-emergence, this idealised figure was invoked often, because they could be trusted to do what was right.
Their devotion to their local area means they would never countenance endangering the safety of their fellow Gaels, or even any parishioners who may be unmoved by the power of the GAA spirit.
Open up the grounds, came the call, and trust in the bone-deep decency of the Gael. This special breed of person ,consumed by what is best for their organisation, does not stay confined to the nuts-andbolts duties of attending to their club’s needs.
Many become county board delegates and officials. Others manage the county team or become part of the manager’s support crew.
Their intentions are never anything but wholesome, and they can be relied on to do what is right.
Fans, volunteers, players and administrators in other sport must have found it hard not to laugh over the past week, as a great, squalling controversy blew up around the GAA’s plans for re-starting their season.
They have had to listen to weeks and weeks of blather about why GAA grounds should be prioritised for re-opening, led by former players (but not confined to them) who never seem to pause and consider that other sports have committed volunteers, too.
There are thousands of athletes, and soccer and rugby players, hockey enthusiasts and swimmers, cyclists and triathletes, whose sporting ambitions have also been left in a heap by lockdown.
The popularity and importance of the GAA to the country makes its business particularly newsworthy, but the idea that its facilities and its activities could be hastened back because GAA people could be trusted to do what is right became tiresome, quickly. And events in recent weeks have shown that the Gael is not uniformly responsible and fair-minded, after all.
An organisation with hundreds of thousands of members, and thousands of clubs and teams, has problems caused by self-interest and overweening ambition, too.
It has been this way for years, which is why the inter-county game has grown into such a voracious entity, that it is making the lot of club players all over the island miserable.
Tom Ryan properly drew attention to this in his annual report, and fresh evidence came coursing through in recent days with anecdotal accounts of players being directed not to resume club activities but instead save themselves for the county.
Preparation for the inter-county championship should not start until September 14, remember, but many teams are in training already.
When John Horan and Ryan said a week ago that they were not minded to punish counties who were breaching dates on the season’s restart, they were not, one suspects, trusting in the saintliness of the Gael.
Rather, one might venture they were hoping that perhaps the generosity displayed throughout Irish society over the past three months would extend to managers behaving themselves.
That was a forlorn wish even before it was uttered, with claims that some counties had been training for weeks, long before the revised championship dates were even confirmed.
If it was a mistake to wish for the selflessness of lockdown to continue, the leadership of the GAA should be recognised for altering course.
It is not realistic that a small number of officials in Croke Park can regulate the schedule that governs the resumption of the season.
This has to happen locally – and that should instantly check the optimism of anyone thinking this could be a new start in the relationship between clubs and counties.
Many of the officials now expected to police regulations have let managers wield enormous power in the past, often to the detriment of club fixtures and players.
The backbone these officials misplaced then is required now.
At the very least, an ugly subject has been hauled into public view, and proper consideration can be given to the relationship between managers, teams, boards and clubs.
These are flesh-and-bone problems, and they affect everyone, even true Gaels.