Money rules over rights

What need you, being come to sense, But fumble in a greasy till

And add the halfpence to the pence And prayer to shivering prayer, until You have dried the marrow from the bone; For men were born to pray and save: Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

– WB Yeats, September 1913

THEY just couldn’t help themselves, could they? All they had to do was look at the full stands in Semple Stadium on Saturday evening to justify what they were about to do. Mayo’s journey this past five years has meant an absolute bonanza for the GAA’s coffers.

That’s the thing about the Mayo supporter, he or she supports come hell or high water. After a run through the qualifiers, a quarter-final and quarter-final replay, they could have been expected to have been sheepish about turning out six days after drawing with Kerry in last year’s All Ireland semi-final.

Instead they turned out in droves and out-numbered the Kingdom by a magnitude in the stands. Never let it be said the GAA don’t value their ‘patrons’, when they’ve been as good to the bottom line as the Mayo fans have been they value them mightily indeed.

That’s why they ran roughshod over their own rulebook to accommodate them. There was just no way they were going to leave a potential ten thousand bums on seats out in the cold.

When the GAA tells you it’s not about the money, it’s a pretty good indication that it’s about the money – did somebody say Sky? – and they’ve been spinning mightily since this whole thing blew up in their face on Monday afternoon.

First health and safety was cited, but it soon became clear that what they meant by health and safety issues was that they couldn’t sell enough seats (the Slattery Report recommendations mean Newbridge can accommodate fewer than nine thousand fans on an all ticket basis).

That’s the only conclusion you could draw from CCCC Chairman Ned Quinn’s intervention on Tuesday morning. His risible comments painted a post apocalyptic vision of fans squabbling on the streets of Newbridge on Saturday afternoon due to a paucity of tickets. As insulting as that is to the average GAA man or woman – never once has there been crowd trouble at a significant GAA fixtures – it’s just as insulting to our intelligence. The whole thing has been a complete fiasco from the get-go by the GAA. When an organisation cannot be trusted to abide by its own rules and to honour an explicit promise made, it has brought itself into disrepute. We should all be grateful Kildare and Cian O’Neill ( left) for calling them on it. Change has got to come.