Ball The latest ban by G.A.A. will come into force tonight

ONE OF the most controversial decisions in Wexford G.A.A. history is likely to be approved tonight (Tuesday) with the banning of the local media from coverage of County Board meetings.

Club delegates will meet in unusual circumstances in the Talbot Hotel for the first-ever meeting of the County Board to be held behind closed doors.

For the first time a ban has been placed on the local media, with the result that the workings and deliberations of the G.A.A. in the county will be shut off from the general public - including the thousands of supporters who attended this month’s Walsh Cup and O’Byrne Cup games.

But then again the G.A.A. and bans go back a long way as one of the most controversial episodes in the association’s history was the removal of Ireland’s first President, Douglas Hyde, as patron of the G.A.A.

He had attended a soccer match between Ireland and Poland just months after his inauguration as President, and this breached the G.A.A. ban at the time on ‘foreign games’.

The events from Hyde’s attendance at the game in November, 1938, to the ratification of his removal in April, 1939, have been explored in detail in a book ‘The GAA v Douglas Hyde, the removal of Ireland’s First President as GAA Patron’.

Arguments for and against the decision are looked at in detail, as well as the reaction nationally and internationally.

The background of Douglas Hyde, arguably the father of the Irish-Ireland movement, and his relationship with the G.A.A., deep and profound before his removal, is examined.

The decision to remove Douglas Hyde led to a severe strain in relations between the G.A.A. and Eamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil government.

Although the Ban remained until 1971, the axing of Hyde as patron denied his standing, and was used extensively by opponents to argue for its removal.

In November, 2001, a one hundred year-old ban on members of the British security forces playing Gaelic games was lifted which was a positive step by the G.A.A.

But in 2017 the ban culture has surfaced in Wexford G.A.A. where the new officer board have now decided to preclude all local media from coverage of County Board meetings.

In its place they will release bulletins of County Management meetings and County Board meetings which will only deliver the message they want the public to hear.

There’s no place for the media and independent reporting of the largest sporting body in the county.

It’s not a good week for Wexford G.A.A. at official level. It’s a week where Wexford should be celebrating St. Peter’s College’s first Leinster Senior ‘A’ football title in 25 years, Davy Fitzgerald’s impact, not just on Wexford hurling but on the county as a whole, and the arrival of Seamus McEnaney as football manager with his first big test set to take place next Sunday at home to Limerick.

The county has so much to celebrate and look forward to in 2017, and that doesn’t need to be blighted by this short-sightedness of County Board officers and its management committee.

This departure by the G.A.A. is disappointing. This is an era where all organisations, sporting and otherwise, see so much value in having the media onside, but the G.A.A. at local level seem to think differently.

This is an era where sporting organisations are competing for the youth so it’s important to have a smooth working relationship in place with the media, particularly at local level.

For my own part it will be the first County Board meeting I will have missed going back so many years. On a personal level I have served two terms as County P.R.O., along with having been club Secretary both adult and under-age for ten years, during which time I also played with my club, so my loyalty to the G.A.A. cannot be questioned.

G.A.A. officials have lessons to learn from the way they deal with media relations. Counties and clubs are always keen to give themselves exposure, but a good relationship between County Board officers and the media is essential for that to take place.