It‘s racing certainty that GAA have done right thing

WIPING out all GAA activity until March 29, when a decision will then be made to resume or extend the suspension of our Games, is absolutely the correct decision.

It’s fair to speculate that we’ll be very lucky if there is any resumption of GAA activity or sporting activity in general before the summer’s end.

The GAA must be highly commended in acting swiftly and selflessly in the interests of the general public – as did rugby and soccer chiefs here.

There must be no ego or greed at a time like this.

What you will experience now, however, is an enormous void.

With no Gaelic Games now, it may well be a time for everyone to reflect on the incredible importance our sports have on our society.

With over half the population involved in some capacity, we shouldn’t take it for granted in the way we do.

As an association, we have been at the beck and call of parents and government in a helping capacity – from a babysitting service to helping alleviate rural isolation, from improving mental health to drug awareness. And that’s just a few of the benefits the GAA brings to Irish life.

The association has been easy pickings for many who have knocked it, and often in an unfair fashion.

I’ve had my issues over many incidents down through the years as well but the GAA has given far more to us than it’s taken. With no fixtures for potentially a long time, it will make everyone appreciate what we’ve got.

When hurling and football comes back into our lives, we’ll need to nurture it.

Just look at the difference in approach from the horse racing fraternity, who should be ashamed of themselves with their selfish selfserving actions this week.

They had a choice to make and they made the wrong one by going ahead with Cheltenham.

I love sport, I respect all sports but it sickened me to see the pathetic attitude of horse racing chiefs

I sat on my sick mother’s bed in hospital on Wednesday and watched a bit of the racing from her bedside. I said to myself, ‘This is so, so wrong on so many levels’.

Money, greed, selfishness and power were the reasons the festival went ahead. To take it all the way through to Friday was one of the most shocking decisions ever in sporting history.

Certainly, it’s the biggest PR disaster in sport that I can recall – and we had 20 to 25 thousand who were part of it all.

The probablity is we will have summer months with no GAA games – empty fields and clubs all over the country will be a sad sight.

But the most important thing is that we as a society must take care of our elderly and sick, who are very much at risk now.

And there is one thing you can be sure of – the GAA community will be at the very forefront of the effort.

It’s the biggest PR disaster in sport that I can recall..