Pat Gilroy appointed as Chairman of committee
WICKLOW GAA Chairman Martin Coleman announced that former Dublin Senior football manager Pat Gilroy will act as Chairperson for the committee who are set to examine aspects of the running and organisation of Gaelic games in the county.
Martin Coleman told delegates that there hadn’t been any movement since the presentation some weeks ago due to Shane Flanagan being out of work following an operation.
“The Chairman of that committee will be Pat Gilroy, I think it was a great move on behalf of Leinster to acquire Pat, not alone for his GAA knowledge but his business knowledge as well,” said the Baltinglass club man.
“And they would hope to have the first meeting for the 22nd of this month. That’s where we are on that,” he added
Avondale GAA Club delegate Victor O’Shaughnessy asked who would be attending that meeting?
Martin Coleman said that the process would involve talking to all stakeholders.
Dunlavin’s Jimmy Whittle asked the Chairman if he could give delegates an idea of the stakeholders?
“Stakeholders are everyone of us, whether it’s the finance committee, the fixtures people, whether it’s the club officers, all of us,” said Martin Coleman. .
“There will be separate meetings, chairpersons meeting, secretaries meeting, coaching officers, they’re definitely three,” added county secretary Chris O’Connor.
Martin Coleman reminded delegates of course arranged by development officer Billy Byrne that were not very well supported.
“We’ve only four treasurers in the county, we’ve only six of seven club chairmen, that’s all that turned up anyway,” said the Chairman.
Jimmy Whittle was keen that the optimism and momentum from the first meeting be carried forward into the future.
“Just a question regarding the momentum with which we left the room here when we had that presentation (with Shane Flanagan and Michael Dempsey), I think from looking at eyeball contact and bod language it was quite buoyed and receiving the letter was a top up on that which made us more buoyant in the sense that there’s something going to come, the isolation may not be as bad as we feel it is,” said the Dunlavin GAA Club delegate.
“The structure would want to be that the opinion of the people in the room, and I’m only one person representing my club and I’m looking at the county jersey and not the club jersey at the moment, my views to you would be that they’re coming back to us with some help, and nobody ever refuses help, it’s always relevant in any aspect of your life. So, I’m expecting them to come back to us and re-stand where they stood there and do their PowerPoint and say “the next steps will be...”. I expect us then to keep asking where are they and give them a schedule of dates because they’re full-time professionals working with us as amateurs and they hold all the aces, they hold the Jack of trumps, the five, the whole lot. I’m really looking forward to the summer with regards to support and help and the build up from the blockwork that we have already built so far,” he added.
“I think the meeting with the chairpersons and secretaries and coaching officers is the first step. The committee itself are meeting on the 22nd to go through their report,” said Martin Coleman.
“It’s the three officers that I told you, Jimmy. That’s where the start is: Chairperson, secretaries and coaching officers, and they were the people that filled out the surveys as well,” added Chris O’Connor.
And you understand that to be a collective one-to-one, if you know what I mean by collective one-toone?” asked Whittle. Chris O’Connor agreed. “Are those people set by their own brief or have we given them a terms of reference or what’s the situation?” asked Seamus Kelly of Baltinglass GAA Club.
“They basically set their terms of reference at the last meeting, Seamus, in relation to various aspects of the county. They were to focus on five key areas: Evidence of a coherent plan, finance, sections of games development, talent development and games programme. They were the five main strands,” said Martin Coleman