GAA bonds matter

IN his powerful poem The Irishman, James Orr asserts that ‘the savage loves his native shore’. Orr was conveying an Irish person’s love of country and pride in parish during times of British occupation.

Pat Gilroy, former Dublin football and hurling manager, expressed similar views last week when he decried the annual GAA managerial merry-go-round that often pits managers against their home counties and clubs.

Gilroy suggests that if a manager is motivated by financial gain rather than love of the jersey, he can’t fully put his heart into the job. Passion for one’s home club can’t be replicated elsewhere no matter how big the dangling carrot is. All counties, he suggests, should build the required managerial expertise to enable appointments from within.

Every club and county team needs its home-grown managers to ply their trade locally. Year after year, clubs have difficulty in finding managers for their teams at all levels due to the lure of riches and limelight in greener pastures. It’s sad to see a person managing against his home club or county or kissing the badge on a jersey other than his ‘native shore’

The GAA has its roots in love of club and county. Volunteerism is its lifeblood. If payment to managers supersedes amateurism in the GAA, a wonderful association will be stripped of its heart and soul. What Orr said in a patriotic context and what Gilroy expressed so well in a sporting context last week must be taken on board if the unique values of the GAA are to be safeguarded.

BILLY RYLE, Tralee, Co. Kerry.