Democracy absent at heart of the GAA
THERE has been a lot of talk – in that other forum I was a part of for the past eight years – about the urgent need for Dáil reform.
Well, it’s abundantly clear, following what happened at Congress last week, that another great institution of Irish life, the GAA, needs to look at its own voting structures.
The fact that motions need a two-thirds majority to pass, rather than a simple majority, means that democracy is absent at the very heart of the GAA.
For the first time in ages, a number of sensible proposals were brought before Congress; proposals that would have helped to untangle the mess of a fixture list and improve the lot of the club player. And, even though they had a majority, they still didn’t pass.
Does the GAA want to be democratic or doesn’t it? If it wants to be a true democratic body, then a simple majority should be enough.
And the proposals that didn’t pass – bringing the AllIreland finals forward by two weeks and scrapping replays for all knockout fixtures before the finals – were eminently sensible, but because two-thirds of the delegates didn’t vote for them, they don’t pass.
In the past few years, county boards and county managers have got it in the neck for holding up club championships and postponing club fixtures.
But Central Council brought forward something that would have gone some way to solving the club calendar, and it was shot down.
In effect, the GAA has to bear responsibility now for the very thing that Jim McGuinness was heavily criticised for when he sought to have the Donegal championship postponed.
A lot of delegates should take a long, hard look at themselves.