Landmark anniversary allows GAA time to celebrate and reflect
Unless you've been hibernating, you'll be aware that the G.A.A. recently celebrated its 125th birthday. A century and a quarter of activity is something surely worth celebrating. The Association has clearly endured and prospered. So it's appropriate to say 'Happy birthday G.A.A.' and wish the great giant that is the modern Association future success.
But it's appropriate also, I would suggest, at this landmark moment to stock-take. And while the celebratory aspect will sit easy, a more searching examination of well-being might be less comfortable.
To begin with then it's only fair to acknowledge the birthday boy on his coming of age and recognise what has been achieved since that meeting in Hayes's in 1884. The Association may have morphed and mutated over the years but the one constant has been its unrivalled contribution to life on this island. The IRFU and FAI may pre-date the GAA but neither can match its enduring influence on communal life.
Undoubtedly the embracing of the parish rule was central to all this. It was a masterstroke. The result is that today the influence of the Association is felt in every nook and cranny of the land. This parish focus generated a loyalty to place, something that other sports lack. It probably explains why you don't have large-scale transferring of players to the larger clubs. Nicky English would have been welcome in any club in the county or beyond, yet he chose to remain loyal to the junior ranks of Lattin(Cullen. Today Shane McGrath would find a welcome anywhere, yet Ballinahinch remains his first and enduring love. In the ranks of the GAA journeymen players have a poor history, often finding that they remain forever outsiders in their adopted club.
On a related issue I'd suggest that the lack of a parish rule is crippling camogie at local level. The large clubs act as magnates for the better players so the smaller units find it impossible to build and expand. It is inhibiting and ultimately damaging to the future prospects of the game. And while on the topic of camogie isn't it time that organisation upgraded its playing rules. The sight of the dropped hurley and the hand-passed goal is like something from a Seventies hurling game.
But back to the GAA and its contribution to society. Clearly its influence extends way beyond the games. It has been a great bonding agent within parishes, drawing communities together and giving them a shared purpose. The incredible infrastructure that the Association now possesses is testimony to this community spirit that the GAA generates.
And so without fear of being contradicted we can salute the massive contribution of the GAA to Irish life. It's a contribution that is ongoing and evolving and it's that evolution that I find most exciting about the organisation. Isn't it instructive to compare the GAA now with the Association that celebrated its centenary in 1984?
Twenty-five years ago the GAA was quite a different animal to its modern incarnation. It was then quite an inward-looking organisation, still obsessing about the past and defensive in outlook. In that year RTE commissioned a documentary on the Association, which was scripted by Con Houlihan. It celebrated the GAA’s contribution to Irish life but also critically analysed other elements of the Association, in particular its ambivalent attitude to the ongoing horror in Northern Ireland. Up and down the country the documentary was slated at board meetings. The GAA wasn’t yet ready for self-analysis.
So much has changed since then. The past twenty-five years have seen the GAA mature and gain a new self-confidence. The removal of the ban on Northern security forces was a significant, though long overdue step towards casting off the shackles of history. The opening of Croke Park to soccer and rugby was surely the final ditching of the old baggage. Those who had argued for such changes were ultimately proved right. Isn’t it a curious twist of fate that now there are some in the GAA worrying about the loss of income when Landsdown Road re-opens?
One of the difficulties with an organisation like the GAA, which became something of an institution in the country, is that inertia sets in and it becomes resistant to change. The “political” changes mentioned above came slowly and after so much agonising. Other changes are resisted, despite overwhelming evidence. The old-style Railway Cup competitions are a classic example of this refusal to shift ground. These competitions belonged to a different era, an era of far fewer games and less media exposure. These days they play to empty houses; they’ve been comatose for years but yet the GAA refuses to switch off life-support. The Scor competitions are somewhat similar.
It’s often forgotten that when the GAA was founded athletics was its main concern; it was later on when hurling and football became the main focus. The GAA effectively invented Gaelic Football but hurling can claim an older lineage. And in one respect the GAA is unique among sports bodies: it is the only organisation that champions two games. Others will correct me and say that it also promotes handball and rounders but you won’t hear much mention of them at next month’s County Convention.
This dual mandate of embracing hurling and football is one of the problems that the Association faces as it heads into the second decade of the new Millennium. Football’s appeal is far more widespread because the game is easier to promote. If you get together a bunch of fit, athletic men with a competitive mentality then you have a football team in the making. How well they can kick a football is secondary, as Pat Spillane frequently points out.
Hurling is different. The skill level is much more demanding and unless there is a tradition that draws youngsters out hurling every day then progress is painfully difficult. A weekly visit by a paid coach will have little impact if the youngsters don’t obsess about the game at home and spend endless hours in front of a gable end or with their friends in puck-abouts. And that’s surely where the traditional areas win out, because in these places the kids are indoctrinated from an early age and seldom lose the passion.
And so hurling is destined to be a minority pursuit with a mere handful of counties in the All Ireland shake-up each year. The failure to spread the hurling gospel remains a blemish on the GAA’s record over a century and a quarter.
And as if the inherent problems of promoting hurling weren’t daunting enough, self-destruction is settling into some counties as players revolt and chaos looms. The situation in Clare has worrying echoes of what happened in Cork, with the board backing a manager against the players. Tony Griffin’s announced retirement at the weekend is the latest salvo in this gathering storm and must increase pressure on the manager. Can he remain when he’s lost the dressing room battle? I don’t like this modern player power but if the aggravation goes on the manager surely has little option. Clare’s dismal record last year weakens Mike McNamara’s case so he may have no option but to step aside.
Justin McCarthy too is fighting a difficult battle to remain at the helm in Limerick. Their dismal All Ireland semi-final showing against Tipperary last year was bound to have repercussions. Then Justin’s actions in recent weeks obviously put a spark to the fire and one wonders where this will eventually lead. When he was appointed manager I thought Justin would bring order and direction to Limerick hurling, so the recent twist in events surprises me. Stepping aside may be his only option now because it’s difficult to see how he could recover respect among the players who’ve been dropped or who have withdrawn their services.
If Mike Mac and Justin McCarthy are forced out they will be the latest in a long list of such upheavals in hurling counties. Remember Waterford had their uprising that forced Justin out, Cork shifted Gerald McCarthy and Wexford ousted John Meyler. Wasn’t ‘Babs’ forced out of Offaly some years back too, and Ger Loughnane was effectively sacked in Galway. The nearest we came in Tipperary to such an outcome was when Michael Doyle stepped aside some years back after player unease in the background, though we might have faced an awkward scenario if ‘Babs’ hadn’t walked away in ’07. Kilkenny alone seem to be aloof from such upheaval, though be sure that as soon as they lose the background noise will increase there too.
Such unrest in so many counties must be a worry for the Association. It cannot be separated from the emergence of the GPA and its various campaigns, all of which have one central thread: player power.
In a sense player unease may be understandable, given developments elsewhere. Levels of preparation have never been so intense, so individual commitment is huge. All of this happens in an amateur sport where players see others, such as managers, benefiting financially. And therein rests another issue that’s causing ripples within the Association. Clubs fork out thousands each year to team managers\coaches while others make a huge voluntary input. One hears rumours of one club paying over twenty grand for a high-profile manager and then failing to win the title. Perhaps the present recession will inject some realism into club affairs.
There are other problems too that the Association faces. Traditionally the GAA’s heartland was rural Ireland. However, the major demographic shift of the past fifty years has been the process of urbanisation. In rural communities it was easy for the GAA to hold sway but in suburbia there’s a different dynamic at play. Putting down deep roots in urban estates is a challenge that the GAA has yet to master.
It faces other challenges also such as the structure of All Ireland competitions and specifically whether the provincial system can survive in hurling. The club versus county debate is ongoing and will remain so as well.
Yet despite all the issues being faced the Association was right to take time out this year to celebrate 125 years on the go. The Croke Park development stands as a monument to what has been achieved, a visible symbol of an Association that has dwarfed all others in terms of its achievements over a century and a quarter. And so as the candles on the birthday cake are blown out new challenges are emerging for the Association. I’ve no doubt this enduring organisation will meet and beat them. Happy birthday.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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