GAA and soccer club in dispute

[Paddyfield]

http://www.kerryman.ie/news/pitch-battle-gaa-and-soccer-club-in-dispute-1693508.html

A bitter dispute between local GAA and soccer clubs, was ploughed on the instructions of the GAA before the weekend.

Following the nighttime ploughing of the sportsfield, which is regularly used by the local soccer club, a hole was dug in the middle of Milltown/ Castlemaine GAA pitch late on Saturday night, forcing an under-21 game to be moved to another venue on Sunday afternoon.

County GAA Board Chairman Jerome Conway confirmed to The Kerryman that the sportsfield, which is the home ground of Castlemaine United soccer club, was ploughed on instructions from the GAA on Thursday. Soccer goalposts standing in the middle of the field are the only remaining evidence of sporting exploits there.

While local groups dispute the GAA's claim to exclusive ownership of the sportsfield, Mr Conway insisted the board had acted within its rights. In October, Milltown/ Castlemaine GAA Club was granted planning permission to redevelop the pitch, erect floodlights and construct a car park and associated services, despite an application from the soccer club for leave of appeal.

"The property belongs to the GAA and there's no debate about ownership as there is documentation there," Mr Conway stated, adding: "Of course the field was ploughed by the GAA".

Asked why the actions had been carried out in darkness, Mr Conway said he was unsure.

"The long term objective is to develop the pitch properly as there is a slope on it. We have been given a directive by Croke Park to use the property according to the rules and that's what we are doing," he added.

The actions mean that local soccer club Castlemaine United are now without a home ground, despite having used the pitch since their inception two decades ago. The suspension of GAA's Rule 42, banning soccer from the association's pitches, does not apply outside Croke Park.

The newly-formed Castlemaine Community Sportsfield Action Group — representing local community groups including Castlemaine United AFC — are furious that the GAA has had the pitch ploughed.

The group argues that the sportsfield was originally handed over to the general community by the Spring Walker family in 1936, had always been a community field and had merely been placed in the trust of the GAA. They point to carnivals, community fairs, sheep shearing, dog shows, tennis and basketball events held in the sportsfield to support their claim.

At a fiery meeting hosted by the group in Castlemaine Community Centre on Monday night, plans were initiated for a community-wide petition condemning the GAA's actions, with possible protest also planned outside Kerry County Board offices.

"This is the greatest bit of scamping I've seen for a long time," one angry action group member stated.

"Our group has had to resort to blockading and chaining. We will cover the entrance with cars every night if we have to," chairman Charlie Boyle stated.

Others present at Monday's meeting claimed the actions were "an insult to the children of the community". "Our event in June has gone, as has the Easter camp here," one stated.

"It is now very cheeky of the GAA club to come over and do their lotto draw in our village," the group's assistant PRO Brendan O'Reilly added.

The community group is now planning to reseed the pitch and a call for locals to help remove stones from the ground will be made in the coming days.

The action group is to lodge a petition with the Circuit Court seeking an injunction restraining Milltown Castlemaine GAA club from further interference at the site.

Meanhile, former senior captain of Milltown Castlemaine GAA club and player manager of Castlemaine United AFC, Jason Giles expressed his dismay at the recent developments and has decided to take action: "I will not be renewing my membership with Milltown/ Castlemaine GAA, a club I've been a lifelong member of. It's nothing against the players but I've been given no choice following this."

- KEVIN HUGHES khughes@kerryman.ie

[Mr Maroon]

www.kerryman.ie
I didn't know Derek had his own site! :p

[GuisaSaigon]

Should this not be in GAA section......................?

[Tis-smeee]

Should be the main news on the six one , bunch of bigots

[sonofstan]

sounds to me like one of those disputes that will never be resolved because one side keeps removing the goalposts.....












sorry

[GuisaSaigon]

Should be the main news on the six one , bunch of bigots

Hadn't read it properly. Unsurprisingly mental carry on from the GAA.

[Pedro m]

Looks to me like one of those things that appears every year just after the end of March :rolleyes:

[Guitd]

Grab
All
Aassociation:(

[Red&White Rover]

F*ck sake.

What a poxy ****ing society they are.

[Rovers1]

ah lads, in fairness


They do make tasty beer at a cheap rate;)

[LeixlipRed]

I hope the local GAA club burns down with all those poxy red faced fat gits inside. And maybe a few priests too.

[hunt4the]

such a crowd of bigots, it goes on in every town in the country.

We were playing a cup semi-final once where the local seargeant also the gaa club manager came down 5 minutes before kick off and told our goalkeeper and centre forward that they'd never play for the town gaa-wise ever again if they played in the match, the goalkeeper left the CF stayed and never played for them again, and he was one of their best players.

[Paddywhackspurs]

always been the same thing down trough the years for as long as i a can remember playing with both orgs . the gaa higher arc will will always take money off the fans & never put it back in to the grass roots of the game plus give the players FA. where as most LOI clubs will try pay the players & will put money into the under age. plus let me add, the FAI will always encourage kids to play other sports other then soccer in there courses (including GAA) where as the gaa will only encourage kids to play gaa & gaa only. so that shows the way they think. Like it or not

[brianw82]

I'd like to hear from Boh_So_Good. I'm sure he has a witty and completely unbiased account of the situation, which will soothe all our souls.

[Buller]

A more apt name for this thread "Entire community and a Gah club in dispute" would be far more fitting to be honest.
And why am I not suprised by anything these bigots do anymore....

[bellavistaman]

Typical gaa as if they dont have enough. Its terrible for the locals more than anybody else

[centre mid]

Lads that has to be a ****take, look at the picutre. Why would the nets still be up?

[Pedro m]

I hope all these replies are p1ss takes

As I said above

Looks to me like one of those things that appears every year just after the end of March

Look at the date of the article on the website!!

come on ! :confused:

[Buller]

Lads that has to be a ****take, look at the picutre. Why would the nets still be up?

It was also in the Daily Mail on though.
Does seem a bit OTT actually - it wouldnt suprise me if it is true...

[Dodge]

It was also in the Daily Mail on though.
Does seem a bit OTT actually - it wouldnt suprise me if it is true...

And they're the bastion of truth and excellent journalism?

[Buller]

And they're the bastion of truth and excellent journalism?

No. Did I say they were? Just pointing out there is another source...

Could be a gag or could be the grab all association - but compared to my own football club's dealing with the gah, the latter is hardly suprising!

[Dodge]

Relax, I was just pointing out they were a rag, who'd print anything

[Comic Book Guy]

Typical gaa as if they dont have enough. Its terrible for the locals more than anybody else

Correct, but I suspect this is a ploy on their behalf to stop soccer putting down roots in their area, I wonder if it were another sport would they have acted in the same way?

[centre mid]

It was also in the Daily Mail on though.
Does seem a bit OTT actually - it wouldnt suprise me if it is true...

It wouldnt suprise me if the Daily Mail picked up on it thinking it was real and a good chance to make Ireland look stupid, typical Daily Mail garbage.

[paul_oshea]

Lads it is their property though, they have a right to do what they want with it. If it was a badminton club or whatever else, then I doubt there would be any interest from anyone here, or if it was a local recreational centre, at the end of the day its a green field that belongs to the GAA and the soccer club were using it for themselves.

However if they have property elsewhere to use for whatever they want it for,then it does come across as ignorant.

[ramblers]

It is a true story I heard it from some residents down that direction yesterday. A lot of bad feeling towards the GAA as there were camps etc for the kids to be run over easter that had to be cancelled.

[Pablo Escobar]

It is a true story I heard it from some residents down that direction yesterday. A lot of bad feeling towards the GAA as there were camps etc for the kids to be run over easter that had to be cancelled.

I'm loving this. They think they're invincible. I vowed never to pay into a GAA game again 4 years ago. And I'm hearing this more and more. The evil is eroding itself. It's great!!

[listowelceltic]

True story alright. Castlemaine utd have played there for over 20yrs and most of their players would have played for gaa club at some stage. The soccer club manager was once captain of gaa club. Looks like there going to play their games away from home now. Scandalous the way the gaa went about it. The kerry league season is over in 2 months after all. Id say it will backfire big time on the gaa club though.

[LeixlipRed]

Id say it will backfire big time on the gaa club though.

How so? Isn't God on their side no?

[RonnieB]

Ploughing the field in the middle of the night.. regardless of ownership for **** sake. Shame people lowered themselves to the level of the backwards ****wits who did this by digging a trench on the GAA pitch.

[LeixlipRed]

This actually reminds me of an incident I was part of maybe ten years ago. The local GAA club is about 10 minutes from my house whereas Leixlip United's pitches are outside the town. So we used to play on the GAA pitches after school. It normaly wasn't an issue but one time some chap took offence and chased us with a hurl from the grounds spewing bile about "foreign games" and what not. Told us to **** off and go play on our own turf. Swung for one of the lads I was with too. Of course, this same arsehole's son played for Leixlip United and when I was older you would often see this chap in the local bar cheering on Man U or some such ****e. Pathetic bunch of people.

[Boh_So_Good]

I suspect this is a ploy on their behalf to stop soccer putting down roots in their area


Maybe the GAA club misunderstood this concept and ploughed the field to make planting the roots easier? It's a heavy clay compacted soil down there.

[stojkovic]

This happens in Dublin too.

We've been fighting our corner against a group of GAH bigots for five years now. Theyve tried every dirty trick in the book, including corruption at various levels.

We are beating them though.
No Surrender to the GAA.

[Boh_So_Good]

And they're the bastion of truth and excellent journalism?


The Daily Mail is amazing. Most of their journalists have taken Common Purpose Leadership courses in Nuro-Linguistic Programming. If you look at Daily Mail covers they are always the same. At the top there is a banner with some free giveaway, then the main horror headline and to the right of this always a photo of an attractive young lady. The whole idea is to divert you away from real issues.

Many of their editorials are also funded by corporations and governments through Editorial Intelligence to manufacture a certain "Editorial Slant" - mind you all the newspapers are doing this these days even the Irish ones. Just that the DM is on the forefront of this Fabian Society mind control stuff/social re-enigeering agenda. Anyone who claims there is a free and unobjective media is either a liar or delusional.

[LeixlipRed]

The Daily Mail is amazing. Most of their journalists have taken Common Purpose Leadership courses in Nuro-Linguistic Programming. If you look at Daily Mail covers they are always the same. At the top there is a banner with some free giveaway, then the main horror headline and to the right of this always a photo of an attractive young lady. The whole idea is to divert you away from real issues.

Many of their editorials are also funded by corporations and governments through Editorial Intelligence to manufacture a certain "Editorial Slant" - mind you all the newspapers are doing this these days even the Irish ones. Just that the DM is on the forefront of this Fabian Society mind control stuff/social re-enigeering agenda. Anyone who claims there is a free and unobjective media is either a liar or delusional.

Yeh, but the puzzle page is good :confused: :D

[Lionel Ritchie]

Lads it is their property though, they have a right to do what they want with it. Is it though Paul? Genuine non-rhetorical question. I've only what I've seen here to go on and on that basis it reads like the land was left to the community as a common land community resource -not explicitly or exclusively to the GAA.

Now, the local gah club may have established some degree of squaters rights if they got a court ruling allowing them develope it - I dunno. If they did then that's law not justice.


If it was a badminton club or whatever else, then I doubt there would be any interest from anyone here. ...and there was me thinking Eamo had a persecution complex. :p

[bennocelt]

This happens in Dublin too.

We've been fighting our corner against a group of GAH bigots for five years now. Theyve tried every dirty trick in the book, including corruption at various levels.

We are beating them though.
No Surrender to the GAA.


dead right there:)
remember Mullingar Ath pitch was dug up a few years back - but no one knows who did it;)

and I remember the gah always had "their" training session moved to coincide with the football training - funny that

[Magicme]

I think that legally speaking since the soccer team have used the pitch for over 20 years they can claim rights to it too.

Years ago when I worked for a solicitor we had a similar case but there was no dispute over it really. The GAA club were able to get a piece of land transfered into their names as they had been using it as part of their grounds for over 10 years. Could the soccer club not do the same?

Some of the legal heads on here would be able to explain it better maybe.

[Lionel Ritchie]

I was thinking something similar Magicme. I was wondering if it had in recent years been suggested to the Gah lads that the title was theirs by default as, through goodwill, no-one had thought to contest it.

I find it hard to imagine that this GAA club magnanimously and generously turned a blind eye to an Association Football club using their field for some 28 years now. Something's made them bolshy about their ability to put the soccer folks out of there.

[Boh_So_Good]

Thing is, if you read between the lines of the current GAA financial report they are facing bankrupcy when the soccer and rugby leave Croke Park and apart form concerts they have almost no cast-iron revenue stream.

Irish people are drinking less booze and the GAA is highly dependent on gargle money, coupled with the fact many local GAA clubs and branches are broke from decades of committes lining their own pockets and it all being hushed up. There is also no public money to really for them any more. AIB giving them more money! Yeah right...

So the only future for the GAA is a massive restructuring towards a slimmed down auster oraganisation and this will take away their power in the community. The GAA is and always has been a Political/Religious organisation which occasionally dabbles in sport. They cannot survive without implementing their dogmatic social controls bullying tactics on small rural communities anymore. They are no longer the only game in town.

Expect to see more incidents of ignorant Nazi pigfukery like the one in Castlemaine as this dying beast lashes out in its death screams.

[osarusan]

Expect to see more incidents of ignorant Nazi pigfukery like the one in Castlemaine as this dying beast lashes out in its death screams.
This made me burst out laughing!! Love it!

[reder]

Football is taking over in this country as sport goes. I know many of you here will comment on how youngsters are veering towards clubs outside Ireland in terms of loyalty and im my opinion thats not a good thing but lets leave that to one side for one moment and look at the development of the game.

For me, fear amongst the rank and file members of the GAA is at the source of actions like those in that news piece, which I am assuming are true as they have been backed up by ramblers and other users. Throughout the country, more and more youngsters are playing football as opposed to GAA sports. It was always very evident in Dublin that football was the primary sport but now it has spread nationwide.

The levels to which GAA members sink to in order to prevent youngsters playing football never ceases to amaze me. These people dont have the concept of sport being good for youngster, at heart. They only want youngsters playing their sports. All the other sporting organisations in this country, encourage children to play other sports.

As more and more of these incidents are reported, more people will start to turn away from the GAA. I dont understand why more of the national papers dont print stories like this. Why dont tv3 do a 1 hour documentary on Hill16 when the Dubs are playing? From what I have been told by some of my work colleagues, it would be far more "shocking" than the tripe they produced on the EL.

[Kildareman]

This has been happening for years in every community in the land.
Its the norm for the local GAA clubs to take control of community grounds and take them as their own.
They built their clubhouses and then put locks on the gates.
Whats new????

[Lionel Ritchie]

This made me burst out laughing!! Love it!

+1.

There is much about everything I disagree with BSG upon ...but sometimes he uses that tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.:eek:

:D

By the way ...isn't it time this thread was moved as it's little to directly do with the LoI? It's easily worthy of Current Affairs ...or World Football

[Jinxy]

Thing is, if you read between the lines of the current GAA financial report they are facing bankrupcy when the soccer and rugby leave Croke Park and apart form concerts they have almost no cast-iron revenue stream.

Irish people are drinking less booze and the GAA is highly dependent on gargle money, coupled with the fact many local GAA clubs and branches are broke from decades of committes lining their own pockets and it all being hushed up. There is also no public money to really for them any more. AIB giving them more money! Yeah right...

So the only future for the GAA is a massive restructuring towards a slimmed down auster oraganisation and this will take away their power in the community. The GAA is and always has been a Political/Religious organisation which occasionally dabbles in sport. They cannot survive without implementing their dogmatic social controls bullying tactics on small rural communities anymore. They are no longer the only game in town.

Expect to see more incidents of ignorant Nazi pigfukery like the one in Castlemaine as this dying beast lashes out in its death screams.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7962884.stm

http://www.science.ulster.ac.uk/sports/profiles/d.hassan.html

[OneRedArmy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7962884.stm

http://www.science.ulster.ac.uk/sports/profiles/d.hassan.html....was wondering when the official foot.ie GAA Assimilation Officer would add to the thread.

Nothing to see here, move along now everyone....

[Boh_So_Good]

Do you think the GAA actually understand the concept of Irish citizenship?

Personally I think a lot of the social-economic problems and waste in the public sector in this country are caused by GAA jersey-ism. In that the GAA has created a certain psychology in parts of Ireland were the population do not see themselves as Irish at all, but rather citizens of their GAA county colours.

This is why you get headcase stuff like airports in Knock and railway lines opening in the middle of nowhere while Dublin still has neither a Metro nor and Underground DART line.

It's all rooted in the GAA county-colourisms. The very ethos of the organisation is a declaration of war on National citizenship and National identity.

[Jinxy]

....was wondering when the official foot.ie GAA Assimilation Officer would add to the thread.

Nothing to see here, move along now everyone....

If ya can turn a fella G.A.Y.............

[OneRedArmy]

If ya can turn a fella G.A.Y.............I didn't think they allowed that in the GAA? Surely its another reason for a good auld fashioned baytin'?

[SligoBrewer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7962884.stm

http://www.science.ulster.ac.uk/sports/profiles/d.hassan.html

UUJ is one of the gah strongholds in the country. Hardly objective in fairness.