SRFC Press Release : SRFC and the Tallaght Community Stadium

[blackholesun]

Shamrock Rovers Press Release

Shamrock Rovers and the Tallaght Community Stadium

Press Release Issued : 27 Mar 2007

Shamrock Rovers is refuting recent unfounded and unjustifibale comments in the press relating to the club and the Tallaght Community Stadium.

"There has been some blatantly untrue and derogatory remarks made about the club and in relation to the Tallaght stadium," says Shamrock Rovers' chairman, Jonathan Roche.

"Either there are serious misconceptions out there about our club, or else this is part of a deliberate attempt to portray the club in a bad light at this particular time.

"Shamrock Rovers is a community-based, not-for profit club that is owned and run by its members. In that respect it's much like a GAA club, but we offer even more to the community.

"At a time when there are major concerns about childhood obesity, we have a voluntary Schoolboy section that caters for hundreds of children from the age of seven and up.

"Tie that in with our various Scholarship Schemes that cover all strands of education, and it's clear that we're making a very positive contribution to the community.

"On top of that, the club's professional section offers a career curve for young footballers, who can aspire to earning a living from football without having to leave home.

"Shamrock Rovers offers a broad and comprehensive range of opportunities in sport, education and employment to the youth of South Dublin and beyond. It is quite unique."

It was also implied that Shamrock Rovers was incapable of running its own business affairs properly - something the Hoops’ Financial Director, John Lyons is eager to disprove.

"Since the fans took over the club in 2005, Shamrock Rovers has been run on sound business principles," he explains. "We pay our wages and taxes in full and on time, and even turned a profit last year.

"As we're a not-for-profit members' club, that profit stayed within the club and has contributed to our on-going development as a community-based football club."

Shamrock Rovers also feels that there is no valid justification for making the playing surface of the Tallaght stadium big enough to facilitate senior gaelic games.

'Local GAA clubs in the Tallaght/South Dublin area are already well catered for and have excellent facilities of their own - and good luck to them," says General Manager Noel Byrne.

"Both the South Dublin County Council and the government want the stadium completed as it was intended from the outset: as a football ground. We fully support them."

Club Marketing Director Mark Lynch insists that the recent Republic of Ireland internationals at Croke Park showed how impractical it would be to make a football stadium large enough to accommodate gaelic games.

"The football pitch looked lost on such a massive surface," he says. "And while the GAA's willingness to temporarily open Croke Park is to be applauded, Tallaght is a completely separate issue.

"The structural aspect of the stadium would be fundamentally compromised in order to facilitate senior gaelic games. That is obvious from one glance at the recent Ireland-Wales international in Croke Park.

"Shamrock Rovers is pro-GAA, many of our members are also Dubs' fans and GAA club members, but we fail to see how either football or gaelic games would benefit from butchering this facility.

“Given that the stadium’s primary purpose has always been to facilitate football, it makes no sense to complete it in a way that would seriously detract from that aim.”



Appendix: Reality and Rovers

Since its takeover by its supporters in 2005, Shamrock Rovers has made a positive contribution to sport, community activity and education, while also running its financial affairs in a professional and responsible manner.

Shamrock Rovers is not 'a commercial enterprise'
Shamrock Rovers is a members-owned and run, community-based football club that operates on a not-for-profit basis.
As well as promoting sporting participation through its Schoolboy section, which caters for around 250 young players, it also encourages education through its various scholarship schemes.
Through its professional Eircom League of Ireland section, the club also creates employment for upwards of 30 people and generates income tax revenue that goes directly to the State. Shamrock Rovers is fully tax-compliant and a model employer.
Once the first team joins the rest of the club in Tallaght, Shamrock Rovers would envisage a considerable increase in its employment opportunities, making a further positive contribution to the community.


Shamrock Rovers’ Financial Commitment
As well as providing voluntary sporting and educational opportunities, Shamrock Rovers also contributes a considerable amount of its income to the national coffers. Since the club was acquired by its supporters in 2005 it has operated on sound financial principles and meets its tax requirements on a monthly basis.

The club's recent tax history is as follows:
- During 2006 €102,423.09 was paid in tax by Shamrock Rovers
- In 2005, post date of the club's examinership, the total was €175,153.06
- This year's tax total is expected to reach €193,595
- We would envisage, with more staff on our pay roll in Tallaght, a tax payment of around €1.5m over the next five years


Voluntary Work in the Community
No sport has a monopoly on volunteerism. Shamrock Rovers has over 100 volunteers contributing at all levels within the club, as well as promoting sporting activity amongst the young population of South Dublin and further afield.


Educational Opportunities
As part of its community-based ethos, Shamrock Rovers operates Scholarships covering all levels of education. In conjunction with IT Tallaght, the club offers third level education to players, and has more recently introduced a scholarship scheme that facilitates primary school students through the Junior Certificate cycle.


Best of Both Worlds
Given the club's commitment to professional football, its voluntary work in the Schoolboy football, and the club's various educational initiatives, Shamrock Rovers offers a unique and unrivalled blend of sporting and educational opportunities for the young population of South Dublin and beyond.


Dallas Cup
Through the efforts of club volunteers, a sum of €46,000 was raised to bring the Shamrock Rovers Under-19 team to the USA next month to participate in the prestigious Dallas Cup tournament. Not only will this provide players with the opportunity to compete against some of the world's greatest football clubs, it also offers them the experience of a lifetime.


Tallaght Stadium
From the beginning, the SDCC was committed to a football-sized stadium in Tallaght. When it was proposed to extend the playing surface to accommodate gaelic games it was with the proviso that this would not further delay the project.
When the Minister for Sport pointed out that the government’s financial commitment was for a football-sized stadium, this was immediately accepted by the SDCC’s elected representatives, who agreed to progress the project as it was originally intended: as a football stadium.
While the stadium may be built to its original, football-sized specification, it does not prohibit all other sports, and would easily accommodate, for example, hockey and under-age gaelic games.
As could be seen from the recent Republic of Ireland-Wales international at Croke Park, a football pitch is considerably dwarfed on a full-size GAA surface.

ENDS

[fergalr]

Excellent stuff.

[gufcfan]

You would have to admire the setup rovers have.

The GAA are doing this out of pure begrudgery...

[OneRedArmy]

Good piece, but its probably a week too late given Humphries drivel in the IT (and other pro-GAA pieces elsewhere).

Presumably the fact the case is still sub judice keeps Rovers from really telling people the way it is?

Fingers crossed Td's get what they deserve (a large legal bill).

[khoop]

Good piece, but its probably a week too late given Humphries drivel in the IT (and other pro-GAA pieces elsewhere)

It's partly a reaction to that drivel. Something had to be released to counter the all-out campaign against Rovers that the GAA hacks are currently mounting.

[KildareFan]

Really hope Rovers come through on this one.

The GAA really do have some cheek, what basis are they saying that they are entitled to use the ground. Hopefully they will be told where to go very shortly

[paudie]

Good piece, but its probably a week too late given Humphries drivel in the IT (and other pro-GAA pieces elsewhere).



Great press release. Gives the facts. Let Humphries etc refute those.

Rovers should demand right of reply to Humphries piece (I think this release is refuting a lot of the points made in it) and request that the release be published in full by the IT next to Humphries next article.

The Tribune also has a "My 2 Cents" column which allows people to comment on recent sporting contoversies that they are involved in. Rovers should see if they can get on soon to get their point across.

[manic da hoop]

From the Irish Times letters page - 28.03.07

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAIR PLAY FOR SHAMROCK ROVERS

Madam, - We were quite dismayed by the tone of Tom Humphries's remarks on Shamrock Rovers and the stalled Tallaght stadium development (Locker Room, March 19th).

While complimenting the voluntary community efforts of others, he described Rovers as "a professional soccer club, a commercial enterprise", completely ignoring the fact that it is a not-for-profit, community-based football club owned and run by its members.

While our first team is professional, the rest of the club is almost exclusively run by volunteers, and our schoolboy section caters for hundreds of youngsters across South Dublin. Shamrock Rovers has also established a range of scholarship schemes offering educational opportunities to students at primary, secondary and third level.

Shamrock Rovers is a model employer and taxpayer. Since its supporters took over in 2005, the club has been run on sound business principles and by the end of this season will have contributed around €500,000 to the national coffers. We even turned a small profit last year which was, as a matter of course, reinvested in the club.

Mr Humphries writes that "nobody feels Rovers have given enough to the community to merit the amount of State aid being allocated" for Tallaght. Considering that our club's package of sporting, educational and employment opportunities are unique, not just in South Dublin but in Irish sport, we would beg to differ. And not just in word but in deed. - Yours, etc,

MARK LYNCH, (On behalf of Shamrock Rovers FC board of directors), Centrepoint Business Park, Dublin 12.

[OneRedArmy]

When we talk about media bias towards the GAA, Humphries is a great example of what we are up against. Leaving aside the guff he wrote the other week on Tallaght, he mainly writes his "flagship column" on the subject of Dublin hurling, whose participation is infinitely less than soccer in any area of the county and whose senior team play in front of crowds smaller than those of the larger EL clubs.

[Billy Lord]

When we talk about media bias towards the GAA, Humphries is a great example of what we are up against. Leaving aside the guff he wrote the other week on Tallaght, he mainly writes his "flagship column" on the subject of Dublin hurling, whose participation is infinitely less than soccer in any area of the county and whose senior team play in front of crowds smaller than those of the larger EL clubs.

I've no problem with Humphries (or anyone else) acting as a cheerleader for hurling (or any other sport), but when it turns into an anti-SRFC barrage of make-believe, innuendo and snide remarks, that's another matter.

[Dotsy]

Excellent press release. Sticks to the facts and refutes alot of the pro TD drivel written in the press lately.

I live in Old Bawn and my 6 year old daughter brought home a slip of paper from school on Monday encouraging families to bring their little ones up to St Annes GAA club to play camogy and hurling:mad: . I sent it back to them telling them that I would have been quite happy for her to join a couple of years ago and would have encouraged her but that now given TD's stance on SRFC she won't be going near the place or any other GAA club and I will be encouraging my nieghbours to do the same.

[CuanaD]

Good press release - nice to see them sticking to the facts.

Shows just how good the Rovers set-up is these days.

[Boh_So_Good]

I must say that I find it ironic to the point of surreal that the Tallaght GAA clubs would accuse SRFC of somehow being blow-ins. For 2 years I lived in Raheen and it always struck me just how un-Tallaght the GAA clubhouses there actually were, having been in some of them a few times. There were almost no Dublin accents to be heard the times I went as a guest. My host informed me that the Tallaght GAA clubs are made up mostly of public servants who work as nurses, Gardai and civil servants in Tallaght and who have almost no interaction with the native population of Tallaght on a social level.

At weekends they all return "home" to Mayo, Kerry and Donegal. A couple of people I spoke to from Spingfield told me that anyone in these places with a working class Dublin accent is made feel like an outsider and unwelcome. One said to me "the place is filled with a load of snotty nose farmers sons and daughters who consider people from Tallaght to be all skangers."

I suspect a lot of what is happening in Tallaght with Rovers is rooted in the 'Gaelic Rural Chosen People' mindset which developed under Dev and is still very much a part of the GAA to this day.

Another issue is that the GAA in Tallaght is about 10% actually people involved in sport and the other 90% of the members expressing the love "native games" by sitting at the bar cheering on Liverpool and Man United on the TV.

There is little or nothing "Tallaght" about the GAA out there - it's just were their clubhouses and pitches happen to be located. SRFC is already more "Tallaght" than all of them put together.

[Billy Lord]

I must say that I find it ironic to the point of surreal that the Tallaght GAA clubs would accuse SRFC of somehow being blow-ins. For 2 years I lived in Raheen and it always struck me just how un-Tallaght the GAA clubhouses there actually were, having been in some of them a few times. There were almost no Dublin accents to be heard the times I went as a guest. My host informed me that the Tallaght GAA clubs are made up mostly of public servants who work as nurses, Gardai and civil servants in Tallaght and who have almost no interaction with the native population of Tallaght on a social level.

At weekends they all return "home" to Mayo, Kerry and Donegal. A couple of people I spoke to from Spingfield told me that anyone in these places with a working class Dublin accent is made feel like an outsider and unwelcome. One said to me "the place is filled with a load of snotty nose farmers sons and daughters who consider people from Tallaght to be all skangers."

I suspect a lot of what is happening in Tallaght with Rovers is rooted in the 'Gaelic Rural Chosen People' mindset which developed under Dev and is still very much a part of the GAA to this day.

Another issue is that the GAA in Tallaght is about 10% actually people involved in sport and the other 90% of the members expressing the love "native games" by sitting at the bar cheering on Liverpool and Man United on the TV.

There is little or nothing "Tallaght" about the GAA out there - it's just were their clubhouses and pitches happen to be located. SRFC is already more "Tallaght" than all of them put together.

And that's (presumably) from a Bohs' fan. Respect.

[Boh_So_Good]

I am a Bohs supporter and I will always consider the Shamrock Rovers supporter to be an eternal resident of Darwin's Waiting Room. It is my evolutionary duty to look down on them.

However, the GAA in Tallaght carry-on is just plain sick, evil and opens a window into a psychological landscape within the GAA which should make every objective Irish person shun and stand-up against.

I used to be a Dubs supporters as well, but watching how the GAA is behaving with the Tallaght issue, I never want to be associated with anything GAA again.

Everyone in Tallaght I know feels the same way about the Tallaght Stadium issue - they cannot wait for Rovers to arrive (even ones who do not follow LOI are looking forward to it). This again highlights how, in actual day-to-day reality, the Tallaght GAA "community" are completely alien and self-ghettoised from the majority population of that town. They have brought their rural parish mentality with them from Kerry, Mayo and Donegal to Tallaght and have thus declared themselves spokespersons and sporting representatives of a community most of them do not want anything to do with. I am amazed more journalists have not made an issue about just how "Tallaght" the GAA out there actually are.

There is also a certain underhanded angle being played here which basically revolves around "we let you lads use Croker, so we have a right now to wreck Shamrock Rovers, you feckin owe us!"

These people would give Pol Pot a run for his money.

[green-blood]

as a resident of Tallght all my life I couldn't agree more. This is a very very very valid point.

Why are there 6 GAA clubs in Tallaght(at least), why so many - because we have that many of our culchie cousins living here and they see the GAA club as a safe haven from the "tallaght knacker". Is this also why all those clubs are so completely useless in competition, they all have tie ups with local schools aso they all get young heads through and compete at junior level, but they all fail miserably to compete at adult level - I suppose the commute for bacon and cabbage every weekend ruins turn out. those that stick around can always be witnessed ona saturday night or Sunday afternoon festooned in best liverpool shirt screaming abuse at Match of the Day or Sky with pint of bulmers (with ice) in hand

then again someones gotta preserve culture

[Boh_So_Good]

If the Rovers fans really want to do something for their club on this issue then they should be leading a counter-propaganda campaign within Tallaght. They should be printing up thousands of flyers explaining to ordinary people in the estates of Springfield, Old Bawn, Tymon North and do on that Rovers are more representative of their culture than a handful of farmers sons and daughters working in the civil service.

Hold a protest in the Square. Get the truth out there - scare the hell out of local politicians and make them look anti-Tallaght if they do not support Rovers.

It would be be easy with a bit of clever (but mass) PR to expose the Tallaght GAA for what THEY really are. Stand up and fight fire with fire. You'll be the ones telling the truth at the end of the day. There is an election coming.

[Fivesilver]

It irks me that the likes of TH will be there every two years, lapping up the expenses-paid trips to the Euro or World Cup, then come home and go on about how it's not a patch on the GAA.
His stuff has gone badly downhill in the last couple of years anyway - it's basically Tom Humphries writing about being Tom Humphries most of the time.

[Erstwhile Bóz]

If the Rovers fans really want to do something for their club on this issue then they should be leading a counter-propaganda campaign within Tallaght. They should be printing up thousands of flyers explaining to ordinary people in the estates of Springfield, Old Bawn, Tymon North and do on that Rovers are more representative of their culture than a handful of farmers sons and daughters working in the civil service.

:rolleyes: How's the weather there in the 1950s? Rob-a-job farmers' sons in the civil service? Sweet divine. Somebody has Dublin-lineage issues, I'd say; a true Dub would never be so insecure about our bucolic cousins. ;)

But yeah, you're right: those ordinary (do you mean "working-class"?) people on them ordinary ("working-class"?) estates should know their place. But if not, of course it should be "explained" to them, the ordinary sods. They should be intimidated and cautioned to engage solely with their own pre-determined and God-given ordinary ("working-class"?) culture. (If He wanted them to play Gah they'd have been born down the country somewhere.)

Do you propose that this exciting new campaign be begun only in Rovers' proposed new catchment area or should the FAI in general not think about a little "Ban" of its own? Will we send ... hmmm ... Protestant clergy out to Finbarr's or Na Fianna taking names and vet the turnstiles at Dalymount?

Anti-GAA feelings are understandably high amongst Rovers fans out West, but why should anybody else be forced to choose between the GAA and "Rovers", for feck's sake? (Apart from it being their station in life, possibly unbeknownst to them, to be a "soccer" person.) Rise-a-row.

[John83]

Great press release. Gives the facts.
I was worried that it might be a bit of a rant. Good work from Shams there.

[Boh_So_Good]

"it's basically Tom Humphries writing about being Tom Humphries most of the time."

Which is essentially the only requirement for working at the Irish Times for all their journalist anyways.


"nobody feels Rovers have given enough to the community to merit the amount of State aid being allocated" for Tallaght."

Unlike the train, bus and car loads of Tallaght GAA members going back "home" to mammy and mass on the rural townlands on the weekends.

How much money do these "Tallaght" GAA members contribute to the local Tallaght economy? They buy rental homes in places like Doolin which remain empty most of the year while the local councils ban Dubliners from buying property down there.

Seriously Rovers Fans, there is a whole ammo load of stuff you could use without having to revert to pro-Rovers journos or court decisions alone. Tell it like it is and call a spade a spade.

[NY Hoop]

I was worried that it might be a bit of a rant. Good work from Shams there.

Excellent press release. Plenty more from where that came from.

BTW it was a Rovers press release.

KOH

[WeAreRovers]

:rolleyes: How's the weather there in the 1950s? Rob-a-job farmers' sons in the civil service? Sweet divine. Somebody has Dublin-lineage issues, I'd say; a true Dub would never be so insecure about our bucolic cousins. ;)


Welcome to the reality of suburban Dublin. All the big Southside clubs - Crokes, Ballyboden etc are essentially culchie clubs run by culchies. That's fine in Rathfarnham and Stillorgan where a lot of the people are from the country but it does lead to a disconnect in places like Tallaght.

As an example, the "working class, Dublin club" - for want of a better description - where I grew up are Wanderers. They are not allowed use the name Ballyboden Wanderers even though they are the only club actually in Ballyboden. They just don't have the muscle of their neighbours from Firhouse.

BTW Both my folks are from the country.

KOH

[bigmac]

It irks me that the likes of TH will be there every two years, lapping up the expenses-paid trips to the Euro or World Cup, then come home and go on about how it's not a patch on the GAA.
His stuff has gone badly downhill in the last couple of years anyway - it's basically Tom Humphries writing about being Tom Humphries most of the time.

Completely agree - when you compare today's articles with the collection in one of his books, it's like it's a different journalist. I think that the ego has landed to be honest, and laziness has taken hold.


edit
Great press release by the way - keep to the moral high ground and let the TD crowd hang themselves.
I especially like the point about no sport having a monopoly on volunteerism - it really irks me the way the GAA make out that they're so much better than anyone else because of volunteers and "amateur nature"

[Erstwhile Bóz]

Welcome to the reality of suburban Dublin. All the big Southside clubs - Crokes, Ballyboden etc are essentially culchie clubs run by culchies. That's fine in Rathfarnham and Stillorgan where a lot of the people are from the country but it does lead to a disconnect in places like Tallaght.

As an example, the "working class, Dublin club" - for want of a better description - where I grew up are Wanderers. They are not allowed use the name Ballyboden Wanderers even though they are the only club actually in Ballyboden. They just don't have the muscle of their neighbours from Firhouse.

BTW Both my folks are from the country.

KOH
Of course people up from the country get involved with the GAA at the organizational level.

But if it is the case that ordinary, working-class people in Tallaght are so naturally disconnected from culchie-run clubs then there's nothing to worry about at all, there's no need for Boh_So_Good's letter campaign reminding them of their demographic tastes, and Rovers should just let the GAA eat itself in Tallaght.

What's the problem?

[HulaHoop]

The judge is to reveal his decision at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Say your prayers tonight lads :)

[Erstwhile Bóz]

Any smoke yet?

[hoops1]

JR Granted.

[disko]

Well done on the Statement but i seem to have missed the original TH article. Anyone know where i can find a link to this article?

Cheers,

Munich Hoop

[Erstwhile Bóz]

Well done on the Statement but i seem to have missed the original TH article. Anyone know where i can find a link to this article?

Cheers,

Munich Hoop
Minister sours the sweetest moments
Tom Humphries
(Irish Times 19th March)

Locker Room: If there is one small fly in the ointment of joy that the wonderful and novel achievements of our cricketers in Jamaica have given us it is the suspicion that our Minster for Sport will demand any day now that GAA grounds be opened for the playing of cricket.

It has been a grand week for the Irish sports aficionado. Steve Staunton's droll press conference was followed by Ruby Walsh's glory and then the cricketing revolution. The rugby boys scored 50 points because they needed to; Sunderland won again; the cricketers became a great story; Ballyhale - the epitome perhaps of the possibilities and potential of the GAA - returned to eminence; and the Dub hurling evolution continued apace.

And all the while lurking behind the blue skies like a storm front was the grim, vinegar puss of John O'Donoghue, the last mealy, free-roaming mouth and curmudgeon still in existence outside of this column's acreage.

There were some who thought that when O'Donoghue made his comments a while back about the Solheim Cup and fashion for the ladies perhaps he had the brains of a rocking horse. We realise now of course that he has the heart of a lion. In a move distinguished by both electoral bravery and crass stupidity the Minister has chosen this time to put the boot into the GAA.

Fortunately, Kerry is not a GAA county or it might have cost him votes.

Thomas Davis, a GAA club whose volunteers have been working for the people of Tallaght since - well, since 1887 actually - are in the throes of a High Court petition seeking permission to bring a legal challenge on a decision that the new Shamrock Rovers stadium in Tallaght should be a soccer-only venue. Thomas Davis want to overturn South Dublin County Council's decision of February 13th, 2006, that the 6,000-seat stadium at Whitestown Way should be completed for the purposes of soccer only.

Readers with long memories will recall that back in 1995, when this saga began, South Dublin County Council had ambitions for a 20,000-seat stadium in Tallaght which would be multi-purpose and have James's Gate soccer club as the anchor tenant.

James's Gate were soon supplanted by Shamrock Rovers, the itinerant club who have never quite recovered from selling their splendid ground in Milltown a couple of decades ago.

Down through the years as Rovers changed hands and became involved in a variety of different deals the complexion of the Tallaght deal has changed repeatedly.

The stadium lies like a ghostly monument to incompetence. After a public-consultation process, and following a recommendation by the Tallaght Area Committee in November 2005, the county manager's proposal for a single-purpose venue was altered, getting everyone back to the idea of a multi-sport stadium involving the development of a larger pitch suitable for Gaelic games.

On December 12th, 2005, SDCC unanimously adopted a resolution in favour of this proposal.

Rovers seemed happy. The GAA seemed happy. John O'Donoghue? Not happy.

Extraordinarily, he announced he would only fund a soccer-only stadium. The SDCC, having little choice, passed a resolution on February 13th, 2006, which reverted to the soccer-only scheme.

By now most people will have their own opinions about the relative claims of the parties to the dispute. The GAA clubs (there are five other local clubs backing Thomas Davis) have been rooted and seeded in the community for generations. They have worked hard for what facilities they provide. Sometimes they have benefited from grant money and Lotto money; all the time they have worked themselves to the bone for the community.

Shamrock Rovers are a professional soccer club, a commercial enterprise. They chose to sell the best ground in the country. Through extraordinary mismanagement they have lacked a ground of their own since. Despite the lustre of their name and history they have proven themselves incapable of providing facilities for their own use.

For some reason John O'Donoghue has leapt in and promised to fork out millions of taxpayers' money to come to the rescue of this commercial organisation. This is generous, not just because of Irish soccer's long, prodigal history of squandering and blowing cash and failing to provide for drizzly days. It is generous because the Minister apparently feels the pain of every surrendered penny as if he were paying for it by sale of his own organs.

Heroically unembarrassed by recent criticisms of the physical-education facilities offered our increasingly obese children, the Minister instead rounded on the GAA, a body which on a volunteer basis provided for generations what passed for a sports policy in this country; the GAA, which has worked to be at the heart of every community; the GAA, whose clubs from Thomas Davis to Laune Rangers provide football, hurling, camogie and women's football for anything up to 50 teams week in and week out.

The Minister had the unfeasibly large cojones to suggest that because the GAA received some money from the Government in the last few years it should just shut up about Tallaght. The Minister suggested Lotto funds (set up for arts and sport, but ransacked by successive governments for health funding) were actually all part of his money from selling his kidneys.

In fact, it was Lotto funding which made up all but 19 million of the 114 million given to help build Croke Park (192 million is promised to Lansdowne Road, but we suspect that will never get built and rugby will go out on its own down in Ringsend).

Croke Park is the sort of infrastructural project the Lotto was designed for. O'Donoghue appears to think Lotto funding is a grace-and-favour scheme which might buy him the rights to the GAA's silence on all issues.

Warming to his theme, the Minister chose to ignore the spirit of the times we live in.

"I also find it quite extraordinary," he said, "that the GAA should wish to play Gaelic games in a soccer ground given their outright opposition to soccer being played in their own grounds."

Wow! Now the ignorance on display here is quite profound. It becomes us though to scorn the man's simplicity. It means either he hasn't noticed Wales will be playing Ireland in soccer at Croke Park on Saturday or he expects GAA clubs all over the country to begin throwing their overused, over-mortgaged grounds open to soccer.

The Minister, we are sure, knows this would be an arrangement which could never be reciprocated given the dimensions of the various pitches involved and the existing overuse of every GAA pitch in the land.

The Minister apparently wants the GAA, a community-based, volunteer-based cultural and sporting body, to carry the can for the long history of squandering and mismanagement which has blighted the world's greatest professional game as played in this country. Soccer, which once thrived here domestically, professionally and entertainingly, has become a grim sideshow of foreclosures and receiverships.

In Tallaght, the argument isn't against Shamrock Rovers, although John Donoghue planting Rovers there will inevitably hurt the GAA population. The point is that nobody feels Rovers have given enough to the community to merit the amount of State aid being allocated. There is an unfairness at the heart of the concept and the Minister's crass comments underline that.

The GAA has already been quietly hurt by the Government's decision to renege on an earlier promise that the rebuilt Lansdowne would have a pitch configured to permit the playing of the occasional GAA game.

The whispers are, though, that when the planning people get back this week the news will be that the stadium's proposed capacity will be whittled and the IRFU, a little surprised perhaps at the sweetheart of a deal the FAI were handed in the redevelopment master plan, will opt to cash in their chips in D4 and build elsewhere on their own steam (with, one hopes, appropriate Lotto funding to help). The Irish Glass Bottle Company in Ringsend would be the perfect site.

And so Irish professional soccer, a commercial enterprise which retails a genuinely beautiful game, but is domestically incapable of running its own business, will be homeless again. Will Minister O'Donoghue be able to find a way to blame it on the GAA? Of course he will.

© 2007 The Irish Times

[Jerry The Saint]

Hadn't read it before - that is some piece of paranoid claptrap


Minister sours the sweetest moments
Tom Humphries
(Irish Times 19th March)

Locker Room: If there is one small fly in the ointment of joy that the wonderful and novel achievements of our cricketers in Jamaica have given us it is the suspicion that our Minster for Sport will demand any day now that GAA grounds be opened for the playing of cricket.

It has been a grand week for the Irish sports aficionado. Steve Staunton's droll press conference was followed by Ruby Walsh's glory and then the cricketing revolution. The rugby boys scored 50 points because they needed to; Sunderland won again :mad: ; the cricketers became a great story; Ballyhale - the epitome perhaps of the possibilities and potential of the GAA - returned to eminence; and the Dub hurling evolution continued apace...

© 2007 The Irish Times

Surely his credibility is blown out of the water with a statement like that, even if it was used ironically. Sadly, this is the attitude that I've commented on before - Decent skins like Niall Quinn and Charlie Chawke investing in a mediocre English club is a great Irish success story. Irish soccer clubs are evil corporate enterprises who contribute nothing to the community. :rolleyes:

[TonyD]

Couldn't have put it better Jerry. The Sunderland comment beggars belief. Stupid, stupid article. And this guy is supposed to be one of our best journalists :rolleyes:

[monutdfc]

I hardly ever read Humphries anymore. His head is so far up his own backside he can't write anymore.
"Wow, what brilliant metaphors can I use this week? (Seriously, count the number of metaphors he uses per article.) I am the inheritor of Con Houlihan's crown".

[passerrby]

Minister sours the sweetest moments
[I]Tom Humphries[/I

In Tallaght, the argument isn't against Shamrock Rovers, although John Donoghue planting Rovers there will inevitably hurt the GAA population. © 2007 The Irish Times

Methinks his whole gripe lies in this sentence

[paudie]

The whispers are, though, that when the planning people get back this week the news will be that the stadium's proposed capacity will be whittled and the IRFU, a little surprised perhaps at the sweetheart of a deal the FAI were handed in the redevelopment master plan, will opt to cash in their chips in D4 and build elsewhere on their own steam (with, one hopes, appropriate Lotto funding to help).

Since the capacity of Lansd Rd hasn't been "whittled" despite the whispers that TH heard a new version of this article should be issued by the great man.
Doubt it though. No doubt he's just gloating about the decision to grant a judicial review.