Irish Independent - letter to editor

LOI soccer has a case of little brother syndrome, it always wants what its 'big brother' the GAA has and throws a tantrum when it doesn't get it.

My advise is just get on with it and stop moaning and maybe in a few years when you grow up you can be as good, organised and well run organisation that the GAA is :cool:


And I agree with gilberto_eire this is the wrong forum for this - it has nothing to do with Galway United

Out with your foreign games

As I hate the GAA so much , I think it's best not to comment :mad::mad::mad:

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Originally Posted by WoodquayBoy

Oh for the love of God. It was a GAA pitch owned by the local community. The local community gave United access to their GAA pitch.

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Fair enough. This is not really relevant to Galway United at this stage.

I honestly don't understand how a field that is owned by the Community can be classed as a GAA ground.
Its either a GAA ground or its not.

If the GAA Club own it then fair enough, but if it is owned and maintained as a community ground, should other sports not be allowed to play there?

In the case of Carraroe it was a a community playing field that was used by the Local GAA club regularly, but the local community welcomed Galway United, as their community's LOI team, to use their pitch. TG4 made a good documentary about the whole thing. go http://www.tg4.tv click on the Faisneas Archive.
scroll down to UEFA Sa Ghaeltacht to watch it. No Surrender! :D

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Originally Posted by Norm

Fair enough. This is not really relevant to Galway United at this stage.

I honestly don't understand how a field that is owned by the Community can be classed as a GAA ground.
Its either a GAA ground or its not.

If the GAA Club own it then fair enough, but if it is owned and maintained as a community ground, should other sports not be allowed to play there?

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Careful now......don't you realise that this whole island is a GAA ground:D. AHHH Carraroe......will we ever see those days again:p

Ballindereen wasnt vested in the GAA and thanks to Michael Kelly & Others we got to use that fantastic facility. Unfortunately Ballinderreen suffered for years after by being denied any big club games because of their generosity.

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Originally Posted by gufct

Ballindereen wasnt vested in the GAA and thanks to Michael Kelly & Others we got to use that fantastic facility. Unfortunately Ballinderreen suffered for years after by being denied any big club games because of their generosity.

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Spot on. That's the way it works...or doessn't work - depending what side of the argument you're on.

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Originally Posted by WoodquayBoy

People, the rallying call - for both sides of this argument - should be 'remember Europe'.
The club were refused use of Pearse Stadium for the first their European adventures because of a GAA rule (boo hiss), but the GAA communities in Carraroe and Ballinderreen supported the club and opened their grounds to it (will never be forgotten).
So as Terrylander said, while the GAA as a body is deserving of our scorn, don't tar all associated with the GAA with the same brush.

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I lived in Galway in 91 at the time of the OB game. Ballinderreen were very generous. They paid a high price though as they didn't get a local game for 8 years afterwards in their ground. They normally hosted plenty of Galway local club games. The club were very helpful and used the excuse to the local guys that they had no control as it was a community pitch.

Carraroe never suffered afaik.

Clearly not all of the GAA are bigots but they sure have some total nutjobs in positions of power.

jesus thats awful to hear how the generous crowd of ballinderreen got treated!!!

its slowly changing lads - very slowy!

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Originally Posted by Terry-Lander

Anyone who knows me will know that I'm no fan of the Grab All Association but on a local level I have recently witnessed the dedication of some members and the time they give to train kids as young as four. I no longer paint all of them with the same brush because there are individuals who are only concerned with putting something back into their local community..... Even reading this back I can't believe I'm actually defending individuals within the GAA. (get the restraints)

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I take your point, but unfortunately 80-90% of the people involved in my local GAA are the sort of people that I hate the GAA for.

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Originally Posted by gufcfan

I take your point, but unfortunately 80-90% of the people involved in my local GAA are the sort of people that I hate the GAA for.

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I think 80-90% is unfair. There is certainly still a rump of bigots left in the organisation. Many of these are in positions of influence however they are necoming increasily isolated and losing all the key votes now like the opening of Croke Park, allowing police in NI to play gaa and even the government grants.

Actually Galway was always one of the more liberal GAA counties. in 1974 just 3 years after the ban was lifted an Irish inyernational football side played the Galway GAA team in Tuam. It was meant to be a football match but the powers to be in HQ ruled that out but they went ahead and played gaelic with some rule changes like you can't use your hands. ;) They did use GAA posts and scoring system. The Irish side only won by a point

This thread still going?.

Obviously no mod' round here or it would have been binned!

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Originally Posted by gspain

Actually Galway was always one of the more liberal GAA counties. in 1974 just 3 years after the ban was lifted an Irish inyernational football side played the Galway GAA team in Tuam. It was meant to be a football match but the powers to be in HQ ruled that out but they went ahead and played gaelic with some rule changes like you can't use your hands. ;) They did use GAA posts and scoring system. The Irish side only won by a point

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There's a photograph of the Ireland selection in a book of Photographs published by the retired Connacht Tribune photographer Stan Shields. A renowned collector such as yourself probably has it already Gary. I asked a contact in the GAA to name the players. This is because the Ireland selection which included John Giles, Gerry Daly, Mick Martin and Paddy Mulligan had to be supplemented by some fringe players from the Galway senior Gaelic Football team of the day.

I understood it was a GAA fund raiser and that's why the game got the go-ahead. I also understood it was played as a half Gaelic and a half soccer. :confused: Paddy Mulligan (ex Galway United manager) was the link in the fixture as (although born and reared in Dublin) he was very proud of his Galwegian ancestry and had quite a few cousins around his own age in the Tuam / North Galway area.

In September that year Galway lost to Dublin in the senior football All-Ireland. The game heralded the arrival of the infamous Heffos Army, was characterised by a display of blatantly biased refereeing from Tyrones Patsy Devlin, and typical Dub boot boy tactics from the likes of Sean Doherty and Alan Larkin, but will be best remembered for the missed penalty by current senior manager Liam Sammon. Bertie Ahenr was presented with a framed photograph of the penalty save today by the SDLP on a trip to the north east. Oh and if you're still reading Gilberto, I love this thread:p

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Originally Posted by MyTown

There's a photograph of the Ireland selection in a book of Photographs published by the retired Connacht Tribune photographer Stan Shields. A renowned collector such as yourself probably has it already Gary. I asked a contact in the GAA to name the players. This is because the Ireland selection which included John Giles, Gerry Daly, Mick Martin and Paddy Mulligan had to be supplemented by some fringe players from the Galway senior Gaelic Football team of the day.

I understood it was a GAA fund raiser and that's why the game got the go-ahead. I also understood it was played as a half Gaelic and a half soccer. :confused: Paddy Mulligan (ex Galway United manager) was the link in the fixture as (although born and reared in Dublin) he was very proud of his Galwegian ancestry and had quite a few cousins around his own age in the Tuam / North Galway area.

In September that year Galway lost to Dublin in the senior football All-Ireland. The game heralded the arrival of the infamous Heffos Army, was characterised by a display of blatantly biased refereeing from Tyrones Patsy Devlin, and typical Dub boot boy tactics from the likes of Sean Doherty and Alan Larkin, but will be best remembered for the missed penalty by current senior manager Liam Sammon. Bertie Ahenr was presented with a framed photograph of the penalty save today by the SDLP on a trip to the north east. Oh and if you're still reading Gilberto, I love this thread:p

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The game was in aid of Tuam CBS school so not a fundraiser for the GAA. The attendance was 6,000.

Never saw the photo I'm afraid. I do have the programme. It was a strong
Irish side more or less full strength from what I can recall.

The original plan may have been to play a half in each game but my understanding is that this was deemed to be in contravention of the GAA rules so they had to play by GAA rules. They did of course then decide that nobody was allowed to use their hands. I imagine that it was effectively a football match with GAA posts and GAA scoring. As I'm not familiar with GAA rules I'm not sure what other differences there would be.

I have the score somewhere but I'm pretty sure the Irish team won by a point - something like 3-11 to 2-13.

Gilberto is right, when someone can tell me what this has to do with GUFC's current state I will reopen it.