A "Real GAA Man" Views on the LOI - Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

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Originally Posted by Woody

The reason I was an English c unt (apparently)

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So are you no longer an English c unt ?

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Originally Posted by Jamjar

So are you no longer an English c unt ?

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He had a sex change. Now he's a Chinese Richard - a Wang.

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

The GAA is dead. You heard it here first.

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Wishful thinking here.

The combined attendances at Limericks 4 Munster championship games last year was roughly 150,000

Which is pretty darn healthy no matter what way you look at it.

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Originally Posted by strangeirish

I think you just paid Marty Morrissey a compliment there.

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pure class

The way I see it is that some of these Gah heads (especially those besotted with 'football') are the way they are because deep down they realise their hybrid game is vastly inferior to the association variety.
Even within GAA circles there are those hurling folk who look down on their 'football' cousins.
All I would say to those people in your school is f*** them, if you provoked that type of a repsonse from them then the EL must be doing something right.

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Originally Posted by Rocky77

However, and I ask this in deadly earnest, is the person who made that remark any worse than some of the people who post similar sentiments on these forums, albeit from the other side of the coin?

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What a pathetic defence. This one comes up in almost every thread citing GAA bigotry and only the most feeble-minded are taken in by it.
Football people in Ireland are exercised about GAA only insofar as that organization maintains the kind of attitude reported in the original post. You talk about the other side of the coin: where have you seen this level of ignorance aimed by a football person at GAA or any other sport at community level?

im obviously in a minority here but the way i see it i am a sports fan. i love soccer, football, hurling and rugby. My first love was always soccer. one thing i hate is people who support "the pool and utd" There is'nt any kerry team in the loi but i still follow it because its my league. I support kerry in the football because I love it when it comes to the crunch. I understand yere point about the narrow scope "gaa heads" but remember this is a tiny minority. Most gaa people i know are sports fans brought up in a gaa area and would not object to a loi club trying to make something of itself.

It is because of Gah heads like this, that I have returned (after a long absence) to LOI football to follow Wexford Youths. OK, the standard is not great at the moment but Mick Wallace has brought senior football to a Hurdlin' county.....and the Gah heads don't like it:p. Not only that, he has taken away the traditional sh*te that they use to put the game down, such as begging for money & pitches, professional sportsmen, not linked to the community etc. This is a sport for all club

All they have been left with is shouting about breaches of planning regulations. The Beautiful Game is here to stay in Wexford. Get used to it......

PS It's nice to see that the Youths all weather pitches are being used on Saturday mornings by dozens of young kids for hockey practice. Why not???

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Originally Posted by Boh_So_Good

A local very wealthy business person laughed jeeringly and stated "we don't want to be exposing the kids around here to that rubbish!"

"The kids around here have GAA, they don't need soccer. We shouldn't even have a bloodly soccer league in this country as it takes funding away from GAA..."

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I've known ardent GAA men like that in the past ... and they are usually the
1st ones in the pub on a Sunday, all decked out in their colours ... to watch
Liverpool or Man U.

I have a vague memory of one occasion years ago when a man like that
was lapping up the Ford Super Sunday and someone asked if he'd head up
to the pitch to help umpire or something for a Junior B game. His response
was something like ... "This match is more important than that sh!te" ...
and then he kissed the Liverpool crest!

What a nasty bunch of bigots the GAA are. And nobody's even mentioned their crude sectarianism... (Oh! - I've just done it there).

GAA fans don't understand LOI
LOI fans don't understand GAA.

Why can't we all just get along.

A GAA club here in Cork rents out it's all-weather pitches to a number of local Soccer clubs on a regular basis and are quite happy to take their money. However when a few of these clubs wanted to get together to hold a charity tournament (for a sick young fella AFAIR but I'm not positive) they were told in no uncertain terms that there was no way that any 'foreign game' was holding a tournament on their premises. But yes they could still use the pitches for training!!!!! Hypocrites of the highest order.

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Originally Posted by kingdomkerry

There is'nt any kerry team in the loi but i still follow it because its my league.

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Do you not go and watch the Kerry League side when they play in the eL Cup and FAI Cup?

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Originally Posted by forza

A lot of members of a GAA club I was part of before I moved out of Dublin for a while attend Pats games players from this club also play football as well as GAA. Theres no ill feeling with any clubs or vice versa.

Also I know of some other clubs that even share facilities.

I find its mainly the older GAA members that provide barriers and who have the hardoned attitudes.

They'll eventually die off.

Any younger members I know or have coached tend to love any sort of sport and were encouraged to play whatever in our eyes keeping them off the street was just as important as fielding a team.

Its not uncommon to see young people in Ballyfermot DLS/Liffey Gaels jackets for example at Richmond and that has been the case for years.

At the end of the day sports clubs/associations should not be at war.

They should be all pushing for the one goal keeping children off the streets and away from drink and drugs.

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Agree with you there great post

in fairness the GAA have come a long way in recent years. they still have a way to travel particularly in Northern Ireland although the anti football stuff there is tied into a lot of other things. Guys like Kennedy in Thomas Davis would have been the norm a few years back but now they are isolated much more and in many ways figures of fun.

Football is already by far the biggest sport in the country albeit not LoI football. It's the biggest participant sport but unfortunately for fans of the domestic game this translates into people who play on a sunday morning and watch Man Utd or Liverpool from a barstool on sunday afternoon. They probably go to watch Dublin (or whoever) in the GAA championship as well.

GAA is by far the biggest spectator sport. I'd love it to be true but I don't see domestic football challenging the GAA from that perspective for a very long time. Unfortunately there are still far higher leves of football being played elsewhere whereas the best GAA players play here.

They days of broken glass being spread in goalmouths, goalposts being chopped down etc are gone. Even 10 years ago it would have been impossible to imagine football and rugby being played in Croke Park.

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Originally Posted by BohDiddley

What a pathetic defence. This one comes up in almost every thread citing GAA bigotry and only the most feeble-minded are taken in by it.
Football people in Ireland are exercised about GAA only insofar as that organization maintains the kind of attitude reported in the original post. You talk about the other side of the coin: where have you seen this level of ignorance aimed by a football person at GAA or any other sport at community level?

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My OPINION is pathetic is it? And for the record, I'd like to think i'm not feeble-minded, but fair. I hate bitterness, as I said earlier. Everyone should have the opportunity to participate in everything and, call me naive, but I'd like to see all sporting bodies strong and healthy, not to the detriment of others.

Where have I seen ignorance? In posts like "The GAA are bigots". Do mean to claim that something like that is a well-rounded, reasoned suggestion? I know some members who are bigoted, I know some members who aren't.

I'm sorry i got dragged into this

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Originally Posted by Rocky77

I'm sorry i got dragged into this

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If ever there was a motto for debates on Foot.ie :D

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Originally Posted by shedite

GAA fans don't understand LOI
LOI fans don't understand GAA.

Why can't we all just get along.

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I think the difference bewteen the two is that Football fans don't actively try to put GAA down

That GAA man sounds like a sap. Great fodder for the defenders of the faith on here and plenty of predictably overwrought responses.

Meanwhile real life goes on and I'll be meeting a bloke who has only just stopped celebrating the result of the GAA club finals at tonight's match.

I guess this would be a bad time to ask if anyone is heading to Crossmaglen to watch the Dubs this weekend.

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Originally Posted by sullanefc

The main thing that LOI clubs have to do, is to fight the good fight and continue to get involved in community projects. MNS is doing wonders as are the FAI funded promotion officers.

Keep up the good work.

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Well said.

LOI supporters sending critism the way of the GAA will only add fuel to the self-fabricated notion within the GAA that the "foreign" LOI is out to destroy the "Local, Patriotic, Poor" GAA.

MNS is doing wonders. And from what I hear and see of our own Club Promotion Officer, they are doing excellent work.

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Originally Posted by Jinxy

I guess this would be a bad time to ask if anyone is heading to Crossmaglen to watch the Dubs this weekend.

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The LOI branch of the Dublin GAA Supporters Club will be running a bus departing Parnell Square North @12 midday, next to the Dublin Orange Lodge GAA supporters bus.

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Originally Posted by shedite

Why can't we all just get along.

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Will someone please think of the children?

BTW we are all great!

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Originally Posted by pete

Will someone please think of the children?

BTW we are all great!

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accept of course those who are not..great

Are there many GAA members posting here? I get the impression there are a few at least.

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Originally Posted by Jinxy

Are there many GAA members posting here? I get the impression there are a few at least.

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Me.

But one who loves the game, but hates some of the organisation

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Originally Posted by gufcfan

Well said.

LOI supporters sending critism the way of the GAA will only add fuel to the self-fabricated notion within the GAA that the "foreign" LOI is out to destroy the "Local, Patriotic, Poor" GAA.

MNS is doing wonders. And from what I hear and see of our own Club Promotion Officer, they are doing excellent work.

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In all honesty, I don't think that many people involved in the GAA are afraid of the LOI.

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Originally Posted by micls

Me.

But one who loves the game, but hates some of the organisation

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Myself also. Bit ashamed to say so to be honest after reading the first post, but i have to say that i,m also a bit ashamed to call myself a loi fan also because of the hatred some guys have shown for the gaa in this thread! I hate the whole "us against them" approach taken by both sides and and would love if we had more fans like kingdomkerry who are just sports fans and just look forward to supporting their local team at the weekend no matter whether its gaelic/football, hurling, football/soccer etc!

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Originally Posted by Jinxy

In all honesty, I don't think that many people involved in the GAA are afraid of the LOI.

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Shamrock Rovers say hello

Tell them I said hello back. :confused:


Nice lads.

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Originally Posted by Réiteoir

Do you not go and watch the Kerry League side when they play in the eL Cup and FAI Cup?

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I live in Dublin, if they were playing one of the dublin clubs i would deffo try and go. They only play in the league cup. Dont think they every competed in the FAI cup. Hopefully they will do well in the league cup and people will start asking why they are not in the loi. Already knocked out waterford and got a handy draw against wexford youths in the next round...............

As a member of my local gaa club and as a regular at my local loi club, i have to say i dislike all this polarisation i see expressed on this site at times regarding the gaa.

there are indeed some lunatics within the gaa, and i'd hazard a guess the same percentage exists within some soccer clubs. but times are changing. im seeing good coordination between local gaa and soccer clubs regarding the arrangement of training and matches for juveniles. And if you wathced the amount of time and effort these people put into their respective clubs, you could only have respect for them.

I am all for people putting in hard work to their local community through sports, no matter which it is. It is all benefical to the the young and the community as a whole.
This is in stark contrast to the folk who exclusively follow an english football team and inject no contribution into their localities (bar the local pubs takings!!). If you want to be at odds with anyone regarding the loi, direct your attention at them folk.

Anyone ever read Fear of the Collar: My Terrifying Childhood in Artane by Patrick Touher? From reading this it is quite evident that the biggest crime a child could commit whilst there was playing 'soccer', shocking stuff. You'd think the denouncing of God or acting the maggot in class would be a bigger punishment than 'playing gah with your feet' :rolleyes:

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The GAA is dead. You heard it here first.

They are on the brink of tearing themselves apart over pay for play which has driven a huge wedge between the intercounty elite and the rank and file members.

If it wasn't for soccer, rugby and the Dubs Croke Park attendences were pitiful last year and are a sign of things to come.

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Utter nonsense. Like all sports, attendances go though peaks and troughs, personally I think there has definately been a fall in attendance but there were tens of thousands at many matches last year. Attendance are more than healthy and I don't see this changing any time soon. Yes there are issues over the grants but the issues GAa members have with HQ pale into insignificance compared with the volume of grumbles at the FAI regularly expressed on here.

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They're only motivation is money and being bigot's. I won't even go to an international until we move back into LR.

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A fair and rounded analysis there certainly.

As far the initial incident the thread started on goes, I think its a terrible attitude for anybody to have. Kids should be free to play the sports they want to play. Personally I think Gaelic football is better sport than soccer. Most people on here disagree and your entitled to your opinion.

While obviously all sports compete to a certain extent, they certainly don't need to be mutually exclusive

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Originally Posted by ashbournebohs

Funnily enough my daughters were doing football coaching in school for a few weeks.Gaelic football of course.......They then told me that they were going on a school trip.... to Croke Park and were being encouraged to wear jersies on the trip.Steeling myself to fork out for two Gaa jersies i was delighted when without any input from me my 2 lasses both piped out at the same time.."dont bother Dad we are wearing our Bohs jersies"
Legends in the making and i might even stump up for a camera for them

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Great story.:D

I bet there was a tear in your eye when your very well bought up daughters said that.

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Originally Posted by Rocky77

My OPINION is pathetic is it? And for the record, I'd like to think i'm not feeble-minded, but fair. I hate bitterness, as I said earlier. Everyone should have the opportunity to participate in everything and, call me naive, but I'd like to see all sporting bodies strong and healthy, not to the detriment of others.

Where have I seen ignorance? In posts like "The GAA are bigots". Do mean to claim that something like that is a well-rounded, reasoned suggestion? I know some members who are bigoted, I know some members who aren't.

I'm sorry i got dragged into this

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The FAI and IRFU have never banned the GAA from using their stadiums (the GAA would barely exsist for the ex-pat community if it wasn't for Football, Rugby and Cricket allowing GAA teams to use their grounds). The FAI and IRFU have never banned their players from playing GAA controlled games. You are not comparing the relative positions of the sporting organisations when trying to make out that they're as bad as each other.

I don't know any League of Ireland supporter who would try to block any link with any other sporting organisation happens with the GAA, such as in the case above. I'm as anti-GAA as they come, but I think children should have access to as many sports as possible, with the sporting organisations working together to achieve that aim. It shouldn't be about getting exclusivity at underage level, and in my experience and knowledge that is what the GAA wants.

In rural parishes that I would be aware of the GAA deliberatly scheduled underage training and matches to disrupt the football teams - until the kids started picking football first though. I'm also aware of someone being forced out of a high up position for allowing a GAA hall (a different issue, but the money was raised under the pretences of it being a community centre) to be used for Under 10 five a side.

So Rocky, make fair comparisons. Make it fair based on the relative strength of the organisations involved. Make it fair based on actions in the real world, not based on what people say on a football forum. To use the tired old cliche, you are comparing apples and oranges.

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Originally Posted by Macy

So Rocky, make fair comparisons. Make it fair based on the relative strength of the organisations involved. Make it fair based on actions in the real world, not based on what people say on a football forum. To use the tired old cliche, you are comparing apples and oranges.

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To be fari Macy, he hasn't tried to compare the FAI with the GAA, at local or national level.


His 2 posts so far-

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Originally Posted by Rocky77

Bad form alright, I can never understand the paranoia that prevails in irish sport. Kids should have the choice of playing any sport they like. I grew up in a rural area and was severely restricted in this regard.

However, and I ask this in deadly earnest, is the person who made that remark any worse than some of the people who post similar sentiments on these forums, albeit from the other side of the coin?

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Originally Posted by Rocky77

My OPINION is pathetic is it? And for the record, I'd like to think i'm not feeble-minded, but fair. I hate bitterness, as I said earlier. Everyone should have the opportunity to participate in everything and, call me naive, but I'd like to see all sporting bodies strong and healthy, not to the detriment of others.

Where have I seen ignorance? In posts like "The GAA are bigots". Do mean to claim that something like that is a well-rounded, reasoned suggestion? I know some members who are bigoted, I know some members who aren't.

I'm sorry i got dragged into this

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The only comparison he makes is to say that the bile spewed by that GAA guy in the original post isn't confined to the GAA, and that some members of this forum have been guilty of spewing similar bile. And a few of the posts in this thread and other GAA-related threads would back up that suggestion.

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Originally Posted by HolylandsMan

Personally I think Gaelic football is better sport than soccer. Most people on here disagree and your entitled to your opinion.

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I've no idea how gaelic football could be seen as better than football (if it was hurling I could see your point), at least from a spectator point of view. They've had well over a hundred years and still haven't managed to define the tackle yet.

Also, every unpunished off the ball punch, headbutt or kick reduces the integrity of the game. The old joke about going to a fight and seeing an ice hockey game breaking out is now more appropriate to the GAA.

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Originally Posted by HolylandsMan

While obviously all sports compete to a certain extent, they certainly don't need to be mutually exclusive

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I suggest you try and spread that message around the GAA. It was on exactly that basis (ie mutual exclusivity) that the GAA was founded and thrived.

Did anyone see the new GAA football manager program last night?

I was in a friends house and they were watching it. Anyway, Mary O' Rourke TD said that when the GAA calls, you answer, just like the nurses or the INTO. She said she was speaking as a member of a rural community. A very interesting comment which gives a clear indication of the power of the organisation outside the major cities.

A 'nice' new reality type program promoting GAA football on a Sunday evening.

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Originally Posted by osarusan

The only comparison he makes is to say that the bile spewed by that GAA guy in the original post isn't confined to the GAA, and that some members of this forum have been guilty of spewing similar bile. And a few of the posts in this thread and other GAA-related threads would back up that suggestion.

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On threads, on a message board. Not in a meeting about getting a school support from sporting organisations, or whilst trying to organise more sport for children. Can you really not see the difference to opinions posted, on a football forum at that, to what happens in the real world? Which is what I was getting at.

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Originally Posted by reder

A 'nice' new reality type program promoting GAA football on a Sunday evening

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Yes, we now have them spending millions on GAA rights, millions on GAA sponsorship of the same thing they have the rights too, and now prime time sunday evening promotion. At the same time, we're told there isn't the money to cover the 1st division of the League of Ireland, and many other sports get even less coverage. Why don't they just go the whole hog and let the GAA collect the licence fee direct?