Chairman warns against behind-the-scenes ‘games’

BEHIND-the-scenes moves to change GAA fixtures in Clare will not be tolerated. That was the warning issued by county board chairman Michael McDonagh at the March meeting of the board, which was held on Tuesday night at the West County Hotel, Ennis.
“There is a massive amount of games going on in relation to the fixtures, games that I don’t want to be part of. I know what I am talking about. I have friends all around the county and I know exactly what is happening. As county board chairman, I won’t allow myself to be brought down to a level that is not acceptable,” McDonagh said.

He was replying to a letter from Parteen GAA Club, which questioned the voting process in relation to the master fixtures plan at the previous meeting, before requesting that the delegates be asked to revert to the original master fixtures proposal.

“We have to make a decision now, either we go ahead or we change. It’s up to ye. If we don’t do something to protect our clubs and our teams, there is no way the clubs will survive or that anyone will sit up here as an officer of the board because I won’t. I am saying it straight to ye now about the games going on here for the last two months or the last month. It’s not the Clare County Board ye have to worry about. I am not going to be party to it,” the chairman said.

The letter from Parteen looked for “confirmation on the voting process from the last meeting”.

“As widely circulated in the press and through many online forums, it appears that the rule for club delegates voting was not followed and that some clubs had four votes. My understanding is that every club has one vote and if a club is dual registered, they are entitled to two votes. If this is correct, then I would submit that the vote is not valid and be marked void and that we revert back to the original master fixtures draft,” the South-East Clare club secretary, Chris Ryan wrote.

“We as a club and many others in the county need to have some confirmation of the master fixtures. The new proposal is to bring the August championship game into the June 29-30 weekend, if Clare progress. It is a ridiculous situation to put clubs and the county team in, not knowing until June 22/23 when your club has their second championship game. With just six days notice, this is not the right approach for club games in the county. I would suggest we either set June 28/29 as the date now or revert back to the original draft.

“My club preference and that of many other clubs would be to revert back to the original draft. While the championship has a long break between the first and second games, this is better for clubs than six days notice. While the gap between the first and second games is not ideal, it gives every club the chance to still be playing championship hurling as the summer comes to an end.

“A lot of clubs could have no hurling if the championship’s first two games are run off by June. It would make for a long summer for clubs. It is very unfair to clubs to have just six days notice of a second-round championship game,” the Parteen secretary stated.

“The vote was very clear-cut and the fixtures should stand,” Clonlara’s Flan Mullane told the meeting.
McDonagh told the meeting that he was “happy with the vote and it stands”.

He asked if any delegate wished to comment on the Parteen letter and there was no response.

“We put a master fixtures committee in place and they put a plan together. The plan went back to the clubs on two occasions and was discussed. We have to make a decision now, either we go ahead or we change,” according to the board chairman. “Ye can change now, ye are the clubs but come in here and say it straight to my face and straight to everybody else’s face. I got this letter this evening at 6pm as I was coming in to a county board meeting. It’s not good enough. The meeting was a month ago. Protect the clubs and the county and do it in a way that is above board and honourable or forget about it.

“There is no way I have the tools to take on the silent few that are acting in a different capacity to what we want to do. There is no way I will put my family or anybody else through it. Anybody that has something to say, say it to our faces and to my face and we will discuss it. We will then walk out that door and be right happy,” the chairman said.

“I am going to go with what the clubs have said. I would have voted for going with the games one after another and I would have taken on Munster Council. That didn’t work that way and I am going to go with what the clubs have said,” McDonagh concluded.