The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Clonlara delegate Mike Hogan told the meeting he had been asked by supporters to raise the issue of stewarding arrangements at Cusack Park for last Saturday’s All-Ireland hurling and football qualifers.
“A four-year-old was refused entry at the stile with his father and was directed to another stile. There was a similar situation with another supporter, who defied the steward and took his son through with him,” he said.
“Clare County Board had nothing to do with the fixture and are not allowed to look after such fixtures. Our stewards were not in charge of their own destiny. Munster Council were in charge and they should learn a lesson from this. They must facilitate people, otherwise they are turning them away from the game,” county board chairman Michael McDonagh said.
He went on to tell the meeting, “The wife of a mentor with our football team wasn’t allowed to bring her young child in with her. I brought them in and put them into the VIP area, where there were seats available after people had departed following the hurling game.
“At the previous match in Limerick, I brought the mother of a player into the area where I was and where there was seating because she was positioned behind a pole and could not see the game. I got my backside slapped for this,” the Clare chairman added, before asking the Clonlara delegate to advise the board who the people who experienced difficulty were.
“We will invite them to our county final and if they are in Thurles on Saturday, we will arrange for those young fellas to meet the Clare management and team,” he said.
Secretary Pat Fitzgerald suggested, “These people should write to the body in charge of running this fixture outlining what happened”.
Cooraclare’s Seán Chambers told the meeting he “saw worse at the previous game in Cusack Park [Clare v Cork in football]”.
“A grandmother approached me after their grandchild was sent to another stile. That child was about two-and-a-half and was quite distressed.”
“Some of these stewards are like programmed robots. They have no common sense,” St Joseph’s delegate Joe McNamara claimed.
Treasurer Bernard Keane told the meeting that control of last week’s fixture was directed from Croke Park and implemented by Munster Council.
“There has to be more dialogue between Munster and Clare County Board. This was the first time I got abused by a steward, not from this county, at a fixture in Cusack Park,” Clare officer John Fawl claimed.
“If this continues, there will be no-one going to games. Fixtures in Cusack Park should be controlled by Clare GAA and Clare stewards, who are the best in the country, just as fixtures in Limerick should be controlled by Limerick and so on,” concluded McDonagh.
