Official reticence won't end objections

RULE 42: It appears that there will be no official explanation of the decision to disallow discussion of the eight Rule 42 motions at next month's GAA congress.

Danny Lynch, association PRO and acting Director General at last week's Motions Committee meeting, said yesterday: "The decision was taken to rule the motions out of order. There will be no further comment on the matter beyond the statement released on Monday."

In the absence of further elaboration all that is known about the reasons behind the controversial barring of the motions is that they were deficient for not citing correctly the number of other rules affected by any change to Rule 42. The only such rules referred to on Monday were 5, 43, 44 and 142 but it has since been added that the list was not intended to be exhaustive. "Those rules referred to were amongst others," said Lynch.

GAA president Seán Kelly also said the failure to provide a proposed amendment for Rule 5 - as distinct from just citing it in the amendment - was another reason for it being ruled out of order.

When three years ago the Kilmore club in Roscommon first proposed its motion that Central Council take authority for the use of Croke Park, the Motions Committee added the bit about Rule 5 being amended accordingly. Skip the fact that the past presidents (who overwhelmingly make up the Motions Committee) obviously felt the rule needed no more than a citation - a view that has since been revised - and ask instead what possible relevance Rule 5 has to the matter.

Rule 5 Dedication: "The Association and its resources shall be used for and dedicated solely to the above (general) aims."

So the question becomes: what in the devolution of authority for the use of Croke Park to Central Council rather than Congress is in conflict with the aims of the GAA? These are the aims (Rule 1 is simply the name):

Rule 2 Basic Aim: The Association is a National organisation, which has as its basic aim the strengthening of the national identity in a 32-county Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic games and pastimes.

Rule 3 National Games: The Association shall promote and control the national games of hurling, Gaelic football, handball and rounders and such other games as may be sanctioned and approved by annual congress.

Rule 4 Additional Aims: (a) The association shall actively support the Irish language, traditional Irish dancing, music, song and other aspects of Irish culture. It shall foster an awareness and love of the national ideals in the people of Ireland and assist in promoting a community spirit through its clubs (b) The association shall support the promotion of camogie and women's Gaelic football (c) The association shall support Irish industry. All trophies and playing equipment shall be of Irish manufacture. Irish paper shall be used for all official documents and correspondence. Documents not complying shall be ruled out of order.

The only light cast so far on the thinking of the Motions Committee came in an interview with past president Jack Boothman in the Examiner newspaper.

"The way I look at it, Rule 5 is policy, Rule 42 is mechanics," he said. "In other words, if Rule 5 is changed, Rule 42 doesn't need to because Central Council has the power (in Rule 42) to use our facilities for activities not in competition with the policies of the GAA. If Rule 5 is changed, to say that rugby and soccer are not in competition with the aims and ideals of the association, there would be no problem with Rule 42. It's as simple as that, but they don't have to courage to say it."

The point here presumably is that soccer and rugby are in conflict with the above aims. How? Because the hosting of the occasional international would interfere with the promotion of Gaelic games? The internationals are going to be played anyway so rugby and soccer will get the same exposure, which in any event derives mostly from television. And rental income under any agreement would go towards the funding of the GAA's aims.

Does staging a World Cup soccer match at Croke Park undermine Gaelic games any more than staging Garth Brooks or Neil Diamond undermines traditional music, as referred to in 4 (a)? Did that require an amendment to the Official Guide stating that cheesy MOR troubadours are not in competition with the aims and ideals of the association? There is a difference between being in competition with Gaelic games and being in competition with the GAA's aims and ideals.

The issue of 32-county representation has also been raised in the context of the Republic of Ireland soccer team. Rule 2 can't reasonably be interpreted that way. It refers to "strengthening of the national identity in a 32-county Ireland through (my italics) the preservation and promotion of Gaelic games" - an ideal well vindicated by the 32-county structure of the GAA.

Croke Park is quite happy to lease function rooms in the new stadium to Government departments, each one as blameless a creature of partition as the national soccer team. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Rule 5 is nothing more than a red herring in this controversy.