Opening Croke Park

It may well be that the decision by the Gaelic Athletic Association not to debate the use of Croke Park is a wise one although…

It may well be that the decision by the Gaelic Athletic Association not to debate the use of Croke Park is a wise one although it is not certain that such was the intention.

The prospect of acrimonious debate and bitter invective at next month's GAA annual congress in Killarney was causing alarm at the highest levels of the association.

Of the two issues at the heart of the current controversy, the abrupt disqualification of eight motions to amend in various ways Rule 42 (the provision used to prevent soccer and rugby being played in Croke Park) is of less public interest. Certainly for members of the GAA the arbitrary rejection of these motions (despite the lengths counties went to in order to ensure their proposals were in order) and its preposterous justification make a laughing stock of Congress as an annual exercise in democracy. But that's not for the first time and hardly for the last. The extent to which the association at large wishes to reconsider its own internal structures is a matter for the membership.

The disbursement of Government money is not, however, a private matter. Many have questioned the granting of significant public funds to an organisation that so frequently and unapologetically upholds exclusion in its rules. In fact, the Government was quietly satisfied at the lack of public outcry when €38 million promised to Croke Park was abruptly withheld. In fairness to the GAA, its work amongst its own large community has been socially invaluable and the redevelopment of Croke Park was a brave undertaking at a time when there were no plans for national stadia on the public agenda. Subsidising this work is justifiable, particularly given the largesse recently extended to other sports in the form of massive Government investment in the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

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What the association's advocates frequently overlook is that rugby and soccer - for all that they are large, professional sports in competition with Gaelic games - do not enshrine exclusion in their rules. Neither is this point abstract moralising. Realpolitik suggests that the Government will feel itself politically incapable of handing over substantial sums from the public purse until the GAA can give some positive indications on the prospects of "putting up the Fáilte sign over Croke Park".

The postponement of next month's debate might allow more breathing space. But the issue of opening Croke Park and the related matter of Government funding for the GAA will have to be addressed before the bulldozers move in on Lansdowne Road and leave the GAA with the only stadium in town.