News:Tipperary's new football board chairman Noel Morris has called on Seán Kelly to apologise to former GAA presidents for the "hurt" he caused them with comments made at Annual Congress in Killarney in 2004.
The then-president Kelly, the leading figure in the abolition of Rule 42, vowed to keep fighting for the opening up of Croke Park to other codes, despite opposition from past presidents and other leading figures on the issue.
At the time, Kelly was a member of the Motions Committee, made of up of former presidents, which meets to discuss the various motions due for discussion at Annual Congress.
Motions on Rule 42 had been blocked previously before making the official clár and Kelly could not disguise his displeasure when addressing delegates in 2004, a year before the vote to open Croke Park to soccer and rugby internationals.
Former Tipperary county board chairman Morris, after taking over as the county's football board chair on Thursday evening, chose to revisit the debate.
Morris said: "Two years prior to the removal of Rule 42, at Congress in Killarney, the president Seán Kelly, who is a good friend of mine, made a remark on that particular day in his speech. He was asked how many enemies he had in the association.
"He phrased it by saying: 'Have I 50, have I 30, have I 15?' 'No', he said, 'I have 10'. They were the 10 ex-presidents and (at the time) he was finding it hard to get the motion on the clár.
"Those people were very hurt by that remark and two of them (Séamus O'Riain and Con Murphy) have since left this earth and taken their hurt with them. I would appeal to Seán Kelly, knowing the human individual that he is, to apologise for that remark."
Meanwhile, opponents of the player grants scheme are to hold a second meeting next week. The campaigners will meet in the Cavan Crystal Hotel next Wednesday in a bid to further strengthen the growing opposition to the scheme approved by the GAA.
