It really is. If I had such a stook acting like that in my club Iâd lose my shit.
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So they will
Thats totally false. Anthony Foley was firstly a munster rugby man but to claim that he was a limerick man in terms of gaa is bollix.
He was a killaloe man.
If his family get some solace from a campaign to win this thing then good luck to them
It is obvious that its not Clares greatest sporting moment if it was selected by a panel of experts sitting in a studio reviewing footage , but as a moment in time and reflecting how munster rugby people and east clare gaa people feel about the foley family its a great result. The fact that two of the foley family chose to marry scariff people is, of course, further testimony as regards their solid character
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I really dont have a problem with that to be honest. Shane was a bit peeved and reacted in a peeved fashion. I dont think he has a particular hatred of Clare so much as he enjoyed needling clare supporters as any real tipp fan would enjoy. I certainly have no issue with his journalism on Clare as the truth is we underachieved.
He did make the claim that he hasnt been on line recently so it should be fun in a week or so to ask him when is the clare video coming out
Personally i thought my john fogarty tweet was much more enjoyable
Clare is Rugby Country
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The home of Irish rubby.
Confusion surrounds Clareâs Centre of ExellenceIf the county board are unwilling to get to the bottom of how the supportersâ club spent funds then it is up to Croke Park to find the answers
Clare county board have remained silent over revelations about player welfare and its half-finished Centre of Excellence
INPHO/DONALL FARMER
Michael Foley
Sunday March 21 2021, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
In the run-in to last Monday nightâs monthly meeting of the Clare county board, the section of the agenda detailing any other business appeared to be overflowing. Since last monthâs gathering, the difficulties faced by Clare hurling manager Brian Lohan coping with basic welfare issues like paying hotel bills and finding fields to train on had been teased out in public alongside the return on the âŹ5m spent on Caherlohan, Clareâs half-finished Centre of Excellence, in parallel with the vexed business of establishing whether the board had any control in the past decade over the operations of different editions of the Clare supportersâ club.
But the reaction to all that last Monday was deadening, like a handball rebounding limply against a haystack. Once the new, independent review committee to produce a five-year-strategic plan for Clare was finalised and approved by delegates, Brian Torpey from Tulla called on Clare GAAâs own auditors âto investigate this terrible story in the media about the supportersâ fund, the money where it is gathered and spent.
âI have no reason to see it was spent inappropriately,â he said. âThe only way to kill rumour is through fact. Letâs address this story and not wait for this committee, letâs bite the bullet.â
The response was silence, not a single reply from any delegate or member of the county executive. There were no questions on the treatment of Lohan or the hurlers, and no requests for clarification on any previous or planned works at the Caherlohan complex. The relationship between the county board and Club Clare or any previous version of the supportersâ club was also left unexplored.
Clare might be obliged to provide that clarity in time. Last week the GAA confirmed its national audit and risk committee â charged with ensuring good governance and financial oversight â will examine issues raised by Clare GAAâs admissions last weekend that supportersâ clubs have been run without any oversight from the board.
âThe current [historically and present] supportersâ clubs are outside of the Clare county board, and its audit committee,â said last weekendâs statement. â[They] are independent and accountable only to their members.â
A statement from the GAA last weekend said âall entities raising funds in the name of the association should operate under the control of the relevant county committee, with their accounts incorporated into the county committee accounts. If separate accounts are produced, they should be circulated with the county accounts at the annual county convention.â
None of that was established practice in Clare before 2017. The Clare Supporters Club that operated during Davy Fitzgeraldâs time as Clare hurling manager until 2016 used the Clare crest and the official GAA logo on banners, stationery and other fundraising related material. It identified itself with Clare GAA despite having no ties to the organisation.
When Fitzgerald left in 2016, establishing Club Clare followed that December with all the trappings of transparency. Prominent figures from local politics and business, including John Kerin, Garda chief superintendent, were also sought to serve on the committee. In 2017, Club Clare presented fully audited accounts to delegates at Clare GAAâs annual convention. The following year the group wasnât given the opportunity to publicly share its accounts at convention, despite GAA rules insisting they must be distributed. Instead, Club Clare printed flyers for subsequent corporate events featuring detailed breakdowns of their fundraising and expenditure.
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When dealing with questions around money raised by the supportersâ club in his time, Fitzgerald also insisted in his most recent autobiography that âevery single centâ raised by the Clare supportersâ club went to the senior and underage teams and directed doubters to âask the audit committeeâ and âask the county board,â even though Clare GAA had no formal financial oversight in place. An email from the supportersâ club in October 2013 to a potential donor revealed in last weekendâs Sunday Times also established clear water between itself and the board.
âThe whole âsupportersâ clubâ entity is a tricky one,â it said. âWe operate independently of the county boards and the GAA in reality. We are designed and set up to help the senior hurling team financially. Davy [Fitzgerald, then Clare manager] and a voluntary committee run the supportersâ club and we are not only non-profit, we [are] also under the radar.
âWe donât really want to go down the road of audits,â the email added.
That lack of clarity lies at the heart of all Clareâs problems. On Sunday afternoon Eoin Conroy, chief executive of Titan Experience, a sports marketing and events agency, and a member of Clareâs new strategic review committee, faced questions on radio about the future for Clare GAA in light of the revelations.
âI would be very surprised not to see Croke Park or the Munster Council sooner rather than later intervene here,â he said. â[They likely will] start asking the questions and talk to those that are accountable to get the answers. Maybe it is a Croke Park intervention that is needed here to address what is going on.â
If anything arises that requires further investigation there is plenty of recent precedent for greater intervention. In 2018 an independent audit was carried out on Croke Parkâs behalf by Mazars on the finances of Galway GAA, which highlighted no oversight of financial policies in previous years and numerous examples of âpoor practiceâ. The report detailed 39 findings, with attached recommendations. Seventeen of those were deemed by the auditors as âhigh riskâ.
In turn a statement from Supermacs, Galwayâs sponsors, outlined the money invested by the firm in the previous three years and asked straight questions about where the money was spent. Croke Park also deployed a staff member to work with Galway GAA, installing protocols that would ensure best practice in future.
In 2019, representatives of Mayo GAA were summoned to Croke Park over governance and finance issues arising from Mayo GAAâs link with the Mayo GAA International Supportersâ Foundation, an independent fundraising body founded by UK businessman Tim OâLeary. While the foundation were withholding âŹ250,000 raised at a gala dinner in New York earlier this year âuntil appropriate governance structures are put in placeâ in Mayo GAA, concerns were also raised over records detailing the spending of âŹ150,000 donated by OâLeary towards the preparation of the Mayo senior footballers in 2018. Since then, the foundation has been disbanded as Mayo installed their own audit and risk committee and consolidated all their fundraising under the Cairde Mhaigh Eo banner, with oversight from the county board.
A new logo has been designed in the past month and this week Club Clare will launch family and individual memberships. Arrangements are also in place to meet with the county board treasurer to provide again fully audited accounts between 2017 and 2019, with 2020 figures to follow.
This autumn the GAA will debate a motion at special congress to establish audit and risk committees in every county and province to promote greater vigilance and best practice around governance and finances. Clare arenât the only county with questions to address, but they must provide their own answers.
If they canât, the GAA need to find them.
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There seems to be a theme here; all GAA administrators West of the Shannon are cowboys
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Picking away at that scab now, the gaa wonât be able to ignore it
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Damn all happened with the Mayo one for a finish, and there was a lot more in that pot
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The Sunday Times are doing great work here.
Theyâve been tipping around the place at this Clare thing for about 6 weeks now and have got little or no traction.
They canât lay a glove on the Fitzgeraldâs.
Itâll be death by a thousand cuts. Just like Delaney.
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You donât get it fella
Looks like it will be coming to a head sooner rather than later now. No harm either.
Itâs an awful serious of whispers to have hanging over a County Board and Iâm baffled that anyone involved currently is happy to let it rumble on.
Itâs only taking up column inches because there are no games to talk about.
From the Cork Examiner.
Former Clare manager Ger Loughnane says he is concerned the county will âtopple into hurling irrelevanceâ.
Calling on Banner supporters to join Club Clare to financially assist the countyâs hurling teams, the 1995 and â97 All-Ireland winning boss says the county is in trouble.
Recalling the 2013 All-Ireland U21 and senior successes, Loughnane writes in an open letter: âLooking on from the stand, I can still recall the joy I felt and the confidence I had that the future of Clare hurling was secure.
"Two weeks later that future looked to be copper fastened when our young team brilliantly captured the MacCarthy Cup. "That September we were the envy of every other hurling county in the land.
âNow, less than eight years later, we are in disarray, so much so that the gap between us and our main competitors is widening at a frightening rate.
"The big worry now is that this gap will develop into a chasm through which we will topple into hurling irrelevance.â
Referring to reports of unaudited fundraising in the county, Loughnane continued: âI fully understand peopleâs suspicion of supporters clubs due to recent revelations but Club Clare is completely different. Club Clare has both structure and governance. Most importantly, it is comprised of quality people who are completely genuine in their concern for the future of the games in Clare.
âUniquely, it contains two outstanding women and is committed to the development of hurling and camogie, which is the way that all GAA activities of the future should be.â
Loughnaneâs letter has been published just as a Club Clare promotional video featuring the likes of current manager Brian Lohan, All-Ireland winning captain Anthony Daly and two-time All-Star Brendan Bugler has been released.
Loughnane adds: âIt is in time of crisis that we are all most tested and the fact that, in these trying times, such quality people have put their heads above the parapet and are prepared to give the much-needed leadership, gives me hope once again for the future. But they need the help of all of us. I urge you to give them that help.â
Club Clare chairperson is Pat Keogh (Newmarket-on-Fergus) and secretary is former Minister for Defence Tony Killeen. Lohan is also on the committee along with his brother and fellow former Clare defender Frank, Caroline OâConnor (treasurer), Deirdre Murphy, two-time All-Star Johnny Callinan, Peter Casey, Eoin Conroy, Kieran McDermott, Tadhg Collin, Tommy Corbett and John Lenihan.
âFor Godâs sake give a little. It would help a lot.â
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