[QUOTE=âmyboyblue, post: 1039807, member: 180â][SIZE=6]Joe Brolly: Just a Derry f**ker[/SIZE]
on November 2, 2014 4:33 pm /
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SUITED AND BOOTED⌠But is it for the good of the GAA as an Association?
The senior inter-county game is sucking the life out of the GAA. There are only a few teams who can realistically compete for honours in either code.
There are only around 2,000 senior county players, of whom roughly 10% have a chance of winning a major honour.
Meanwhile, there are almost one million GAA members in the country and around 100,000 men playing senior club football or hurling.
The county game used to be the icing on the cake. Now, it is a sprawling commercial colossus that dominates the calendar, leaving the clubs to feed on the scraps.
The GPA are the poster boys for this new commercialism. They are an autonomous body with their own Chief Executive.
His salary is secret, described as âcommercially sensitiveâ. It is funded by the GAA to the tune of âŹ8.75m over five years, an agreement that runs until 2016.
On top of that, it is free to pursue its own commercial activities, the only caveat being that those activities must not conflict with the GAAâs commercial interests.
The core ideals of the wider GAA are volunteerism, amateurism and participation.
The GPAâs principles meanwhile (funded by us) are elitism and the promotion of the individual. They saw (and see) the GAA as a cash cow, rife for commercial exploitation for the few and they are right.
A few high profiled players have become human advertising hoardings.
The top brass make regular junkets abroad, in the manner of the CEO of Tesco or Goldman Sachs. Their annual dinner is an opulent affair, staged in New York, as you do.
On the 2nd of October 2014, a lavish transatlantic banquet was held by the GPA at the New York Plaza. The guests of honour were Tom Moore, partner in the vast billion dollar medical malpractice law firm KDLM and Mike Brewster of Credit Suisse.
According to the GPAâs website, The âdinner committeeâ was âco-chaired by Adrian Jones, managing director of Goldman Sachs.â
The GPA have been popping up at disaster sites in New York, shovels in hand and photographers at the ready. It is a world away from the GAA.
Recently, the GPAâs CEO Dessie Farrell announced a commercial deal with the GPAâs new âofficial suit partnersâ Best Menswear, featuring three stars of the county game dressed, it must be said, like Doctor Who.
David Jones of Best Menswear commmented: â When we look at these players, all young, super-fit, handsome, healthy men in their prime, who by their very nature are differing sizes and body shapes, we know our challenge is to deliver a team that reflects their All-Star quality and professionalism, that is turned out to perfection, that looks as sublimely good as they play.â Stop the world and let me off.
[B]A fortnight ago, Colm OâRourke criticised the GPA for their elitism and was subjected to a co-ordinated backlash that would have done the Isreali lobby proud.
It was revealed by him on Sunday that the source of the attacks was a group text sent by the GPA to its reps around the country, all of whom are on generous expenses, funded by us.
It read âBoys, Colm OâRourke is having a serious cut off the GPA today, Iâm going to send you on a small graphic showing what we have done this year, anything you can do on Twitter in response greatly appreciated. Meath F*ckerâ[/B]
Their piety, self applause and preciousness is truly nauseating. But most telling is their hysterical response to criticism.
In their vision of the GAA, participation is irrelevant. If you are a great county Gaelic footballer or hurler they can do business with you. The ideals of the GAA however mean nothing.
In a propoganda piece in Sundayâs Independent, Dessie Farrell wrote that the GPAâs central aim is âto ensure that the county player no longer commits to the game at the expense of his personal development.â
He went on to say â The GPA has not just made people âaware of mental healthâ â it has saved playersâ lives.â
Well, the Derry team I played on didnât need the GPA to save us from the horrors of county football. With the normal caveats around human life, all of the group are more or less flourishing.
School principals, Chief Executives, the professionals, contractors, entrepreneurs etc. The same broadly applies to the lads I played against. The reality is that we were always the privileged ones.
As for âsaving livesâ, this is a dangerous and distasteful boast. There is no doubt that any awareness around mental health is very very welcome and the GPAâs work in this regard has been very good.
Donal Og has been a most articulate advocate for this and is, in one sense, an impressive man. It is also true that three county footballers have had in-patient treatment in addicition facilities fully funded by the GPA.
But, in the end, the GPAâs role is extremely limited and they ought not use it as a sort of moral blackmail against criticism.
[B]In GAA communities around Ireland we are dealing with addiction and mental health problems day in day out.
I have been asked to go see so many young people with problems that I take guidance from an expert counsellor at the Northlands Centre and a consultant psychiatrist with whom I work closely in the law courts.
Even for them, mental health and addiction can be a mystery. Which is why I wince when the GPA makes such gauche claims.[/B]
My problem with the GPA is that they are a capitalist outfit like any other, living amongst us and confusing the GAA message.
The GAA, with around a million members, is the pre-eminent community organisation in Ireland.
But we are a sleeping giant, with vast untapped potential to expand our social, cultural and even political work to ensure a better, more just society.
[B]The GPA does a little charity work, which is fine. There are a couple of UNICEF ambassadors and some support for good causes. Itâs a bit like Madonnaâs charity work.
Optforlife is a living, working example of a charity. We are on the go two years. We based it on the GAA ideals. We do not accept donations or handle money. We are volunteers. No salaries. No expenses. Love thy neighbour and all of that.
In that time, we have spread through the land and the logo, crafted for nothing by a friend who lost a child, is on the shirts of a couple of hundred club teams. We have driven all over the country.
In January, we did a deal with the Taoiseach for a fit for purpose organ donation/transplant infrastructure which includes nineteen full time organ donation personnel. The cost? Just slightly more than the GPAâs annual budget. The cost of optforlife? Zero.[/B]
Awareness of organ donation has rocketed. The community benefit is immeasurable. When I see its impact so far, I see clearly the impact a revitalised, community focussed GAA could have on our society. For the many, not the few.
This drift towards capitalism and the creation of an elite game has resulted in the club members and club players which make up 99.9% of the GAA being screwed.
Clubs are left in an annual limbo that is seriously damaging participation. The priority for county boards, with the Board at Jonesâ Road turning a blind eye, is to get the club championships disposed of as quickly as possible. But more than that, it has continued the process of corroding our ideals and moving the GAA down the road of unchecked capitalism.
The GAA must start by rebalancing the fixtures in favour of the 99.9%. After that, it must look to the bigger picture, or it will be too late. Community will give way to individualism and weâll be left with the GPA.
What would I know? Iâm just a Derry f**ker.
- See more at: http://gaeliclife.com/2014/11/just-a-derry-fker/#sthash.q4OGjq2F.dpuf[/QUOTE]
He has a point about the elitism and the individualist ethos the GPA seems to push, but the rest of it is an aimless rant.
Brolly plays a character on television who routinely trashes both individuals and teams in a sensationalist and often unsavoury manner as a form of entertainment. He has no moral high-ground here.
