Waterford Hurling (now incorporating intermediate football) 2013 and subsequent years

[Malarkey]

@EstebanSexface

Of course it would. Children are different to teenagers. You’re defending this nonsense and your only argument is that I’m making a show of myself

I haven’t mentioned soccer outside the context or tried to defend the FAI. You haven’t been rational since you waded in

Do you not see wrong in this? Straight question

How many ways do you want me to say the same thing? I have no personal problem with youngsters, of whatever age, playing soccer or whatever in a GAA facility. That Rubicon has long since been crossed. The person who contacted the GAA over the issue had very little to be doing.

My problem is with people like you, people who appear to think Joe Public somehow ‘owns’ every GAA ground in the country (via that spurious ‘Exchequer’ line). Vested GAA grounds are private property and the GAA – same as every other sport in Ireland – is under no obligation to promote other codes. Here, the GAA is merely the same as every other sports organization and not in any way different. You are asking of the GAA what you would not ask of any other sports organization, which essentially makes you a bigot. What I am pointing out – to your obvious discomfort – is the clear double standard involved. Showjumping and cycling etc.

Hate the GAA away – I suspect, like other soccer heads I have run across, you think being ‘anti Gah’ gives you some sort of contrarian kudos. But do not think you are anything but a bigot.

We all saw what happened over the Liam Miller Testimonial. We all heard the comments by the likes of Damien Duff and Stephen Kenny. They excoriated the GAA in terms that would have been pilloried if any other sports organization had been in question. The GAA was basically bullied by a media mob into opening up a ground. You can perfectly well agree with the ground being used but deplore the means by which the ground was obtained.

Yet we were told back in the mid 2000s, after rugby and soccer had been played in Croke Park, such comments would never be heard again. The GAA, we were told by idiots such as Martin Breheny, was moving into a brave new era. The GAA would be reap, we were told, a windfall of changed attitudes and perceptions.

So why did we hear, a dozen and more years later, those comments from the likes of Duff and Kenny? Those comments were as if rugby and soccer had never been played in Croke Park. I predicted at the time exactly what transpired. There is a bedrock of hatred regarding the GAA and this seam will always be there, as this thread is proving once more.

The really interesting facet is how little criticism Bohemian FC have received for a lack of facilities.