Careful now.
defamatory statement” means a statement that tends to injure a
person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society,
and “defamatory” shall be construed accordingly;
16.—(1) It shall be a defence (to be known and in this Act
referred to as the “defence of truth”) to a defamation action for the
defendant to prove that the statement in respect of which the action
was brought is true in all material respects.
(2) In a defamation action in respect of a statement containing 2
or more distinct allegations against the plaintiff, the defence of truth
shall not fail by reason only of the truth of every allegation not being
proved, if the words not proved to be true do not materially injure
the plaintiff’s reputation having regard to the truth of the remaining
allegations.
i reckon were ok bandage.
You’re an absolute gent Count. Cheers.
Brendan Furlong’s passionate “I fucking told you so!” column in this week’s Wexford People is a sheer joy to behold. He’s the doyen of local sport reporters and combines flowery prose with an unerrring investigative mindset. While people like Mac and Gman were regularly ridiculing him, and The Wexford Echo were ignoring the issues, Brendan and the Wexford People were fighting the good fight on behalf of Wexford GAA and everyone who cares about it. I’d like to end this paragraph the same way Brendan finished his column this week. Up Wexford!
Scale of debts a huge shock
Wednesday January 18 2012
IT WAS hell listening to the startling financial revelations unfold that has left Wexford G.A.A. in crisis.
Delegates to last Wednesday night’s special County Board meeting in the Ferrycarrig Hotel were shocked at the scale of the debts, so much so that it has left the incoming officers of the County Board practically powerless.
The facts submitted to the delegates by Chairman, Diarmuid Devereux, must prove that the warning that this columnist dished out for the previous twelve months should have been heeded. But the only response during the course of the previous year was a personal attack launched by then Chairman, Ger Doyle, at a County Board meeting in Enniscorthy.
He chose to ignore the most important point of all - to address the matters raised in this column, by presenting the County Board members with an up-to-date report of the monthly financial affairs of the G.A.A. in the county.
On the night County Board members decided on a vow of silence. Now this has come back to haunt them as the most startling financial revelations in the history of Wexford G.A.A. were presented to them many months later.
Delegates probably believed that after each County Board meeting they were moving on in the right direction, with the Ferns Centre of Excellence coming back on the agenda, having gone missing for many months.
Wexford G.A.A. needed a system where all matters relating to the Association in the county were presented at monthly meetings. But instead the county went from one Convention to the next without a single financial report, while correspondence was also very much off the agenda.
The process guaranteed that there was little room for delegates to question areas that must have been of concern to them. The noose was further tightened with members required to provide prior written notice of questions they may have needed discussed under any other business.
That’s all in the past thankfully. The reform that’s needed to provide more transparency within the G.A.A. in the county is now being provided, with Chairman, Diarmuid Devereux, living up to his pre-election promise, that he would not alone provide transparency but also give the G.A.A. back to the clubs.
He is under no illusions regarding the task that lies ahead as the G.A.A. in the county has been left in a financial crisis. He has been burdened with a debt in his first year in office that would put many a business into bankruptcy. His hands will be clamped given the scale of the debt that he has inherited, but he can depend on the support of the loyal G.A.A. people of the Model county.
Diarmuid and the Management committee under him will work to bring the county back to its once-proud position. Prior to last Wednesday night’s meeting he had three county Management gatherings under his umbrella as they moved through the financial quandary that has rocked the county.
In every parish in the county, people are suffering with personal debt. We need to look at our attitudes. People need to be encouraged to get back on the horse again, but the financial legacy that Diarmuid Devereux inherited will not be forgotten for many years.
There’s no doubt that fears exist as to how we can get out of all this. But it must be remembered, we are a proud county, a county renowned for our fighting spirit.
Under the leadership of Diarmuid Devereux we will be back bigger and better than ever. Up Wexford.
I am in the process of reviewing the financials statements - where should I send my comments?
I notice there is nothing in them about the terms of the €2.3m bank loan, probably the single most important item in them.
- What is the term of the loan?
- To whom is it payable?
- Is the interest rate fixed or variable?
Personally I wouldn’t be as worried about the excess of current liabilities over current assets as Brendan is as I think that could be overcome with some additional fund raising efforts. The bank loan is a whole other story though.
Post them up here. The county board exec usually look in here to see what names they’re being called each week.
Fair point as ever, BT. I recall when ex-county player and current respected referee Niall McDonald was struck by the horrible misfortune of having his (uninsured) house burn down in 2010 and everyone rallied around with fundraising efforts. There was even a well attended senior hurling challenge game between Wexford and Kilkenny in Wexford Park, which I attended.
I’m sure people would be more than willing to chip in with a tenner here or twenty quid there to help clear the €20,000 credit card bill Ger and Mag racked up on carvery dinners. We could even have a huge, big raffle where there’s no actual prize but everyone who takes part is a winner for helping to get the bill paid. Tickets could be a fiver each or 3 for a tenner.
What’s the 316k of other transfer payments? Is it loan repayments??
Having a big debt is not really an issue if we can repay. We’re operating on a surplus excluding depreciation and interest.
Furlong’s article is gaseous.
set up a threrad in the members only forum for them perhaps.
No idea what the transfer payments are but there’s an exact offsetting amount in income so it’s nothing to do with the loan.
Furtlong’s article comes across more as an attack an the previous regime / chairman.
Count or anyone at the meeting - did they give any details on the loan at the meeting? How much did they pay for Ferns? What stage of development is it at? How much have they spent on developing it?
I wonder would @swissramble on twitter do a piece on Wexford GAA?
Jason Ryan’s Wexford team, named tonight for Sunday’s O’Byrne Shield game against Wicklow shows seven changes from the team defeated by Meath in Navan two weeks ago. Throw in time is 2pm in St Patrick’s Park, Enniscorthy.
- Anthony Masterson Castletown
- Niall Murphy Bannow
- Graeme Molloy St James
- Brendan Mulligan Sarsfields
- Lee Chin Sarsfields
- Brian Malone Shelmaliers
- Andy Doyle Parnells
- Daithi Waters St Martins
- Rory Quinlivan Parnells
- Ben Brosnan Bannow
- PJ Banville Horeswood
- Paudi Kelly St Martins
- Kevin O’Grady St James
- Shane Roche Geraldine O’H
- Redmond Barry St Annes
- Tom Hughes Kilanerin
- Stephen Banville Shelmaliers
- Eric Bradley Adamstown
- Adrian Flynn Gusserane
- Andrew Shore Parnells
- Tomas Hayden Askamore
- Peter Travers Naomh Eanna
- Tomas O’Leary Buffers Alley
- Paddy Byrne Kilmore
That’s all Furlong ever really does. He’s set himself up as the moral guardian of Wexford GAA which is ironic.
Jesus wept. Good job I’m not an accountant.
I had the good fortune to meet one of the Wexford hurling backroom team at a funeral recently. Very intelligent understated individual, a million miles from the usual yahoos that get these gigs on other counties. I thought to myself that if this is the calibre of individual that Dunne is bringing on board then Wexford have a chance
wex v. nuig is in belfield at 2.45 tomo.
bt,
they were sketchy enough details at the meeting, ferns is only starting, the landworks are to be competed by march i believe.
the first pahse is being financed by 1.3million grant fomr the lottery i beleive.
i believe they may have paid approximately 3m for the place as a whole, a clusterfuck by all accounts.
Despite all the financial problem they still magaged to give a €20,000 “golden handshake” to a former county secretary. They were advised to settle in relation to the Ferns land dispute but they missed the deadline and it ended up costing them ten times as much. At least the current chairman seems to be a good man for the job. Looks like he’ll have his work cut out though.
i heard the golden handshake was 80k.
That settlement was very much cloak and daggers all right. I’ve read the articles in the local press now and it seems fair enough that the former chairman is taking a lot of flak and how that settlement was handled certainly doesn’t appear to do him any favours. But it probably suits others to make him the absolute fall guy and I see quotes from another member of the management committee saying all these revelations came as news to him and he wasn’t aware of much of the specific detail about Glenbrien and Ferns etc. I wonder if it occurred to him to ask some questions at any of the management committee meetings over the past few years. Is it true that the land originally bought in Glenbrien couldn’t developed because there was no access to it or something? That initial land purchase was overseen by the prior chairman again and, of course, he’s an Oilgate/Oylgate/Oylegate Glenbrien clubman.
Brendan Mulligan. 
Lee Chin has joined the Sars in the annual Wexford town football transfer merrygoround. What a coup for our great club.