You don't think Tommy Byrne is a good chairman - we get it. There's no doubt that there are serious black marks on his tenure, and everyone (myself included) would like to see a contest for the position in November, that's a viewpoint most people can agree on.greenairfield wrote:we will leave Tommy there in fairness to him hes doing a great job..
However how can you think it's a good idea to just remove someone from the job, without the slightest idea who will succeed him??? Surely, surely, the first question has to be that if the county board chairman isn't Tommy Byrne, who will it be? If the world of politics has taught us nothing, it's that no matter how bad you think you have it, things can always get worse. Right now, the serving UK prime minister is Theresa May. People want her gone, so they're going to get Boris Johnson. Chances are when he goes, next in will be Nigel Farage. I can only assume the next step after that will be some sort of drunk Georgie Shore cast member, since that's the only possible downgrade from there, and even then I'm not sure it could be any worse. This is what happens when you pull the trigger without thinking through the logical next steps.
It's not good enough to say that we need "someone else" without specifying who that someone might be, and why you think that person would have the slightest interest in doing the job. You're a Birr man, so I'll use an example - if someone like John Irwin or Rory Hanniffy wanted to put their hand up, I'd definitely listen to what they had to say and I'd be very positively disposed towards them. I could list people from most clubs in Offaly where I'd say the same. But until one of those people offers to take on the role and everything involved in it, then that means nothing.
Here's what we do know. The last time Tommy's position was contested, the two other contenders for the job were Fergal McKeon and Joe Higgins. In the lead up to that election, I asked all three men to do an interview, to actually discuss the key issues affecting the county, so that ordinary club members could consider their options. Of the three men in the race, Tommy Byrne was the only one willing to do that. The other two men didn't even consider speaking to GAA people in the county an exercise worth doing. Now you might say they still would have been an improvement, but I don't believe they would have been, in fact I think things would now be much worse if we had either of them.
It's not good enough to say that Tommy Byrne isn't (in your opinion) is good as some ideal candidate who has expressed no interest whatsoever in the role. You have to explain what will happen next, and why Offaly will be better off afterwards.