Meeting In Tullamore

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LooseCannon
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Post by LooseCannon »

Good Luck

greenairfield
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by greenairfield »

Delighted with the news.....and surprised if the general feeling from the public is that they want change why would Tommy contest it ? Strange...

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Lone Shark
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by Lone Shark »

I'm uneasy with this on a few levels. I have a lot of respect for some of the people named there, and if they presented themselves for election at convention, I would be inclined to support them and want to see them succeed. However regardless of anyone's views of the current management committee, it is not for some random group of people to gather in a room and deem themselves worthy of a say in the running of Offaly GAA, just on the basis of being "concerned" regardless of how genuine that concern might be.

The group that should determine every decision and every direction taken by our county should be the clubs, and while time will tell what approach this group plans to take, right now they are bypassing Offaly's clubs and going straight for the top table.

Who got invited to this meeting? My understanding is that there was no official communication with clubs, so who determined why certain people made the cut and others didn't? Did you even have to be a GAA member? The Tribune piece says that there were club chairmen and secretaries there, but were they there to represent the views of their clubs (and were they authorised by their clubs to do so, if so) and if there were 50 people in the room, we can be fairly sure that some of the clubs had no-one at all in attendance.

Again, based on the people involved, I would imagine that there are some among them who are willing to get their hands dirty and get stuck in to the actual work involved in running a county, and if so, I commend them for it. However I'm not sure this method was appropriate, at all. I'm well aware that some of our clubs don't necessarily engage with the county as fully as they should, and that's on them - but that's a reason to do that better, not to cut them out of the process entirely.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

Geansai Gorm
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by Geansai Gorm »

Spot on LS. Where do this group get a mandate? Everyone who is either a player, member or committee activist has a right to be represented fairly and evenly. While good intentions and 'what's best for Offaly' are everyones wishes, groups like this have to be very careful what they wish for...they just might get it.

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bracknaghboy
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by bracknaghboy »

What sort of carry on is this? Corrigan describes them as "high powered". Whats high powered about them? This would be like an unelected group getting together and calling for a meeting with the government where they'll sit and tell them they don't think they are doing a good enough job and that they should not contest the next general election and allow them to take over instead.

I'm actually all for the county board elections being contested later this year as I'm sick of hearing people giving out year in year out yet not willing to do anything about it but the manner in which these guys are going about it is way out of order. If they want to put candidates up then by all means please do but looking for the current county board not to contest is wrong.
The main thing on their agenda I'm told is getting county hurling and county finals moved to the Birr club ground.

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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by frankthetank »

bracknaghboy wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 4:35 pm he main thing on their agenda I'm told is getting county hurling and county finals moved to the Birr club ground.
That's good enough for me anyways.

greenairfield
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by greenairfield »

That is totally untrue. It is a working group looking out for the best of Offaly GAA.

I think they went the best way about it and kept it in the public eye so it cant behind described as something that was done in a manner that wasnt been honest and open.

I am sure Stephen Darbys main reason for getting involved is to bring hurling back to birr... some statement :lol: :lol:

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Lone Shark
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by Lone Shark »

greenairfield wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 6:16 pm That is totally untrue. It is a working group looking out for the best of Offaly GAA.

I think they went the best way about it and kept it in the public eye so it cant behind described as something that was done in a manner that wasnt been honest and open.

I am sure Stephen Darbys main reason for getting involved is to bring hurling back to birr... some statement :lol: :lol:
I think the majority of people would be confident that the intention here is good - however when it comes to Offaly GAA, everyone's intentions are good - that's not the same as saying that their actions are helpful or wise.

I'd love to know the answers to these questions:

(1) What exactly makes it honest and open? I was speaking with Dervill Dolan today, who is the spokesperson for the group, and while he issued a brief statement (the same as is detailed in that Tribune piece) he also could not confirm how the attendees were chosen, what conclusions were reached at the meeting and what their future plans are, other than to seek a meeting with Tommy Byrne and other members of the county management committee. Now just to be clear, I'm not saying that any of their plans or ideas are negative, I'm sure they're not. People like Michael Duignan, Brian Whelahan, Colm Cummins and Stephen Darby have absolutely nothing to prove in terms of their willingness to dig in and help out the cause of Offaly GAA. But this group is clearly not willing to share those thoughts and ideas with the GAA club members of Offaly right now, either through communication with clubs, through any public/social channels of their own, or through the media. How exactly is that "honest and open?".

(2) As I mentioned above - who decided who were the chosen few to get an invite? There are a lot more than 50 people in Offaly who want to see the county prosper and succeed. And again - what possible reason can there be for not inviting clubs to send representation?

(3) What mandate has this group to seek a meeting with Tommy Byrne, or any Offaly GAA officials? I'm no longer a member of the Ferbane club, I'm now part of the club where I live here in Roscommon but if I was back home, I'd be making sure that my county board delegate went in with a very clear question as to why these people saw fit to bypass the clubs of the county and go straight for the top table. Dervill himself is a former county councillor, and I'm sure he'd have been very quick to speak if an unelected group of people claimed the authority to speak for Offaly as a whole and represent the county on the national stage. In effect, that's what's happened here.


Once more with feeling - the intentions of the group are not at issue here. Exactly who they represent**, and the approach they've taken, is a very different question.



** Please don't answer "they represent the ordinary GAA people of Offaly" or any such nonsense. The ordinary GAA people of Offaly are the members of the 44 clubs and I'm pretty sure they didn't get asked who they wanted to represent them in this meeting.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

private joker
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by private joker »

This is kinda mad. It's a group of individuals who have basically self appointed themselves to speak on behalf of the clubs in Offaly. Can any group do that? What's to stop a rival group coming together with a different vision on how things should be done?. I'd hope that moving games from tullamore to birr would be well down the list of priorities. Far more needs to be done before that comes up for debate. Replicating what Edenderry has done should be first and foremost. Build from the bottom up and increase participation.

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bracknaghboy
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by bracknaghboy »

private joker wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:26 pm Replicating what Edenderry has done should be first and foremost.
What? Get rid of hurling completely. Thats what they did in Edenderry isn't it?

private joker
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by private joker »

Maybe at adult level, but if there wasn't a will to play the game by adults members of the club you can't force a club to force members to play a sport.
What I was referring to was the appointment of a GPO. Which is what is needed most also in Tullamore, Birr at least to start with. Also, pretty sure Edenderry have under age hurling on the go so they will be playing adult again I'm sure.

Fairplayalways
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Meeting In Tullamore

Post by Fairplayalways »

just wondering what peoples views are on the above meeting reported in MT and other media this week, is it a good time to be shaking things up on our county board with what will hopefully be a good appointment with SH management and SF...interesting to see how things pan out with it...

kingscounty
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by kingscounty »

private joker wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2019 12:07 am Maybe at adult level, but if there wasn't a will to play the game by adults members of the club you can't force a club to force members to play a sport.
What I was referring to was the appointment of a GPO. Which is what is needed most also in Tullamore, Birr at least to start with. Also, pretty sure Edenderry have under age hurling on the go so they will be playing adult again I'm sure.
Bracknagh is spot on regarding hurling in Edenderry. There was plenty of Will for adults to play hurling in the town but when a club is run entirely by a football committee who refused to allow a sub hurling committee be set up due to a fear hurling might bypass football what can lads do? Edenderry were in a final 2013 after beating Crinkill in the group stages. When a former player had the underage flying they messed with his set up. Now they have a few young lads playing just so they can claim dual club shillings!!! Regarding the ‘50’ I don’t like it at all, while I have no time for Byrne, if change comes about it should be done with a bit of order through the clubs meeting. Who is the brain child of the ‘50’ what is their long term intentions,

Fairplayalways
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Re: Meeting In Tullamore

Post by Fairplayalways »

maybe its an Offaly thing as in transparency, but I see the above being covered under another heading created months ago..thats why I opened this one as at least we know what will be discussed in it..the other one being debated away unknownst to many I would think...

private joker
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Re: Newspaper Articles and other media bits

Post by private joker »

I'll say it again. My point was directed at the appointment of a GPO. Which needs to be replicated in other club's.

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