*Anne Hayes. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
TWO CLARE GAA officers walked out of the July County Board meeting following tense exchanges in Caherlohan.
What should have been a joyous gathering in what was the first County Board meeting since Clare were crowned All-Ireland senior hurling champions ended on a sour note with officers walking out of the meeting following a bust-up with the top table.
Anne Hayes has left her position as public relations officer following the meeting while assistant treasurer Sean Chambers has been asked to withdraw allegations he made at the meeting or else step aside from his position.
Speaking to The Clare Echo on Wednesday, Hayes confirmed that she was no longer in the role of PRO and expressed dissatisfaction with comments from the Chairman Kieran Keating that she did not have the skillset for the role and the view expressed by Head of Operations, Deirdre Murphy that it was “unrealistic” for the Lissycasey woman to manage the commitments involved in serving as PRO, Coiste na nÓg Peil secretary along with roles with Scór and other organisations. Ms Murphy said her comments were in relation to Hayes wanting to serve as Chair of the PR committee on top of her additional roles.
Having served on the County Board since 1984, Anne has acted in roles including Bord na nÓg Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Youth Officer, Cultural Officer and PRO.
Hayes had walked out of Tuesday’s meeting before the Chairman suggested that she did not have the “skillset” required for marketing prompting her to return and request the comment be withdrawn. She pointed out that she managed to run a business for forty years. “I feel they owe me an apology and that they should withdraw the statements,” she told The Clare Echo.
“In my forty years involved with the County Board, I’ve never witnessed a year like I’ve spent this year, it has been awful. I’ve no problem with a PR/marketing committee provided they do the work, they are not assisting me. I’m the only PRO in Ireland not to be chair of a PR committee. I was only asking for assistance with programmes,” she added.
She said 2,000 programmes had to be delivered to twelve different venues last weekend for the opening round of the TUS Clare SHC. “I’m expected to drive around with all of them. The two comments that I made that really got to me, that I’ve no skillset and that it is unrealistic to be involved in so many organisations, I feel they should withdraw them comments”. Clare GAA accepted the retirement of Hayes on Wednesday morning.
In a statement to The Clare Echo, Chairman of Clare GAA, Kieran Keating stated, “I would firstly like to say that whilst I appreciate that Anne Hayes has been a very hard-working, diligent and whole-hearted servant to Clare GAA, for longer than most of us can even remember, what transpired that night is not how we can do the business of Clare GAA. We are all aware of the adage “don’t air your dirty linen in public”. Not for the first time, delegates were treated to a side-show suggesting that there are major issues of lack of support, alienation, and even harassment, from a few of us on the executive, against two officers in particular. The manner and occasion of the complaint was (in my view) the exact opposite of good ‘Public Relations’. The most important role of the PRO is to show the face of the County Board to the public in a positive and progressive light. This public airing of perceived grievances was far removed from what we should reasonably expect from the Officer elected to that role”.
Keating continued, “In the PROs report to convention for the last couple of years, she has been effusive in her praise of those that she said assisted her every week in producing the programmes. From what she said to the meeting, and further evidenced by last week when she was away, it is clear to all that the programmes workgroup is effectively a one-woman army. This is of course not sustainable, but it would have been better had this been raised and dealt with at Management Committee rather than in the public realm. I am sorry that Anne has chosen to step away in such a public and attritional manner, but it was clear from her words to the County Committee that she was not getting any satisfaction from her role. The Management Committee will now recommend an interim PRO to the next County Board meeting, to serve until an election at December’s Convention. I would like to reiterate my thanks again to Anne, for all her work and efforts as PRO for Clare GAA, and in particular for the stellar work on match programmes, during my tenure and prior”.
At the County Board meeting, Hayes highlighted her disappointment at not being included in the PR committee and the failure to get invited to their meetings. She said she did not feel supported by senior officials of Clare GAA and was left on her own to orchestrate the distribution of match programmes across the county despite the creation of a PR committee. Terms of reference from Croke Park regarding PR committees were also cited by Hayes who said she was supposed to be assisted by the committee but that this was not happening in Clare.
Head of Operations, Deirdre Murphy in response said that the Chair of the PR committee had attempted to contact the PRO over the last five days via phone and email, a view which was rejected by Hayes.
Clondegad delegate Seamus O’Reilly praised the work done by the PRO and said she had been disrespected by Clare GAA.
Keating said Margaret O’Brien was put in as Chair of the PR committee because she had “the skillset”. This prompted Hayes to question if he was saying she did not possesses “the skillset” and she told the meeting she had been in business for forty years, had worked on marketing Comhaltas for several years. The listing of committees and involvements prompted Murphy to point out that the PRO was involved in several organisations. At this stage, Hayes walked out of the meeting in protest at the comments from the Chairman and Head of Operations.
Chambers claims:
Assistant Treasurer, Sean Chambers told the meeting he felt “harassed”. The Cooraclare man said he only has the role in name but is given little responsibility and has no input in appointing gate-checkers and also felt he was not getting support.
Chairman Keating pressed Chambers to provide examples of harassment and strongly refuted the claim. Chambers said the top table were keen to get rid of him and Hayes and accused them of “selecting not electing committees”, he did not provide examples of the harassment claims before walking out of the meeting.
Keating in a statement to The Clare Echo outlined, “He didn’t cite any example of harassment before walking out. I have asked Sean to either back up his allegations to his fellow officers, or to publicly withdraw what I believe to be a baseless allegation of harassment. Should Sean fail to do either, then regretfully I feel his position on the Management Committee will also be untenable”.
He added, “It is unfortunate that at our first meeting after the success of bringing Liam MacCarthy back to Clare for only the fifth time ever, that this should be a talking point, however, for as long as the clubs of the county deem me fit to be Chairperson of Clare GAA, I’ll try to ensure that meetings of the County Committee will focus on what we need to be doing for the betterment of GAA in the County, and that any debates or discussions more appropriate to Management Committee meetings take place in that forum only”.
Former Vice Chairman of Clare GAA, PJ McGuane said the County Board were not looking after the grassroots. He warned that they will be left with nobody doing anything for Clare GAA if they continue to neglect the grassroots. He said the current board were more focused on getting people with letters after their names rather than keeping in touch with people in the clubs.
Head of Operations Murphy strongly refuted this view and pointed out that she has worked from her club in Clooney/Quin and represented her county at all ages on the sporting front.
Outstanding invoices queried:
Treasurer Brian Fitzpatrick told the meeting accounts are in a similar position to last year and that extra money generated in advance of the All-Ireland final will be going towards team expenses.
Seamus O’Reilly asked the top table for details on historical invoices that were left unpaid. His queries seemed to take officers by surprise and the Chairman asked for more specific information regarding the query. O’Reilly claimed that a substantial invoice was owed to a printing company for programmes dating prior to 2022.
Deirdre Murphy, Head of Operations insisted there was no outstanding invoices for Clare GAA to be paid prior to this year.
O’Reilly then said he was part of a communications committee with Paul Gannon and Michael O’Connor at the time the supposed invoice arrived and that it hadn’t been paid since.
Speaking from the floor, Gannon said he was not part of a communications committee and if he was then he was added unbeknownst to himself. The Inagh/Kilnamona clubman admitted he was not comfortable at being referred to as part of the discussion.
Clarity was sought by the Chairman Keating from his Vice Chairman, Michael O’Connor who also mentioned as a member by O’Reilly. O’Connor said he had no involvement with invoices and during his time as PRO all invoices were either sent to the Treasurer or the Secretary.
Following this O’Reilly addressed the Chairman and said that he was well aware of another matter that he would not like him to bring up. Officials said they were willing to contact the printing company to try clear up any confusion.
Apology sought for club secretaries over ticket glitch:
On the request of St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield, the matter of ticket distribution and online links prior to the All-Ireland SHC final was debated.
One club delegate asked that a formal apology be issued to club secretaries for the stress they endured over the technical glitch. Five clubs spoke of the toll the debacle had on volunteers in their own clubs.
The meeting was told that the system used by Croke Park for the final was different to what Clare had been using all year. The assistance from Croke Park in dealing with the issue was echoed by senior officers of Clare GAA.
According to the Chairman, 300 extra tickets were taken by people as a result of the glitch. It was suggested at the meeting that Clare GAA were reimbursed with this amount of tickets.
Sixmilebridge delegate PJ Fitzpatrick who was not involved in the administrative mess of distributing tickets in his club said clubs would love to be in the position every year of having a ticket headache.
Counties like Clare, Armagh or Galway who contested the All-Ireland finals cannot be expected to reinvent the wheel when it comes to ticket distribution, Keating said.
Regrading system is ‘against players’
Players across Clare are left sitting on sidelines over a regrading system that doesn’t put players first, delegates said.
Once again it was St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield who looked for regrading to be discussed. Anthony O’Halloran highlighted that players are left sitting on the sidelines with no games because of the strict system.
Ballyea secretary, Fiona Whelan referenced the case of Stan Lineen, the first Clare SHC winning captain of the club. She said he is no longer in a position to commit to playing senior hurling for the club, he is getting older and is still keen to play the game but was rejected in his bid to be regraded. A subsequent appeal also failed and as a result he is not hurling anymore.
Paul Gannon of Inagh/Kilnamona was in favour of change. He said he could list four players in their club that would not get the opportunity to hurl this summer for their club because of the restrictive regrading process in Clare. He said the current arrangement is totally against players.
Views of Tubber GAA club on regrading has changed as they have grown from a small club, delegate Andrew Monahan admitted.
Scariff’s Tom Crotty initially felt he would be a futile exercise trying to change the system but came around to the idea and believed forming a group to discuss the matter could work.
The meeting heard a request that the matter be discussed in September in advance of County Convention.
Facilities upgrade:
Clareabbey is on course to be open and ready in time to host the November meeting of the County Board, Head of Operations Deirdre Murphy outlined.
Further information has been sought on plans for Caherlohan. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage telling Clare County Council that it should carry out a study to determine if the Clare GAA proposal will significantly impact on the nearby Newgrove House which is a designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC) due to the presence of the Lesser Horseshoe Bat.
Caherlohan’s long awaited upgrade includes two new full length playing pitches; the construction of a new all-weather synthetic playing pitch served by six 25 metre high floodlights and the construction of a new hurling ‘ball-wall’. The plans also include the installation of twelve 25-metre high floodlights serving existing pitches three and four and the construction of new covered spectator stand serving Pitch 3. The proposal also includes the construction of a two storey extension to the existing Clare GAA Centre of Excellence building accommodating additional player welfare facilities including new dressing rooms, a gymnasium, dining and administrative areas.
Regarding Cusack Park, the meeting was told that Clare GAA are still trying to mind the goalmouths and temporary goalmouths will still be used. Safety and facilities officer, Ambrose Heagney said this arrangement was not ideal as it was quite awkward to be moving the temporary goalmouths.
