*Photograph: John Mangan
CLARE GAA are “maxed out” with requests for Sunday’s crunch Munster championship game against Cork while A Win A House in Roslevan is to be launched.
At the May meeting of the County Board which took place at Hotel Woodstock, it was also confirmed that a “specialist on pitch development” had been hired by Clare GAA to prepare a report on the work at Caherlohan.
Criticism was voiced of the GAA for the ongoing controversy with GAAGO. Feakle’s Mike Daly told the meeting, “we need to decide if we are a commercial body or a sporting body”.
Championship draws:
Draws for the 2023 Clare adult hurling and football championships will be made at the June (June 13) meeting of Clare GAA.
Sixmilebridge delegate Pat Keane asked why the draws hadn’t been made before now stating “every other county has made their draws for the past two months”.
Replying chairman Kieran Keating said “clubs have until May 31 to declare what teams they will be registering for championships. We are also working on finalising headline sponsors for the various championships”.
“The lack of a sponsor should not stop the draws from taking place”, replied Keane.
Concluding the discussion on this issue chairman Keating said “I don’t have an issue with doing the draws in March or April going forward”.
Isolated player issue:
The isolated player issue was raised again at this week’s Clare GAA meeting. Clonbony delegate Sean Malone said “we are still looking for information on the situation. The minutes of the last meeting didn’t reflect the conversation. Are the players who played going to be declared illegal. We followed up the last week with an e-mail but we got no response. This is a ticking timebomb. Five or six from my own parish have played. We are trying to bring them up from under 7”.
Chairman Kieran Keating said, “we have an issue with the bye-laws as to where they can play and we didn’t fox the bye-laws. The clubs committee have come back to me as to what I want. It is not a new problem. They want terms of reference”.
“It has to be dealt with”, said Malone. “It doesn’t happen to Ennistymon or to Kilmaley in reverse. We want to develop. We are open to talk and we are willing to come to some type of arrangement”.
According to Clonbony’s Declan Rynne “if 6 or 7 from Tulla went to play with Broadford, it would be stopped. I sent an e-mail to the board and got nothing back. Players are playing illegally. We will have a big problem next year, we will not have a team at under 11”.
Clare GAA Head of Operations, Deirdre Murphy said “we discussed this in detail. The only way is for ye to put in an objection or wait for the club committee to come up with a solution. None of the players have been named”.
Killanena’s Kieran MacNamara responded to Murphy saying, “you are putting responsibility back on the club”.
Further development at Tubber and Ogonnelloe”
Permission was granted to both Tubber and Ogonnelloe to carry out major developments at their clubs. Tubber were given permission to raise a bridging loan of €75,000 towards a €140,000 planned development to upgrade their changing rooms while Ogonnelloe were given permission to borrow €120,000 towards the cost of a multi purpose indoor facility, the projected cost of which is €420,000.
The meeting sanctioned a request from the Ml Cusacks club to sell .75 acres of their property at Gleann Chiosog for a community facility.
Féile representatives:
The Clare football and hurling representatives to take part in the national Féile finals were decided recently.
Representing Clare in football will be Éire Óg (division 1), St. Breckans (division 2) and Naomh Eoin/O’ Currys/St.Senans (division 3) while the county’s hurling representatives will be Clarecastle (division 1), Tulla (division 2) and Ennistymon (division 3).
Informing the meeting that he will be running the National competition, Clare GAA’s vice chairman Michael O’Connor told the meeting that he will “let the clubs know the details of the finals privately as they are not public yet”.
Win a house:
Clare GAA will launch a “win a house” draw on this Friday night. The house is on the Tulla Road in Ennis and tickets will be going out to the clubs. Similar to last year tickets will be €100 each and clubs will retain €25 for each ticket sold. The draw will take place at the end of December, chairman Kieran Keating told the delegates.
Caherlohan upgrade:
Clare GAA has hired Ken Kearney, “a specialist on pitch development” to prepare a report on the work to be carried out on pitch two and three at Caherlohan, Clare GAA chairman Kieran Keating told the May meeting of the county board at Hotel Woodstock on Tuesday night.
“Because of this work there will be just one floodlit pitch available next Spring”, the chairman said before thanking clubs for their assistance in providing training facilities for county teams. He thanked in particular Clarecastle, Wolfe Tones, Sixmilebrige, Tulla, St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield and Tubber. “What we have seen from Clare teams in recent nights and days would not have happened without the co-operation of all,” he stated.
Congratulations:
The Clare minor hurlers were congratulated by board chairman Kieran Keating on their success in winning the provincial title and they were wished well in their All-Ireland semi-final on this Saturday.
The chairman also congratulated the under 20 hurlers on their displays in reaching the Provincial final before losing out narrowly. He also praised the minor and under 20 footballers on their championship performances and he wished the senior footballers and hurlers well ahead of their games this coming weekend.
Huge demand for tickets:
Clare GAA is “maxed out at the moment with requests for tickets” for Sunday’s Munster championship game between Clare and Cork at Cusack, Deirdre Murphy told this week’s meeting. “We are doing our best and we got an extra 1,000 tickets for the Northern terrace yesterday which we are distributing through the clubs”.
Asked about the allocation process by Killanena’s Kieran MacNamara she and the chairman explained that “the number of teams fielded by a club, the number of players from the club on inter county panels are all taken into consideration. It’s a difficult task to dish out tickets. Both counties have been treated equally and Munster are making the calls”.
GAA/GO controversy:
Whitegate delegate Pat Burke raised the issue of the televising of GAA games by GAA/GO this year and asked if “Co boards have any input into these decisions”. Their camera work is poor and they need to be told that. In contrast TG4’s presentation is excellent.
“The commercial team at Croke Park deal with all of this”, Deirdre Murphy told the meeting and Munster council delegate Bernard Keane agreed, “The decisions are made at the top. I raised this at Munster council level”.
Clare’s Central Cuncil representative Michael O’Neill said “it’s on the agenda for an Ard Comhairle meeting on Saturday but it’s a done deal as Noel Quinn has been appointed as the CEO of GAA/GO”.
“Originally the Clare v Limerick game was due to be on a Sunday and to be broadcast on RTÉ but because of a clash with the Great Limerick run, the game was switched to Saturday”, chairman Kieran Keating told the meeting.
Feakle’s Mike Daly said “we need to decide if we are a commercial body or a sporting body”.
Mills want a re-fixture:
Raising the decision by the CCC to rule that the division 5 hurling fixture between O’Callaghans Mills and Killanena was void, former board chairman Robert Frost from the O’Callaghans Mills club appealed to the board to re-fix the game. “We have no problem going to Killanena to play the game. They are a small club trying to field two adult teams and we are fielding three adult teams”.
“The CCC will be meeting the Mills club on Monday on another matter and we can discuss it”, the chairman replied.
