Mattie Murphy's suggestion that the GAA set up a separate board to look after hurling deserves a lot of support from hurling supporters…
In fact, it might make more sense for hurling to break away altogether from what that erudite writer Kevin Cashman quite accurately describes as the Gaelic Football Athletic Association, if some deal could be worked out over the use of facilities.
Where else in the world but Ireland would you find the same association administering two games as different as Gaelic football and hurling? Can you imagine the IRFU also looking after the "development" of field hockey in Ireland? Of course, the GAA heads would argue that their common mission is to promote all of the ‘national’ games. If that is the case, why don't they also administer camogie and ladies football? And when is the last time they organised a game of Rounders, which is supposed to come under the Association's remit (and which An Moltóir played regularly in his youth)?
Come to think of it, what exactly is ‘national’ about Gaelic football? As far as An Moltóir is concerned, it is a mess of a game cobbled up by some extreme nationalists in the late 19th century in order to give ‘true’ Irishmen (women didn't count in those days) an alternative to the perfidious English games of soccer and rugby. At least hurling has a pedigree going back thousands of years.
The fact is that, in reality, hurling and Gaelic football are games which are in competition with each other. All over the country, clubs and counties are split apart over competing allegiances relating to these two games. The problem for hurling in this situation is that the organisation which administers the game is dominated by football people. This is because football is played on a more widespread basis throughout the country than hurling. There are two main reasons for this. One is that football is a less skilful game and therefore more easily played by a larger number. Secondly, historically, hurling was mainly confined to those parts of the country where there were big fields (i.e. limestone lowlands) and where there were non-absentee landlords prepared to patronise the game (mainly for gambling purposes). Non-absentee landlords were also mainly found in the areas of the best soil (and biggest fields) where Agriculture was prosperous and income from tenant farmers lucrative.
As an association, the GAA has done precious little to promote hurling in those parts of the country where it is weakest. This is undoubtedly connected to the fact that the football people who control the GAA realise that hurling is a far superior, more enjoyable and more skilful game than what the Kerry Gaeilgeoirí call ‘caid’ but which An Moltóir prefers to call ‘cod’. A concerted effort to promote hurling in the weaker counties is likely to meet with considerable success which would, of course, mean more competition for the allegiance of football players. This is the last thing the football people want.
However, the treatment which hurling is now getting from the GAA - even in the hurling counties - is simply outrageous. The reasons given for consigning the National Hurling League to a February mudbath are nonsensical. To expect patrons to pay £7 to see grown men digging around with sticks looking for buried sliothars simply added insult to injury and demonstrates just how much out of touch the mandarins in Corporate Park(Kevin Cashman is doing well here today) have become. The scheduling of National Hurling League games should be unrelated to its football counterpart (apart from avoiding clashes of venue). The small minority of dual players who may be discomfited by the parallel running of the two competitions should not be allowed to hold everyone else to ransom. In most dual counties, football and hurling draw on very different sets of supporters. There are more than enough administrators in every county board to look after simultaneous football and hurling matches.
The National Hurling League should be played off on a weekly basis in March and April. County boards should make a start on their club championships in May prior to the start of the All-Ireland championships in June. Even with the introduction of a ‘losers’ group, this should be played off between June and early September by reducing the unnecessary delays between rounds which is a feature of the current championship format. More big games in both football and hurling should be played on the same weekend (including Saturdays and staggered starting times). The GAA needs to focus on the greater good, and not on the small minority who want to attend everything.
If the GAA is unable, at this crucial period in its history, to give hurling a fair and even chance, then it may be time to think the unthinkable. Anyone out there interested in leading a campaign for a separate Cumann Iománaíochta Éireann (CIE)? On second thoughts, given that the other CIE has a similar problem to the GAA (running competing bus and train services), perhaps some other name is desirable for the proposed independent hurling organisation…
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