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GAA/State - Incapable of facing reality
 national |
public consultation / irish social forum |
opinion/analysis
 Thursday August 07, 2008 01:26 by Anthony Sheridan - http://www.publicinquiry.eu/
The recent GAA controversy involving Kerry captain Paul Galvin and the ongoing DCC/Fyffes scandal are both indicative of how wrongdoing is dealt with in Ireland. I’m not a big fan of the GAA and know little of its rules and regulations but I followed the Galvin saga with great interest.
Galvin, the captain of the Kerry team, received a six month ban for a number of offences including slapping the referees black book from his hand when he, Galvin, was about to be sent off.
I’m told that such behaviour in soccer or rugby would almost certainly result in very severe punishment and possibly even a life ban. In both these sports there’s just one appeals board so if a player fails to make his case at this point the matter is over and everybody gets on with their lives.
In Ireland, things are different. Over the years the GAA has created an unwieldy monster to deal with indiscipline on the field. Players trudge their way through the Central Competition Controls Committee (CCCC), the Central Hearings Committee (CHC), the Central Appeals Committee (CAC) and the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA).
If, after all that trudging, they are not happy, they simply make their way back down the list of committees until get what they’re looking for – a full or partial pardon.
So here’s the key question – Why is Ireland different from every other country in the world in how it deals with indiscipline/wrongdoing, why is it that we seem to be incapable of setting up clearly defined and efficient systems to deal with errant sports people and other citizens who break the rules and laws?
The answer is simple – We don’t want to deal with wrongdoing, we don’t want to face the reality of dealing with indiscipline on the sports field, corruption in politics and fraud in the business world. At the same time we want to be seen as a modern, progressive, enlightened Western democracy and not some backwater banana republic.
In an effort to overcome this dilemma we have created a myriad of complex systems that, to an outsider, give the impression that we are indeed a properly run democracy.
Tribunals, government committees, a whole raft of so called regulatory agencies – Financial Regulator, ODCE, Financial Ombudsman, Data Commissioner, National Consumer Agency – the list is endless.
None of these organisations are effective; they issue glossy annual reports, make all the right noises when corruption is uncovered (invariably by the media) but have never actually operated like similar regulatory agencies in real democracies.
Paul Galvin wasn’t interested in righting any perceived injustice; he was using the system in the way it was supposed to be used – as a mechanism to avoid accountability. GAA authorities are happy that the impression has gone out that they are serious about dealing with indiscipline.
So called State regulatory agencies are conducting a similar pretence in the DCC/Fyffes scandal. Jim Flavin of DCC was found by the Supreme Court to have engaged in insider trading involving sums of over €83 million.
Instead of being arrested and charged he is instead being brought gently through a complex but ineffective system that will almost certainly fail to make him accountable for his fraudulent activities.
In the long run both the GAA and the State will lose out heavily for their failure to properly enforce the law.
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Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5I think that is being a bit unfair about the G.A.A.
In recent years they have made progress in dealing with the image of indisipline.
It must be remebered we are also living in litigeous times.
Both in G.A.A and other codes in the last couple of years decisions made as regards the
administration and supervision of sporting activity have been chalenged in the courts.
Paul,
Have you ever togged out and played a competitive game of football? Or any other sport for that matter? Cos, frankly, your comments smack of never coming close to a ball kicked with passion. Galvin was giving his usual 110% on the pitch, he overreacted to a blatantly wrong referee decision to issue a second yellow card. Yes, he was totally out of order to do so and deserved the minimum penalty for this offence, namely a three month suspension. However, his action was at the very bottom of the scale for this (serious) level of offence and he did not deserve DOUBLE the minimum penalty. He appealed and his penalty was indeed reduced to what it should have been in the first place. Case closed, justice done.
How you can compare an honest passionate (and amateur) sportsman to the bunch of cheats and corporate criminals who carried out an €85 million insider trading scam just beats me.
Can't say I'm a big fan of the GAA either . The whole set-up strikes me as faux - an invented 19th century nationalist "sport" designed to bolster an equally false construct of "nation" alongside other myths that were doing the round at the time . It's little wonder that our latter day Cu Cullains can't keep from battering one another senseless whenever the opportunity arises given the hatred drummed into them by successive waves of republican /nationalist propaganda . Perhaps the referee in this particular match may have experienced some of the terror inflicted on the N.I security services over the years as he tried to keep the two sides apart.
I thought Padraig Harrington played magnificently yesterday btw.
Yes, indeed, the boy Harrington done well. Not my sport of choice, golf, but perhaps I might take it up when the auld legs can no longer propel my increasing mass of kilos in the general direction of a big white ball or the fellow in possession of it who's disappearing from sight down the pitch. And the precocious youngfella Joyce, beating a two time European champ in Beijing. Not a bad sporting weekend at all internationally. And domestically, the highlights were Kilkenny's awesome display of relentless and skillful power hurling on Sunday and Kerry's uncanny knack when the chips are down of finding yet deeper reserves of talent and determination in Saturdays downpour. Both teams beat quality opponents and are slowly but surely staking claims to being the greatest hurling and football teams respectively of most fans lifetimes.
One really shudders to think what they might have achieved had they not had their heads stuffed with all that nonsensical auld republican/nationalist shite at squad training sessions. Though it's getting harder and harder to fit that sort of thing in nowadays what with all the warm-ups, pre-hydration, warm-downs, ice-baths, gymwork, upper body strenght routines, motivation sessions, diet advice and the obligatory groupwork with the team psychologist and the video analyst. Sadly the drumming of hatred into the lads by the GAA 's political commissars and idealogues is being sidelined in the rush towards modernisation. Tis all the fault of television if you ask me. Still though, nothing like a rousing rendition of A Nation Once Again in the dressing room and the thought of winning the match to honour our countymen who died for Ireland to motivate men about to run out and play their hearts out in front of tens of thousands of spectators. I'm sure that's what had Paul Galvin so wound up that he knocked the referees notebook out of his hand!
Sorry if you find it all a bit faux, moderate anarchist, but then I guess you are not really a sports fan are you? You see, lovers of one code of sport generally take an interest in and follow other sports as well. Those who turn up at Croke Park will also know the way to Lansdowne Road and Richmond Park and Dalymount as well. I've seen Munster and Leinster rugby jerseys in Croke Park and many an Arnotts blue top at Eircom league matches. The virtues of sport are universal and include good old-fashioned endeavour and giving it your all in pursuit of being as good as you can be. True sports fans celebrate this and recognise excellence and achievement wherever they find it. They will shun the narrowminded bigots with their cliche ridden denunciations and pre-formed opinions on various sports that they don't find politically correct.
And what have you got against 19th century constructs anyway? Are golf, soccer and rugby not examples of sports that were first codified in the latter half of the 19th century? Are you agin them too? Down with that sort of thing, I say! And anarchism too, of course. Now there's a nineteenth century construct for you. Can't have that sort of thing around here.
Thank you for your excellent post above. I have to say that it was a joy to read, and was proof to me that not all progressive people have turned into culturally void "anarchist" keyboard warriors.