Meeting called to sort out Down controversy

PENDING an emergency general meeting of the Portaferry club to be held in two weeks, none of the parties to the controversy in Down hurling - concerning a presentation to an RUC officer in August are prepared to comment on the matter.

According to Down county board PRO, Fintan Mussen: "It was decided that I should issue a bald statement and that we would hold fire until after the meeting."

The statement, issued on Monday, reads: "Following a general meeting of the Portaferry GAA club on Sunday January 7th, which was chaired by Down chairman Jimmy Cousins, it has been decided to convene an extraordinary general meeting of the Portaferry club on Sunday January 21st. This meeting will elect a committee to administer the affairs of the club for the next 12 months. A full statement will be issued following this meeting."

Mussen released the statement at the request of the club after a meeting between club officials and county board chairman, Jimmy Cousins who had intervened to try and sort out the matter.

There has been speculation as to whether the club executive are to step down voluntarily at the e.g.m. on 21st January. Again, Mussen wouldn't comment on the possibility of the outgoing officers contesting that election.

The affair started last August when a presentation was made, on behalf of Portaferry club, to a retiring RUC officer. Portaferry is one of the county's only three senior hurling clubs, all of which are located on the Ards peninsula.

In common with the other two senior clubs, Ballygalget and Ballycran, Portaferry have suffered damage to their club premises as a result of fire bomb attacks. The RUC officer in question was felt, by some members of the club, to have been particularly helpful in the aftermath of the attack and consequently, the presentation was made to him on his retirement by Joe Boyle, then secretary of the club. Boyle has since resigned over the affair (but has since been elected vice chairman of the Down hurling board).

The gesture did not command the unanimous approval of club members, some of whom said that they had heard nothing about the presentation beforehand, but the controversy did not break in earnest until well after the summer.

A complicating factor was that the three Down clubs are allowed alleviate their isolation by participating in the Antrim senior hurling League. Opinion in Antrim has been traditionally more intensely nationalist than in Down and the subject of the presentation was raised with Portaferry on a trip to play a League match.

Fuel was added to the fire by the alleged comment of one Portaferry player - to the effect that it was preferable to make presentations to a police officer than to play with "criminal elements" in the Antrim League, a sentiment from which other players disassociated themselves.

Nonetheless, this caused feelings to run high in Antrim and prompted some calls for Down clubs - and particularly Portaferry - to be expelled from the county league. Reports in yesterday's Irish News suggest, however, that these views have cooled down a bit and that, after contacts between the county boards in the respective counties, Antrim is content to let Down sort out the matter internally - assuming a solution can be found.

Fortunately for those trying to defuse the matter, the Antrim League isn't due to restart until 14th April which leaves three months to sort things out. A match between Portaferry and Belfast club St John's has been conveniently shelved.

Details of Jimmy Cousins's meeting with the club officials have been kept quiet, but the Down chairman will chair the meeting on January 21st - coincidentally, the same day as Antrim's county convention takes place in Ballymena.

Meanwhile, on the associated topic of Rule 21 which prohibits members of the northern security forces from joining the GAA, there is a motion on the clar of the Dublin Convention calling on the GAA to hold a special congress to consider Rule 21 - the power last year's Congress gave to Central Council.

The motion can be seen as a circumvention of a request from Croke Park that motions on the substantive issue of Rule 21 be ruled out of order, on foot of last year's Congress decision which is being interpreted as assigning to Central Council exclusive responsibility for the matter.

Kilkenny's hurling manager Nicky Brennan and his selectors have named their panel for the remainder of the National League. The panel is 28-strong and contains no obvious surprises although eyebrows may be raised at the inclusion of 32-year-old Ray Heffernan.

Heffernan, however, has enjoyed a splendid season with his club, Glenmore, and was the outstanding player of the county's club championship. As Glenmore swept to the Leinster title, Heffernan was again prominent in the defeats of Offaly's Seir Kieran and Wexford champions, Oulart-The-Ballagh.

Heffernan had a previous run on the Kilkenny team during the Leinster championship in 1991, after he had impressed for Glenmore during their run to that year's All-Ireland title.

Another beneficiary of Glenmore's progress is wing back Jimmy Walsh, who also wins selection in the panel. Pat Dwyer, former All Star full back, makes his first appearance since hibernating. The panel will spend a weekend at the National Coaching and Training Centre in Limerick for physical assessment before the rigours of the year's training begin.