Modernity rears its ugly head yet again

ON GAELIC GAMES:The O'Mahony case may be an innocent misadventure, but for the first time Croke Park has to crank up its various procedures and mechanisms, writes Sean Moran

I REMEMBER one day at school, after an elderly, despairing (in the secular sense) priest had walked out on our class after we had got a bit lively, the headmaster arrived to give us a low-key talking-to on the basis that it wasn't easy growing old and seeing the world change and that we should bear that in mind when conducting ourselves.

It would be an exaggeration to suggest that we were stricken with remorse, but then again the incident lives on, 33 years later.

At present for many members the modern GAA has become that classroom: inexplicably insolent, irritating and mildly threatening. For those of that view the clamour of the past few days must have been unnerving.

The stand-off in Cork becomes increasingly intractable and the verbal conflict ever more personal. Croke Park becomes a talking point in the rugby world for the week before Ireland's international with New Zealand.

But more discomforting than the bitter in-fighting between players and their county board, or the occasional sight of the GAA's stadium packed in anticipation of another sport, has to be the news - inevitable as it was - that a player had failed or tested adversely in doping control.

It doesn't matter that Aidan O'Mahony's long history of asthma and compliance with the notification procedures make suspension an unlikely outcome when he sits before the GAA's Anti-Doping Hearing's Committee; in fact, the player's blamelessness only increases the unease.

The association and its players have gone down the road of modernity and there's not going to be any reversion to simpler times, nor can there be. As a vehicle for sporting involvement the GAA has immense social value even aside from the cultural aspect of the indigenous games. This activity is rightly supported by public funds.

Maybe there was merit in the flinty self-reliance of the past when community effort and local support acquired and developed facilities. One of the things Liam Mulvihill remarked on as having most changed during his 29 years as director general was the growing dependence of county boards on grants from Croke Park and, by extension, the public purse.

Then again, look at the infrastructure that the GAA has built with that assistance and the great use to which it is put. Remaining in splendid isolation was never a desirable course for the association to follow, depriving it of financial assistance and the interaction of those who might not have come into contact with the organisation.

The connection between that issue of public funding and what happened to Aidan O'Mahony is simply that such grants and subventions are linked to the GAA's co-operation in the matter of anti-doping measures. Before the uneasy agreement between the association and the Irish Sports Council in the summer of 2001, pressure had been exerted.

On the eve of congress in April 2001, just as the question of opening Croke Park to other sports was about to be discussed, a wad of €75 million landed on the top table just in time to cut the ground from under the economic argument for repealing the old Rule 42. As the move failed to carry by just one vote, the largesse may well have had a material influence on a decision that was seen as good news for then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern's plan to build Stadium Ireland out in Abbotstown.

A communication between Ahern and then-GAA president SeáMcCague on April 6th, 2001 (curiously only made available to this newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act after appeal to the Information Commissioner) concerning the deal - how the €75 million would be paid and what use the GAA would make of Stadium Ireland - specified at point 13: ". . . The commitments in this letter are conditional on the GAA complying with the Government's anti-doping in sport programme."

There were other pressures. Just as no sport can tolerate the corruption and cheating at the heart of doping, neither is any sport immune from the dangers of the practice, which poses significant health risks to any player so tempted.

In team games the influence that drugs can have is not as obvious as in individual contests of strength and speed. But even team sports are composed of individual contests. Aspects of games like rugby and football place a premium on strength. Then there is the widespread function of steroids to enable the body to train harder for longer. There's no drug that will make you hurl like Henry Shefflin or kick a ball like Colm Cooper, but there are drugs that will help you run after either of them all day - and that has its uses.

Dope testing is an unwelcome intrusion into the GAA's world, as has been seen over the past couple of days. The O'Mahony case may be an innocent misadventure, but for the first time Croke Park has to crank up its various procedures and mechanisms.

It is also acknowledged that the Sports Council - and maybe even Wada, the world doping authority, which is very concerned by the growing potential abuse of asthma medication - will be keeping a close eye on proceedings.

Then there is the difficulty for the player himself as the matter is processed. O'Mahony has never been the most public of players and the whole focus can only have been upsetting for him.

So nobody doubts the intrusiveness, but this is no different to what virtually all other elite athletes have to tolerate in the course of their disciplines. Furthermore, Gaelic players often forget that elite athletes are frequently more "amateur" than top hurlers and footballers because they have to fend for themselves and prepare without a fraction of the infrastructural back-up available to the country's largest sports organisation and the players' body, the GPA.

In any event, it would be unthinkable for the GAA to try to stand aside from the struggle against drugs in sport. But for everyone involved, players, administrators and members, it's an anxious departure from simpler, more certain times.

smoran@irish-times.ie