DANNY LYNCH,
Sir, - I refer to an Editorial in your edition of April 16th about the GAA's congress decision on the use of Croke Park.
The subject was on last year's congress agenda and was debated at length. It has been the subject of countless column inches in print with every conceivable argument in favour of change of rule continually emphasised.
To suggest that the debate was ill-informed is therefore disingenuous. Very recently, the FAI and the IRFU indicated clearly that they had no interest in playing their games in Croke Park. To state, however, that they will be afforded the free use of Stadium Campus Ireland, if built, is not true.
The president of the GAA, Sean McCague, is taken to task without any apparent appreciation or understanding of his role as impartial chairman of congress. Conflicting allegations have been made against him. On the one hand it is alleged that he may have influenced the debate and then, irrationally he is accused of allowing the debate to "rage like wildfire" without exerting influence.
The congress decision is presented as some kind of conspiracy in support of Stadium Campus Ireland. The fact that this rule has been in existence for over a century prior to the SCI proposal is overlooked.
So is the fact that the main supporters of the SCI include the FAI, the IRFU and other sporting organisations, who all, like the GAA, have been supported by the Government, albeit with a fraction of the GAA's investment.
It is also suggested in this context that reference by the president-elect, Sean Kelly, to being "non- political" supported existing party political leanings.
Total nonsense of course, but when it comes to the GAA the conspiracy theorists' personal agendas will always be with us. - Yours, etc.,
DANNY LYNCH,
Public Relations Officer,
GAA,
Croke Park,
Dublin 3.