Impact of 1991 still being keenly felt in GAA world

ON GAELIC GAMES:The unveiling of plans for a rebuilt Croke Park, the increase in sponsorship on jerseys, and the re-emergence of Ulster football all occurred 20 years ago

IF THE Chinese curse of living in interesting times appeared less of a malediction when everything was high on the bubble, the message certainly sank in over the past couple of years and we could all do with things becoming a good bit less remarkable in the 12 months ahead.

Years ending in ‘1’ have a nondescript quality. The change from nine to zero exercises some sort of reflection and the need to categorise events, but slipping into the second year of a decade has a low-key quality before it acquires any discernible character – or before that character has been identified.

For the GAA, however, that hasn’t always been the case and there is a strong case that years ending in ‘1’ have consistently provided watershed moments for the association.

There are significant footnotes stretching back through recent decades – 1961 saw the attendance record for Croke Park established whereas 1971 was a bumper year, featuring the official inauguration of two hugely successful projects, the All Stars scheme and the All-Ireland club championships. The latter year also saw the publication of the McNamee Commission report whose recommendations shaped GAA administration for decades.

Ten years later saw Kerry achieve only the fourth four-in-a-row All-Ireland success, a feat Kilkenny have emulated since. On a more baleful note it also saw the second H Block hunger strike, which created such serious divisions within the GAA. Former director general Liam Mulvihill identified the crisis as the low point of his term of office.

The year 2001 marked two extraordinarily significant departures in football.

That year saw the first calendar season introduced (hurling had been following the model since 1997) as well as the All-Ireland qualifier system which led to the first football champions, Galway, to have lost a match in their province.

Then there was the almost silent demise in November of Rule 21, the provision prohibiting those in the Northern Ireland security forces from membership of the GAA.

But it is the 20th anniversary year – 1991 – that stands out as having exerted greater influence than any other on the evolution of the modern association across a range of activities. The most influential development within the GAA in the past 20 years has been the rebuilding of Croke Park.

The stadium has bathed the association in a positive light since its emergence over the past 15 years – to the extent that the 2005 report of the GAA’s marketing sub-committee worried that the strength of the venue’s brand was overshadowing the whole organisation.

It has also proved a major source of revenue and, despite the departure of the rugby and soccer internationals, Croke Park remains a successful venue for both the GAA’s own events and non-match related activities.

Twenty years ago the ball was set rolling on the development project with the purchase of the Belvedere College grounds off Jones’s Road (ironically sold to the Jesuits in the first place by Frank Dineen, who had bought what is now Croke Park in 1905 in order to hold it for the GAA, but had to sell part of the property to service his personal debt, which wasn’t cleared until the association was in a position to buy the land from him eight years after the purchase).

That land is now the site of the Cusack Stand concourse and car park.

Peter Quinn, who took office as president in 1991 and remained closely associated with the project until its completion, said in an interview at the time that the development would first entail the demolition and rebuilding of the Cusack Stand with other sides of the ground to follow.

It is striking that the GAA were ready to undertake this major project without any promise of public funding. According to Quinn in March 1991 the cost of the redevelopment would exceed €130,000,000 (£100,000,000) and probably extend to double that.

The completion date, he reckoned, would be 2007 were government funding to be made available, but, without such assistance, would take until at least 2012.

It was a pretty accurate forecast, as eventually the government did come on board to the tune of €109 million (out of a total cost of €265 million) and the project was completed in March, 2005.

Since then, the stadium has been paid for and recorded nine straight years of increased profitability. By last year, dividends totalling €58.5 million had been transferred back to the Central Council of the GAA.

The redeveloped Croke Park, and especially its use by professional sportsmen during

the years of hosting rugby and soccer internationals, was seen as an inevitable driver of the cause of professionalism or semi-professionalism but the most significant interface between the GAA and commercialism also took root in 1991.

That year’s congress accepted a motion from Dublin calling for the embrace of sponsorship, including on jerseys. The original provisions were cautious, restricting logos to 50 square inches, before being relaxed a year later. Ironically, having led the charge and gone through two sponsors in the later stages of the league, Dublin began the championship with blank jerseys, but, by the second match, had concluded a deal with department store Arnotts that would last nearly two decades.

That second match was part two of the four-part epic between Dublin and Meath that riveted the country up until early July when Meath won a memorable third replay. The broadcasting of the conclusive contest proved that the GAA could have live coverage of non-All-Ireland matches without affecting attendances and that Saturday matches could, in the right circumstances, fill Croke Park.

On the field, the story of the summer was the re-emergence of Ulster football. Down’s championship began with a win over Armagh and ended with the team withstanding the inevitable Meath comeback in the All-Ireland final. That victory was the first time in 23 years that a county from outside Munster or Leinster had taken home the Sam Maguire; in the 20 years since, half of the All-Irelands have made their way back to Ulster or Connacht.

By mid-December the year was still producing talking points. The planned staging of a Dublin-Down challenge match at the RDS on the same bill as a League of Ireland fixture between Shamrock Rovers, joint promoters with the Clanna Gael-Fontenoy GAA club, of the idea, and Bohemians was initially approved and then for reasons that were at best obscure, sabotaged by Croke Park.

“If you want this remembered for years, call it off. Let it go ahead and it’ll be forgotten by Christmas,” was the advice of then GAA PRO Danny Lynch.

Twenty years later, it looks like Danny was right – a memorable end to a memorable year.