Open Croke Park foreign to Ulster

Rule 42 debate: Ahead of next weekend's Congress Keith Duggan finds the North resistant to the swing towards allowing other sports in GAA headquarters.

As another spicy Congress looms, the feeling across Ireland is the Ulster boys are starching their shirts for Dublin in contrary mood as ever. The Rest of Ireland shake their heads in derision. Ulster have always banged their own drum. When the GAA decided to implement a set of liberal rules to see how they worked on the inconsequential winter provincial competitions Ulster said: Experiment Away Boys.

Ulster were not for inhaling. In January, the McKenna Cup was played the old way. Now, faced with a general, giddy clamouring for Croke Park to be thrown open to the wider world, Ulster stand taciturn and gloomy at the gate, like an intractable farmer banishing the lads who have called to collect his daughters for the disco dance.

Something deep and instinctive makes GAA people in the northernmost province more resistant to change than their southern cousins. As with the Ban and Rule 21, the arch-defenders of Rule 42 are packed densely across Ulster, immovable and unimpressed by the fact that all but the last houses of conservatism have fallen throughout the country.

Staunch counties like Meath, Tipperary and Mayo have all been swayed by the fashionable opinion that the GAA have reached a point in their evolution where the shunning of what used to be termed "foreign games" has become an embarrassment.

Scorn has been heaped upon the Rule 42 preservationists and they have been derided as "backwoodsmen", a derogatory term with vaguely menacing undertones. They are accused of being afraid and paranoid and narrow-minded and living in a shadow world, obsessed with a brand of nationalism no longer considered legitimate by the GAA corpus at large.

But none of those taunts matter to Ulster. To echo the words of old Ma Thatcher, the lady is not for turning. If the general perception is that the Ulster GAA are somehow separate in psyche and mindset, the upcoming Congress will do little to alter that.

"To be honest, one of our delegates stated that he felt the deal was already done and dusted," said Tyrone's county secretary Dominic McCaughey.

"I would hesitate to call what we had a debate at our meeting because anyone who spoke articulated reasons why they felt Rule 42 should stay. And they differed greatly. But there was a feeling of resignation there, as if everyone knew the wheels had already been put in motion and that Rule 42 was bound for change. And we will accept that, of course. But I suppose that for a lot of Ulster GAA people, this episode will hammer home the feeling that there is a Them and an Us."

That 'us' is the significant constituency of Catholic nationalists living in Northern Ireland for whom the GAA was the only legitimate expression of cultural identity throughout the more explicit decades of tears and violence. That experience undoubtedly informs some of the instinctive desire to retain Rule 42 but it would be a mistake to presume it is the only reason.

Jarlath Burns, the celebrated Armagh football player and now a bright and active figure in the GAA's labyrinthine committees and groups, spoke at the meeting of his home club, Silverbridge. Committed to the Irish language and proud to come from a nationalist area of Armagh, he surprised his friends and neighbours - and possibly himself - by strongly advocating an amendment to Rule 42.

"This whole thing," he says," reminds me of that old Woody Allen joke about death. It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens. I think some Ulster GAA people feel a bit like that about Rule 42."

During a long and reasoned evening, Burns argued that the GAA had an obligation to support Irish industry and that the inevitability of Irish soccer and rugby internationals being staged across in England would directly place the association in the dock. He argued that, during a period when the world's Catholic community was mourning Pope John Paul II, it might just be the right and conciliatory thing to do. He told them about travelling to Scotland for a Glasgow Gaels function not so long ago.

"About an hour before the dinner, I was down in the gym and got chatting to this Glasgow fella and he never heard of the GAA. He hadn't a notion. Now, Paris was a flop for the interprovincial tournaments but this was Glasgow, a Celtic town.

"We need to promote our games and Croke Park. Other nationalities need to discover why this stadium exists, what it represents, and I am convinced that message would be circulated in the event of other sports being played there."

And yet a significant piece of his heart is in complete symphony with the men and women who just shudder at the thought of another old pillar falling. The fear of GAA fields all over Ireland being overrun is often voiced. But to many, the Rule 42 debate has nothing to do with a field at all. It is about the preservation of a tradition and a heritage that has - miraculously, some would argue - managed to survive the tsunami of global branding and the softening of collective cultures into a mass, indistinguishable pulp.

"At their best, the GAA unquestionably cut like an arrow through that softness, sharp and fast and on a completely independent flight. Croke Park has been the physical symbol of all that and, in Bloody Sunday, they have their own legacy of tragic history, of atrocity.

"The removal of Rule 42 makes if possible, in theory, for a descendant of the Black and Tans to play on Croke Park. That genuinely bothers some members," says Burns.

The moderate wing have dismissed such scenarios as the hallucinatory rhetoric of dyed-in-the-wool reactionaries pining after Pearse. But if Bloody Sunday no longer matters, why is the main stand named after one of its victims?

One of Burns's duties in the GAA is as chairman of the youth movement Scór. Leitrim, the smallest of the association's counties, has the most teams in the final this year, featuring in céilí dancing, traditional music, nua-chleas (novelty acts) and ballad singing.

Leitrim Scór comprises a committee of four. Cormac McGill has been cathaoirleach for longer than he cares to remember. Although he lives in Leitrim, his first love is Donegal football. He watched an uncle, George McGill, play championship football for Donegal in 1937 and saw his first Ulster final the year the second World War broke out.

He has missed a handful of Ulster finals since and moves easily between GAA lore past and present in his famous and long-standing weekly column, The Follower, in the Donegal Democrat. McGill is fervently against the removal of Rule 42 and the wave of populist opinion that has swung the mind of the association makes him despair. To him, the justification for Rule 42 is wrapped up in the song and dance of Scór.

"The GAA is an idealistic organisation. Go back to the 1950s and look at the Gaelic Weekly magazine - the Irish language and song and culture were central to the aims of the association. That has slipped to the extent that the 'G' is disappearing and we are in danger of becoming a mere Athletic Association. When that happens, then the GAA is dead.

"There are many members and media people who would want to educate themselves on why the GAA was founded. In 1884, the spirit of the Irish people was at its lowest ebb. The Irish language was being overrun thanks to the National Schools Act of 1832. That was its starting point. Now we have come to the point where many people think that 80,000 people in Croke Park on a summer's day is the GAA. That is not the GAA. The GAA is in danger of being killed by its own success."

McGill belongs to the generation of Irish people who refer to soccer and rugby as "foreign games". The only circumstance in which he could tolerate the playing of those sports in Croke Park is "when this island has become a 32-county republic." He knows that view is regarded as hardline, that the self-appointed enlightened will dismiss him as a crank. But he does not care. In terms of the Rule 42 debate, he cannot see why the association feel the need to make available a ground that has not yet been asked for.

"Other associations had not the same long-sightedness. Look, if you start a football club the first thing you look for is a football ground. The rugby people play in a dilapidated ground. The soccer people had a blueprint for a lovely little stadium but they listened to the word of a politician. And now they have nothing. The GAA built the stadium they knew was necessary and now we are about to promote associations which are completely alien to our culture."

Of the two sports in question, soccer is undoubtedly the one that raises the most phantoms. The surprising support for amendment emerging from Donegal this week means that of the southern Ulster counties, Monaghan alone stands firm.

"The issue of grounds is a real concern in this county," says John Graham, a Monaghan County Board official.

"For instance, the issue already came up when our own club, Kelleavy Sarsfields, was asked to share their home pitch. Our situation is unique because it is the parochial ground but it was the GAA club who developed it and built the covered stand and so on. But it led to a very acrimonious meeting with local soccer people, friends and neighbours basically.

"On a broader level, there is the genuine concern that soccer, to quote our own Paddy Kavanagh, would burgle the bank of our youth. The GAA is competing for members now and to invite a major sport like soccer into what is the GAA's cathedral could be regarded as foolhardy. People have their reasons for wanting to keep Rule 42. It is about different things to different people but as far as I can see, it is not about money."

Yet the financial imperative was at the forefront of Cavan's motion to remove Rule 42. Niall Dolan, a solicitor in Cootehill, helped draft his county's motion and to him, the issue is simple.

"That stadium, it burns money. If it was used even while Lansdowne Road is closed for development, the conservative income runs to between eight and 10 million (euro). That is a lot of Lotto tickets, as anyone who has gone around the pubs selling them knows. And the other reason we are pushing this is we would hate to see the day when Irish sports fans have to go to Anfield or Cardiff or London to see their national team play."

That circles to Burns's philosophy at the Silverbridge meeting. He, however, is not concerned about Croke Park as a potential source of income so much as that the GAA should do the egalitarian thing in terms of the economy. And he is partly intrigued to discover how the other sporting bodies would act if Rule 42 were amended, noting the significant silence from the IRFU in terms of their plans and options.

"I suppose it would be calling bluff in a way. The rugby fraternity has yet to publicly discuss its options. And sports bigotry is not the preserve of the GAA. When Shamrock Rovers were negotiating a ground in Tallaght to be shared with the GAA, it was met with placards stating GAA equals death. So we don't have a monopoly on fear."

Furthermore, just because the majority of Ulster delegates will travel to Dublin with the mandate to vote to preserve Rule 42 does not mean everyone they represent is in agreement. Eamon Grieve, the former Antrim football manager, stepped away from the bounty board last year but is disappointed Antrim are advocating a no-change vote, having supported the removal of Rule 42 three years ago.

Grieve believes the venomous reaction to that controversial Congress vote may have hardened attitudes in his county and is convinced if a popular vote were taken across Ulster, opinion would be evenly divided.

"I would still support the removal of Rule 42. I think to keep it is a bit inward-looking and fearful and, as a GAA man, I would love to see other nationalities coming to Dublin to enjoy our stadium. We have had concerts there and the wonderful spectacle of the Special Olympics and I just find it saddening that we are looking backwards in trying to determine what we are about as an organisation."

Perception seems to be at the heart of the matter for the GAA. Advocates for change recall the stinging reaction to the desperately narrow defeat the last time it was raised at Congress. Coming in a period when the GAA - or rather, the summer games in Croke Park - were being feted as progressive and trendy, the old insults and criticisms cut to the quick. As the voice for change emanated from county after county this week, the Ulster position was made to seem all the more stark and joyless.

The actual mechanisms of the voting procedure are such that the outcome is shaping up to become the stuff of a particularly gripping political election. If Rule 42 survives, then the deluge of scorn and criticism will fall upon the GAA once again.

"I remember meeting with Seán McCague after the last vote and he was personally very hurt by what was said and written afterwards," says Burns. "And it would be shameful if there was to be a repeat of that kind of invective."

Harsh words are not going to keep those in favour of preserving Rule 42 lying awake in their beds at night, however.

"None of that will cut any ice," says John Graham.

"They can call us anything they like," says Cormac McGill.

To the last, the broad Ulster stance is based on a conviction that in order to survive into the new millennium, the GAA must stand vigilant and watchful if they are not to become irrevocably diluted and finally ruined by throwaway influences.

"The association swept the country like a prairie fire," wrote Michael Cusack on the early years of the GAA. In Ulster, the blaze stays true to that original flame, even if its feeders have come to be regarded as a cult of heretics. Their lasting fear is should their conservatism prove as apt and prescient as they believe it to be, then the GAA will be powerless to reverse the inevitability of what was distinct and wonderful becoming just like everything else.

How it works: Motions and voting procedure

There are seven motions on Rule 42 listed for debate at Congress, writes Seán Moran. These have been proposed by Clare, Laois, Longford, Kerry, Roscommon, Sligo and Wicklow.

All of the proposals involve handing authority on the matter to Central Council in certain specified circumstances.

They range from the permissive - Longford's proposal that the only restriction on Central Council should be to make decisions on the use of Croke Park as "situations arise, circumstances develop or opportunities present themselves" - to the restrictive: that Central Council be given the power to consider the question on a match-by-match basis while work is going on in Lansdowne Road and that there be a reversion to the current situation as soon as that work is complete.

All of the other motions attach conditions of some sort, most prominently that the period for consideration be during the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

It is expected the counties concerned will devise a strategy whereby the motion with the best chance of succeeding will be put to Congress.

Otherwise, the GAA president Seán Kelly    may decide to take the motions in a certain order on the day.

Although the motions with the greatest chance of success are those suggesting the temporary use of Croke Park pending the redevelopment of the IRFU's stadium, they won't be treated as temporary for the purposes of the majority required.

In the past, experimental playing rules have been deemed to need only a simple majority but the president has already indicated he believes any change of Rule 42 would be a major policy shift and as such would require a two-thirds majority.

All told, there are 336 delegates entitled to attend.

Voting entitlements are based on the number of clubs in a county, with one delegate per 10 clubs. No county can have more than 10 or fewer than four.

In addition each county may also bring their Central Council delegate.

It is unlikely that all will attend Congress, particularly bearing in mind how distant some of the overseas units are.

Who can vote
 
Delegations To Gaa Congress (Including counties' Central Council delegates):

Connacht (33): Galway 10, Roscommon 6, Mayo 6, Sligo 6, Leitrim 5.

Leinster (98): Dublin 11, Meath 11, Wexford 11, Laois 10, Offaly 10, Kildare 9, Wicklow 8, Longford 6, Louth 6, Westmeath 6, Kilkenny 5, Carlow 5.

Munster (56): Cork 11, Limerick 11, Clare 10, Tipperary 9, Kerry 8, Waterford 7.

Ulster (67): Antrim 11, Down 8, Tyrone 8, Armagh 7, Cavan 7, Derry 7, Donegal 7, Fermanagh 6, Monaghan 6.

Management Committee (11): Seán Kelly (Kerry), Tommy Moran (Leitrim), Nickey Brennan (Kilkenny), Seán Fogarty (Tipperary), Michael Greenan (Cavan), Jim Treacy (Tyrone), Rory Kiely (Limerick), Gerry Mahon (Leitrim), John Greene (Longford), Séamus O'Brien (Waterford), Joe O'Boyle (Antrim).

Past presidents (10): Seán McCague (Monaghan), Joe McDonagh (Galway), Jack Boothman (Wicklow), Peter Quinn (Fermanagh), Michael Loftus (Mayo), Paddy Buggy (Kilkenny), Paddy McFlynn (Down), Con Murphy (Cork), Pat Fanning (Waterford), Séamus Ó Riain (Tipperary).

Overseas (56): North American Board 8, New York 6, Canada 4, Australia 4, Europe 4, Gloucestershire 4, Hertfordshire 4, Lancashire 5, London 5, Scotland 4, Warwickshire 4, Yorkshire 4.

Schools/Colleges/Handball (5).