What matters now for the GAA is what happens next

The publication of a first Annual Report is a significant milestone in the term of a director general. Tom Ryan has served in that role since April 2018 and it is fair to say that it has been a bumpy ride.

But nobody can doubt his decency and sincerity, and it shines through his annual report. It is not without its difficulties, but there is an engagement in the report that is a welcome shift of tone.

To begin with, the best news contained therein: the slow, painstaking moves to create a ‘combined entity’ between the GAA, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, and An Cumann Camogaiochta are continuing to make progress.

The growth in the number of girls and women playing Gaelic games in recent decades has transformed the atmosphere in many GAA clubs. The logical extension of this is formal alignment. Movestoward this end are only to be commended.

Tom Ryan’s tenure hascoincided with the clear evidence that there are significant challenges to the long-term prosperity of the GAA, as well of course as the usual hazardous controversies that always raise their heads in any GAA year.

To deal first with some of those controversies. In his annual report, Tom Ryan offers a calm, rationale appraisal of the ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’ midsummer madness. He writes: “It was done as quickly as a thorough process would permit, with a minimum of fuss and with evident goodwill on all parts.

"But against a backdrop of hype and speculation which belied all of that and created inordinate pressures and tensions. It was a difficult two days and there were undoubtedly a few lessons learned along the way.”

This is fair, open and rational explanation. More to the point, there are considered steps underway to ensure no repeat: GAA Congress is to debate a motion rewording the rule governing venues which will remove ambiguity around the CCCC’s remit and proposals are at an advanced stage to redevelop StConleth’s Park in Newbridge.

Less convincing is the part of the report that deals with Páirc Uí Chaíomh.

It remains a startling fact that it is still not clear just how much money the GAA now owes on Páirc Uí Chaíomh, a stadium that was promised to be delivered debt-free.

Tom Ryan now concedes that “there will be a significant debt to be discharged over the coming years” and notes that “short-term funding and management expertise has been secured from Croke Park Stadium”.

He then continues by saying:

“This will not, however, impact upon other counties or on funding for projects elsewhere.” But how can that be the case? If money from Croke Park is tied up in Cork, does it not automatically mean it can’t be used for other purposes?

And if the Association carries debt, it must ultimately pay that debt. And that, in turn, means that money, too, must be used for that purpose and not for any other.

There is tension, too, in the section on the Liam Miller Charity Game.

Tom Ryan rightly prefaces his remarks with a reminder that the “purpose of the game was charitable; all involved were doing things for the best of reasons and the main thing is that the Miller family benefited from the event.

Everything else is secondary, and any reservations I have about the episode should be seen in that light.” He writes later in the section that of “overwhelming sentiment being that we felt we had been bullied into a course of action that we might well have taken anyway if given the chance”.

There are two issues with that statement: the use of the word “bullied” is jarring.

More problematic, is the statement that agreeing to stage the match was a course of action that might well have been taken anyway.

The problem with that claim is that in the sentence just before it, Tom Ryan writes: “I don’t think any of us were enthusiastic about the outcome we reached.” And before than again, he notes:

“We try to conduct our affairs well.

"Much of the clamour that arose amounted to demands for us to just ignore our own standards, and indeed our decision makers.

"To ignore the rule, or find a loophole and host the game. As a governing body charged with trying to uphold standards we should not be in the business of finding ways around our own rules. I personally should certainly not be.”

Tom Ryan then continues: “Nonetheless as the days progressed it became evident that to not ‘find a way’ would only do the Association more reputational damage, however unjustified. So that is what we did — we found a way around our own rules. That is something I am still very uncomfortable with.” But, if there was personal discomfort, a broader institutional distaste for ignoring the GAA’s own rules, and a motivation to act that resided in a desire to restrict reputational damage, how can it be claimed that the GAA “might well have taken anyway if given the chance”?

Whatever about that, what matters here is what happens next.

What the Liam Miller controversy showed up, more than anything else, is the extent to which there is a fundamental disconnect between the changed nature of Irishsociety and the inherent decency of so many people within the GAA, on the one side, and the historical legacies of aspects of the GAA’s rulebook, on the other.

It will require great skill and great courage to embrace the challenge of marrying those two sides — but this is a challenge that must be embraced.

As to the longer-term challenges, these are set out with admirable brevity by Tom Ryan in his conclusion:

There are tensions to be resolved ... urbanisation and the difficulties in rural Ireland, club and county balance, fair allocation of resources, the pressures of the elite games.

A small library’s worth of pages have been written already about fixtures, about rule changes, and about money. It is enough to say here that the welcome small steps set out in the report as having been taken do not amount to a plan and will not bring the transformative change that is required.

But this nod to “urbanisation and the difficulties in rural Ireland” is, ultimately, a massive issue which the GAA must engage with.

Tom Ryan’s capacity to grasp this thorniest of issues and drag it into the centre of debate in the GAA may well define the historical significance of his tenure as director general. Put bluntly, there is a fundamental debate to be had on how the GAA is structured.

A recent report by the ESRI entitled ‘Prospects for Irish Regions and Counties: Scenarios and Implications’ sets out how the population of the Republic of Ireland is likely to grow by one million in the next two decades.

And because of the likely destination of the growth in jobs being Dublin, the population growth will inevitably also be in the greater Dublin area.

Indeed, the population in the ‘Dublin and Mid-East region’ is expected to increase from 1.91 million in 2016 to 2.35 million in 2040.

We can see this change already happening all around us. The population of Dublin is already double that of the rest of Leinster, much more than double that of the whole of Connacht, and greater than the whole of Munster.

Further, the age profile of the population within counties is also important. The areas with the youngest average are in Dublin and surrounding counties.

And those with the oldest average age are out west and down south.

This matters profoundly to the future of the GAA.

There is a paragraph in are port published recently by Laois GAA which carries a chilling message.

It reads:

“The most worrying aspect … is a concern for the survival of several clubs in Laois due to a decline in playing numbers, especially at underage levels. Most of the clubs which find themselves in this position currently play as part of a combined underage team and are most unlikely to ever field on their own again at underage level.

The commitment of the officers, players, and supporters from these clubs is to be admired, but the reality is that stark decisions await these clubs at some stage over the next decade.

The report continues:

‘‘Those clubs ultimately have two options — disappear altogether or amalgamate, acceptingthat the latter option is not be an ideal outcome for any GAA club.” The story of Laois is repeated across rural Ireland.

Meanwhile, in Dublin, there are clubs teeming with players but with no land on which to play.

It all means there is a broad structural conversation about what shape the GAA might take within this new Ireland that is growing around us.

As well as firefighting the inevitable controversy, Tom Ryan must lead the way in asking the question: ‘‘What will the GAA be like in 20 years time?’

Paul Rouse is associate professor of history at UCD.