Where’s the response to GAA’s sporting gesture?
He takes issue with a statement of mine sent to the media on March 24 dealing with the implementation of the GAA’s decision on Rule 42 made at congress in 2005.
In my statement I said that I accepted the decision made... I just wanted to see it properly implemented.
Obviously your reporter/columnist does not believe me, as evidenced by his snide comment, “yeah, John, right”.
Diarmuid O’Flynn is long enough involved in the GAA to know that congress decisions are binding on the association in word and spirit.
For his benefit I repeat my assertion that the GAA decided as “sporting ecumenists” to make Croke Park available for international soccer and rugby when the FAI and IRFU no longer had a stadium available to host home fixtures.
In a newspaper like the Irish Examiner I would have expected that the very least that would be demanded from journalists is accuracy.
Before Diarmuid O’Flynn comments on someone else’s statements or writings, he should have the decency to read what’s in them - not what he thinks might be in them.
He wrote: “John (Arnold) goes on to quote GAA president Séan Kelly... immediately after the vote.”
I said nothing of the sort - read it again, Diarmuid. The issue on which I was seeking clarity was very simple.
In January 2006, Séan Kelly confirmed to a GAA central council meeting that if planning permission had not been granted and reconstruction work had not commenced at Lansdowne Road, other sports could not be played in Croke Park.
Then on March 18, in an RTÉ radio interview, the president said the exact opposite. I called on Mr Kelly to clarify the position. In a Sunday newspaper on March 26 he promised to respond fully to “Arnold’s inaccurate allegations” (his words, not mine).
The silence from Mr Kelly in the meantime has been deafening.
Diarmuid O’Flynn said he hated the “mean spiritedness of this small but vocal element in the GAA - leading their charge is John Arnold”. I’ve been called many things in my time but mean-spirited - never.
I’ve met Mr O’Flynn twice and spoken to him on the phone on three occasions, so he should wait till he knows me better before branding me as ‘mean-spirited’. He claims he is a “sporting ecumenist”. But I always thought sporting ecumenism was a two-way thing, with give-and-take on both sides. Well, the GAA’s rule change in 2005 has been widely lauded. What quid-pro-quo has been given?
We were told that, when redeveloped, Lansdowne Road would be big enough for hurling. Sorry, not any more.
We were told that the semi-derelict, half-built stadium in Tallaght would be developed for GAA, soccer and rugby. Sorry, forget about that. No GAA allowed.
On the inter-county front, the second most important Gaelic football competition is the national league. In the GAA fixture list published last October, the date for the league final was fixed for Sunday, April 23, in Croke Park.
Meanwhile, Munster and Leinster qualified to meet each other in the Heineken Cup semi-final. When and where is it fixed for? Sunday, April 23, Lansdowne Road. There’s sporting ecumenism for ye.
As for Diarmuid O’Flynn likening me to Real IRA extremists, all I can say is it isn’t long ago since I was accused of being a ‘Blueshirt sympathiser’. I must be a living example of a political ecumenist!
John Arnold
Bartlemy
Co Cork
