As a member of the GAA for over 50 years it truly pains and upsets me to see how this once great association now treats it’s members who are unable to attend many big games as they may have done in former years. It’s an absolute disgrace that this past weekend two of the All-Ireland Football quarter-final games could not be viewed on free-to-air television.
Last month some of the high-profile hurling games were similarly unable to be viewed. Shame on the GAA for hiding behind this GAAGo ‘paywall’, shame on the GAA for saying ‘we’ll look at it at the end of the year’.
It makes my blood boil to think of great GAA people in Monaghan, Kerry, Tyrone and Armagh who could not travel to Croke Park on Saturday. Were RTÉ asked to televise these games? Were TG4 asked?
I don’t know but to not broadcast these games live for all to see is nothing short of a sporting scandal.
Of course the GAA needs financial income and I realise full well that the GAA disperses huge revenue annually to counties and clubs throughout the land but surely the association has a duty to cater for the thousands of genuine supporters and members who wish to view the games at home. I don’t want any GAA spokesperson giving me all that auld guff about building a viewing platform or contractual obligations or such gibberish.
You know it’s not just about the €12 fee to watch the game. No, that’s not the point. We are supposed to be an amateur association built on the sweat and effort of volunteers over the last 139 years.
Volunteers like me and thousands of others in every corner of the country who don’t demand much from the GAA. We don’t seek mileage or expenses or salaries or perks or junkets or free tickets. We love Gaelic games and do our best to promote them but when we want to view attractive games in our own home the GAA treats us like dirt.
John Arnold
Fermoy
Co Cork
Remembering the legacy of Fr Mathew
I would like to remind your readers about the great legacy that Fr Theobald Mathew left to this city and to invite them to come along to the annual commemoration in honour of Fr Mathew, which will take place on Tuesday next July 4 at 7.30pm in St. Josephs Cemetery, Tory Top Road, Ballyphehane.
Fr Mathew was a man who threw himself into Cork life as he found it. A great educator and a social worker, a man who promoted cultural activities and a man who worked to promote the dignity of all those he came in contact with by doing such things as purchasing the old Botanic Gardens and thus creating a place where the poor could be buried.
He did all this as well as working to help families suffering because of addiction. Cork Pioneers strive to continue to follow his wonderful example today.
Refreshments after the event will be available in Togher Community Centre, Togher Road.
Sorcha Uí Laoghaire
Cork Regional Pioneer Council
An Tóchar
Cork
Making peace with Keane Israeli move
In his insightful and amusing article, Tommy Martin envisions Robbie Keane responding to widespread criticism of his move with the rhetorical question: “How does lining up a 4-3-3 for Maccabi
equate to supporting Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing regime with their escalating plans for new settlements in the West Bank?”
This imaginary retort raises a stark point. As manager at Maccabi Tel Aviv, Keane will presumably be obliged to field teams against clubs which are based in illegal Israeli colonial settlements.
A challenging new job is one thing, but has Keane made his peace with normalising and legitimising what UN regards as “a flagrant violation of international law”?
Brian Ó Éigeartaigh
Donnybrook
Dublin 4
Cap RTÉ wages and invest in new talent
Due to its literally competitive nature, professional team sport often provides good analogy for business.
Apart from exceptions where it is genuinely difficult to fill specific gaps in teams, the approach is generally to leave its “stars” to market forces: if they can get more elsewhere, giddy up.
In complement, an academy system, to nurture emerging, homegrown talent proves an efficient way to identify, develop and secure rising elite players.
RTÉ could, as a thought, cap the payments to its allegedly flight-risk top-10 at say €150,000 (keeping in mind that it is a semi-state organisation, and that, for reference, a director of service at a local authority tops out at €122,506).
It could use the savings to create an emerging talent pipeline, who can snap at the heels of the incumbent, and when (or maybe, if) the current top earners get poached elsewhere, there is a ready-made replacement already togged off, who could well be the star of tomorrow.
If Pat Kenny’s departure from RTÉ and his replacement by Sean O’Rourke is anything to go by, the value of an established star to drive viewership or listenership is, at best, questionable.
Why not put this supposed irreplaceability to the test? The team may perform just as well, or even better, without them.
Conor Mooney
Paris
Broadcasting fiasco can leave lessons
A positive outcome of the fiasco at RTÉ is that the principles, parameters, ethics and mindset that must underpin public service broadcasting have crystallised and have become tangible to all concerned: RTÉ, the Irish public and the Oireachtas ‘overseers’.
Public service broadcasting is imperative to a functioning democracy, it requires full transparency in corporate governance, it bestows ‘celebrity’ status on some that must be reciprocated with candour and integrity and it must have the unquestioned confidence of the public.
A very tall order in terms of the proliferation of populist media in this ‘digital age’ but is thereby all the more precious and intractable.
Michael Gannon,
St Thomas Square
Kilkenny
Ban on hunting an absurd contention
I am a passionate gardener.
A great garden requires patience, knowledge of plants and environment and careful human intervention.
Left entirely to its own devices it will eventually end up a mess dominated by the toughest weeds and sharpest brambles.
A good forester will tell you that any plantation of trees requires thinning to bring out the best and healthiest growth, and a viticulturalist points to careful pruning or grape vines will eventually produce weak and sour grapes.
In all cases, careful human intervention is required to bring the best out of nature.
So it was with some amusement I see John Tierney calling for ‘a total ban on hunting of wildlife’ ( 'Conservation Must Include Protection’ Irish Examiner, June 19).
The only conclusion one can come to is this man simply doesn’t understand nature any more than the so-called animal rights activists who released thousands upon thousands of highly aggressive mink into the Irish countryside, over 5,000 in one incident alone in Donegal in 2010.
Mink are now a serious problem in many parts of the country where they have a devastating effect on many species of ground nesting birds, including many of those on the amber list people like MrvTierney claim to be so keen to protect.
Are these the kind of people we want to see in charge of natural conservation? I think not as they only seem to be capable of seeing one side of the equation, a fact that will be remembered come next election. It is left to hunters and trappers to clean up the mess made by so-called animal rights activists like those who released the mink.
Anyone who grew up in the countryside on or near a farm will also know there are many other animal species that need some degree of human control – grey crows and magpies both prey on the eggs and young of other bird species, grey crows can peck out the eyes of young rabbits or new born lambs; several species of bird destroy tillage crops by scratching out seedlings, or contaminate animal feed; rats carry disease and are never far from human activity. Is all hunting and trapping of these animals to be stopped?
The logic extends all the way down to ants, ticks, slugs and mosquitoes if human control of animal species is to be banned.
Like gardening, it is all about moderation, not extremism.
Good gardeners eradicate or control invasive harmful species like Japanese knotweed or other weeds where necessary to allow the garden to flourish; conservation of our natural habitat requires similar careful human intervention.
There is no room for extremism in our society, whatever form it takes.
Nick Folley
Carrigaline
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