GAA reaping benefits of Rule 42 amendment

AMENDING Rule 42 to allow rugby and soccer be played in Croke Park has enhanced the profile of the GAA, according to president Sean Kelly.

He added that the benefits had been enormous in terms of people coming into the Association and being willing to become sponsors.

Mr Kelly was speaking at a gala sports awards banquet in Spanish Point, where the players chosen on the ‘best’ Clare hurling and football teams of the past 25 years were honoured, along with the ‘Clare Champion’ 2005 teams of the county championship in both codes.

Emphasising the importance of ecumenism in sport, Mr Kelly recalled the time when ‘other’ sports were regarded as enemies of the GAA and efforts were made to keep them down. He said the Rule 42 debate was a statement saying that the GAA was strong enough to accommodate those other sports. Mr Kelly said that of all the All-Ireland successes of the last ten years, Clare’s hurling victories in 1995 and 1997 had given him ‘the greatest satisfaction’, particularly because of the manner in which they had been achieved. Praising the county teams for maintaining that high standard, he envisaged that they would enjoy success ‘more often’ in the future.

Board chairman Michael McDonagh referred to the omission of Ger Loughnane from the ‘best’ Clare hurling team of the last 25 years by rejecting newspaper criticism that he had been ‘snubbed’. Loughnane had starred at right half-back on the Clare teams of the mid-70’s which won two League titles, but the position went to Liam Doyle who achieved even more distinction during the county’s glorious triumphs of the last decade under Loughnane’s management.

Manager Anthony Daly (included at right corner-back), spoke on behalf of all the award winners and acknowledged the difficulty of selecting the teams. “You just have to think of the people who are not sitting on the stage here tonight to appreciate what an honour this is.”

Special awards were made to Fr Harry Bohan and Noel Walsh, for their respective contributions to hurling and football in the county.

BEST OF CLARE SELECTIONS 1980-2005:

HURLING: D. Fitzgerald; A. Daly, B. Lohan, F. Lohan; L. Doyle, S. McMahon, S. Stack; O. Baker, C. Lynch; J. Callinan, C. Clancy, J. O’Connor; G. O’Loughlin, T. Guilfoyle, G. McInerney.

FOOTBALL: M. Flynn; S. Clancy, G. Kelly, K. O’Mahony; F. Griffin, J.J. Rouine, T. Tubridy; A. Moloney, T. Morrissey; N. Roche, F. McInerney, G. Killeen; P. Conway, S. Moloney, M. Daly.