Convention were wrong on Croker

RECEIVED a letter a few weeks ago from a Cork minor selector (or maybe it was all five, it wasn’t made clear).

Having made a strong case against my claim that Newtownshandrum star James Bowles was “practically ignored by the county minor selectors,” the letter ended with the following statement: “Diarmuid, take the chip off your shoulder, it is time now to support Cork teams without being negative.”

Right there he lost me, completely.

I take as much pride, pleasure and satisfaction in being a Corkonian as anyone, I tremble with the nerves, the adrenaline, when Cork are playing in any game, any grade, either gender.

But I am not here as a cheerleader for Cork teams, as an apologist for anything the Cork County Board might do. I’m a journalist from Cork, writing for a Cork-based national newspaper, but I’m nobody’s house-puppy and will call it as I see it.

For that, I will take any amount of criticism, fair or otherwise, in any situation, pub, letter, e-mail, or phone call. But I won’t suffer personal insult. So, to whoever composed that final paragraph, a reply as gentle as legal limitations will permit in these columns - save it.

It’s with that in mind then that we proceed to the gist of this week’s piece. When he was playing, I loved watching Jimmy Barry-Murphy, with club and county, hurling and football. He was brilliant, electric. At the time I was working in construction, with not a lot of opportunity to let the man know how I felt.

When he became Cork manager I was less than impressed with the same Jimmy, made no secret of it. By then I had a pen and as I always did, always will, felt obliged to use it honestly.

I upset the man then, compounded that when quoting him on another issue where he felt I was mocking his accent by including a colloquialism he uses (I think it was the word ‘boy,’ but not sure of that). I wasn’t, I like local accents, hate blandness and will include local colour whenever it’s used in an interview.

I make no apology whatsoever for anything I wrote throughout that period. In these columns it is never the intention to personally insult, to hurt. But, you learn to live with it because you learn, when you’re in the criticism business, from time to time, it happens.

One thing I have consistently said is that off the field, Jimmy Barry-Murphy was always one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, a true gentleman. He would go out of his way to do the decent thing, the nice gesture, did so with me in the early 80’s when, though almost 30, I made my League debut for Cork.

That chance came at a very late stage, the red jersey meant so much, I was as nervous as bedamned, a lost sheep in a group of sleek thoroughbreds. He probably doesn’t remember it, but Jimmy Barry-Murphy, the biggest star of all, made it a point to have more than just a word, before, during and after games.

When a guy like that takes it on himself to go on the national airwaves and criticise in no uncertain terms what happened in the Croke Park discussion at the Cork GAA convention last Sunday week, you know he’s upset. He had every right to be.

Reports of that discussion could have been dated a century ago. A number of statements stood up and lashed you across the cheeks but one stands out for me.

It was the claim that the fact there was no motion before the meeting from any club that Croke Park should be opened up to either soccer or rugby showed there was no support for it in Cork. Wrong.

I was at the Ballyhea agm. The only reason I didn’t propose such a motion was that I was too distracted by another emotive issue on regrading.

I’m kicking myself now and I’m sure there are plenty of others in other clubs also.

In saying what he did, Jimmy Barry-Murphy was again showing the character that had always marked him out as special.

I agree wholeheartedly with him. This is not to malign the delegates who attended that meeting.

On this issue, however, they were wrong. Most of the Cork people I speak to on this are in favour of opening up Croke Park, taking the money, using it to best GAA advantage. It’s true the GAA doesn’t owe anyone anything, not the government, not the IRFU, the FAI.

But what about goodwill? Whether the Cork County Board like it or not, in support of our national soccer and rugby teams on this island, with or without the six counties, with or without our Orange British/Irish brethren, we are all from the same family.

A thought: if it became a reality that Ireland would face France in Croke Park in the World Cup qualifiers, would that be enough to coax a Roy Keane return? The FAI could do worse than ask JBM to act as go-between.