Rumble in New York as Moore takes on Dooley

THE New York GAA board is set for a stormy leadership election in the Bronx tomorrow with incumbent chairman Seamus Dooley facing a challenge for the role just one year into his tenure.

Ex-pats in the Big Apple are regarding the election as one of the most contentious in the recent history of the New York GAA, following a stormy monthly delegate meeting which saw challenger John Moore accuse Dooley of trying to keep him off the ballot and ask the chairman why he had not suspended his own club for failing to fulfil a fixture.

Dooley denies both charges but there are other issues concerning the future of Gaelic games in the city that will be at the heart of tomorrow’s decision-making process, including greater integration with the New York Minor Board, the development of underage hurling, the immigration difficulties faced by players coming from Ireland and the “ownership” of the Randall’s Island project to provide wholly-owned GAA grounds and facilities within the five boroughs.

Moore, a former New York GAA vice-president, portrayed the election as a stark choice between himself and the “status quo” as epitomised by Dooley, and while both agree the Randall’s Island scheme is a priority, there are vastly different visions of how it should be implemented and by whom.

The Randall’s Island Gaelic Sports (RIGS) Group, of which Moore is a founding member, is overseeing the project to bring a stadium, playing fields, banqueting facilities and a cultural centre to a site underneath the Triborough Bridge between the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens.

Separate from the New York GAA, RIGS was given permission to proceed with the project by the City of New York in October 2003 and the right to go into contract last January.

Yet the only investment of substance revealed so far has been the $2 million (€1.7 million) pledged by the GAA in Ireland, and a delegation from Croke Park crossed the Atlantic during the summer in a bid to bring fresh impetus to the project. GAA President Sean Kelly and former chairman Peter Quinn are due to visit New York again on December 17 having formed an advisory committee to investigate the viability of the plans. Moore is campaigning for better leadership within the New York GAA to help steer Randall’s Island to completion.

“This project has sadly lacked the support of the New York GAA,” Moore claimed.

Dooley, however, contends that the original RIGS has been displaced by the Croke Park advisory committee led by Peter Quinn.

“Croke Park has appointed Peter Quinn as chairman and we can only have one chairman,” Dooley said. “Croke Park has put up $2m with the promise of more, so they should be in charge.”

That has been contested by Moore and former NYGAA president Monty Maloney, the president of the original RIGS. At a recent New York GAA meeting, Maloney told delegates he was president of RIGS “by law, by contract and no one can change officers.” Moore has also accused Dooley and the NY board of falsely claiming it was they who brought a deeper involvement from Croke Park.

“It was not the NYGAA under the chair or the previous chairman who got Sean Kelly to come out here, it was Monty Maloney. Since he left, the Association never got any leadership on Randall’s Island from the people that succeeded him.”