Innovative plan to play Railway Cup finals on world stage

IN a last-ditch attempt to get the ailing Railway Cup hurling and football competitions back on track, former Munster Council chairman and current trustee of the GAA, Noel Walsh of Clare, has revolutionary proposals to put to the next meeting of Central Council tomorrow week.

Mr Walsh, a passionate advocate of the inter-provincial series, is proposing the hurling final be played on the Continent with the football to be staged in New York.

If Mr Walsh’s proposals are accepted, the next hurling final will be played in Brussels, with Rome, Paris and Madrid earmarked for subsequent finals.

Both finals would be played annually on the holiday weekend in late October with the semi-finals staged on the second Sunday in October after the completion of the All-Ireland finals.

Mr Walsh said yesterday the proposed new ventures would be “self-financing” and he has a sponsor on board already.

He said he was aware the dates would clash with the Compromise Rules Internationals between Ireland and Australia but he insisted there were enough players in each of the four provinces to field formidable teams without their Irish representatives.

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the inter-provincial competitions.

They were an instant hit with the public and enjoyed tremendous support in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, with attendances at the finals on St Patrick’s Day regularly reaching the 50,000 mark.

According to Mr Walsh, attendances plummeted following the advent of live television and he also blamed the dramatic fall off on “shameful neglect and lack of promotion and presentation on the part of the GAA hierarchy”.

When quizzed on the feasibility of playing the hurling final in Brussels from a spectator perspective, Mr Walsh replied: “You won’t get a much lower attendance at a hurling final than the 200 who turned up in Nenagh this year for the final between Munster and Connacht.”

And he pointed out that when National League winners Clare played Wexford in a tournament game in Amsterdam in the late 1970s a crowd of 5,000 turned up.

Mr Walsh said if his proposals were accepted by Central Council they would give the Railway Cups a much-needed new dimension.

“The competitions would become more attractive to the players and would attract a new audience. It would also open up new cultural links with the European Community.”