Reason for this cloak and dagger stuff is a mystery

TOMORROW there is a march in Cork city to support the 2008 senior hurling panel at 3 o’clock in Emmet Place.

You are aware, unless you returned recently from a trip to the moons beyond Saturn, that there is a dispute/impasse/war to the death currently going on in Cork GAA circles.

And even if you were on a galactic trip of several years’ duration, chances are there was a dispute or strike or stand-off when you lifted off.

This protest march isn’t the first time people have taken to the streets to protest about GAA matters within the county.

As is the way in this drawn-out impasse, the march has a precedent in the disputes of recent years: almost exactly one year ago today over 2,000 supporters took to the streets protesting over last year’s stand-off between the Cork senior footballers and hurlers and the Cork County Board.

Those in favour of the march see it as an opportunity for those who are not involved in clubs to show their frustration, and are organising the event with the help of the peoplesrepublicofcork.com website, with the details available to everyone who logs on.

In contrast, it hasn’t been a great couple of weeks for transparency in the GAA’s official operations.

Last week the Cork County Board met the night after the Cork 2008 panel’s show of solidarity in the Maryborough House Hotel in Douglas.

All the players had been available for questions that evening, and the entire event is available to watch on the internet — coughs, interruptions and journalistic meanderings included.

Compare that with the Cork County Board meeting the following evening, which took place in camera.

It isn’t disappointing that such meetings are held behind closed doors; it’s disappointing that nobody is surprised any more that such meetings are held behind closed doors.

The overall effect is to contribute to the Cork County Board’s poor public image as a secretive organisation which makes decisions without regard for the people who support it at all levels with their hard-earned money.

Nobody is calling for a reckless lack of secrecy. It would be disingenuous to expect any organisation engaged in activities which include sensitive commercial negotiations to broadcast business secrets to the world.

However, it’s insulting people’s intelligence to insist on an iron curtain of secrecy for any meeting at which anything remotely controversial is likely to be discussed.

Perhaps Cork are adopting the example being set at the higher levels of the GAA in this regard.

Tomorrow’s march comes hot on the heels of Croke Park’s withdrawal from the search for a solution to the problem, though their involvement in that search was shrouded in mystery from the start.

Delegates at that Cork County Board meeting of last Tuesday night were informed that the GAA had been in contact with the county secretary, Frank Murphy, with an offer to intervene in the matter.

Nothing further was added by the GAA until a brief statement was e-mailed out on Wednesday night stating that the GAA saw no role for its Central Council in the dispute, though the inclusion of “at this time” in the statement gave Croke Park a launching pad to re-engage in the dispute.

No reasonable person would expect to be furnished with chapter and verse on any delicate negotiations while they were ongoing, but if the GAA wished to keep its involvement behind the scenes, why was its involvement publicised in the first place, within 24 hours of the hurlers’ press conference?

The reversal is reminiscent of last November, when GAA President Nickey Brennan said first that Cork could play St Colman’s in a one-off challenge game, the Central Competitions Control Committee said they couldn’t, and then the CCCC revisited the situation and discovered that the game could go ahead after all.

Clear as mud, but consistent with the behind-closed-doors approach we’re used to.

By contrast, tomorrow’s march is open to all.

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