Preaching the need for change

THERE was a time when the great trinity of Irish society, Fianna Fáil, the Catholic Church and the GAA, looked impregnable. Michael Moynihan left the politics out of it and chatted to Fr Harry Bohan about the Association and the Church.

THE links between the church and the GAA are so plentiful it’s hard to know where to begin.

The parish rule for clubs; Archbishop Croke lending his name to the biggest GAA stadium in the country; those fantastic 1930’s photographs of bishops in Fitzgerald Stadium, sitting on plush thrones.

Plenty of evidence for those who viewed the church and the GAA as two of the cornerstones of Irish society, but things have changed. The church’s recent travails are well documented, and its declining relationship with the GAA is crystallised neatly by Fr Harry Bohan, former Clare senior hurling selector and well-known advocate of rural development.

“One of the things that hits me straightaway is Iggy Clarke of Galway was the last priest to win an All-Ireland medal, which shows the clergy are by and large out of the GAA.

“There’s very few clergy left anyway, but very few of what’s left is involved in the GAA. Younger priests wouldn’t have anything like the interest in or commitment to the GAA that our generation had.”

Bohan, now director of Céifin, an organisation set up to generate debate on social change issues, can provide plenty of evidence to back up his assertions: ordained in the 1960’s, when he went to Maynooth to study for the priesthood he saw enough footballing talent there to produce a team that could give the All-Ireland senior champions a good game: “You had county minors there that time who couldn’t get on class teams.

“There’s a massive break there now. For years priests were part of the GAA, but that’s changed.”

Anyone who knows the Clare native won’t be surprised when he produces a wider social context for the withdrawal of priests from the GAA.

“What ties into that is the fact that because priests are scarce on the ground they’re pulling out of organisations like the GAA — and other bodies, like community development organisations.

“As a result we’re trying to get lay people involved in the church and to take responsibility for that — and for those other bodies. The scarcity and lack of interest means priests have little or no involvement in the GAA — but that’s not a bad thing in this particular sense: where I am now, Sixmilebridge, the GAA is alive and well and making a massive contribution to the local community, it’s very successful — and that’s run by the people of the club, the lads who played themselves.

“All I do is I encourage them. I’m the club patron but the fact that the people themselves run the club is important, as is the fact that they’re willing and able to do it. I’m talking about people like Davy Fitzgerald, who might be well known for playing with Clare and coaching Waterford, but he also does huge work with the club and with people outside the club.

“There was a time when priests were involved in clubs and so on for no other reason than they were priests. What they knew about what they were doing apart from that was another story, maybe.”

Bohan goes even further when you ask if the GAA is suffering because of the lack of church involvement compared to the past.

“No. It’s a good thing, I think.

“I was at a meeting the other night and I brought up the notion of ‘clericalism’, which I feel is the scourge of the church here. Clericalism means that clerics have to have control of the local church, it’s all about protecting institutions and power and so on, which is one reason the church has been brought to its knees.

“That kind of church, permeated with clericalism, has no place in any future society in my book.

“In society in the past leadership was based on command and control, top-down authority. Leadership in the future, to me, will have to be about facilitating people on the ground: in GAA terms this means that club by club there are people willing and able to work for the club. They’ll make mistakes along the way, but that’s the future — local power.

“If you doubt that, look at the banks — it’s a long time since a local bank manager had any real power, and see where that got us. To get out of the recession we’re going to have to go back to a more balanced society.”

On balance, was that high level of church involvement good for the GAA?

“It was fine in its time, but it’s history now. Part of the past. It has no part in the GAA or the Ireland of the future. That was all about power, control, authority . . . I can bring it into a deeper level. Next Thursday is Holy Thursday and the image I’ll be using is that of Christ washing the feet of the disciples. In other words, the church of the future must be a humble church, one of service. There’s no place for the church of pomp, of power, of command and control. That has no place in the future.

“That applies to other organisations that have gone wrong too, of course — the likes of the banks, or FÁS, or other bodies. Ordinary people are willing to do a lot now, and that’s the kind of energy and ability that must be harnessed in the future — you’re talking about bottom-up activity, rather than the control and authority I mentiond earlier.

“How does that tie into the GAA? I don’t want to touch specifically on what’s happening in Limerick, but the GAA is going to have to acknowledge that the people who play the games must be recognised in a far deeper way than just letting them tog out and play hurling or football.

“They have minds and opinions and they’re the people who keep the GAA going. I made a statement one time — and it’s been quoted by plenty of others since who said I was right — that if there was never a player the GAA would still meet. And that’s a fact.

“There are people within the GAA — and they’ve been involved in the GAA forever — and they have forgotten that simple fact: without the players there’s no GAA.”

In that sense, is the GAA one organisation which is going to have to learn to adapt to survive?

“You’re right. EF Schumacher wrote a book in the 60’s, ‘Small Is Beautiful’, and said we’d reach a stage when we wouldn’t need preachers or teachers to tell us what events would bring home to us — the need for change.

“These events have hit us now — in the church, the economy, everywhere. Those events are all about us and we don’t need anyone to tell us there’s a need for change. The GAA must learn that as well — not to wait until the whole thing falls down around them.

“There’s huge competition now for the hearts and minds of people — not just among different sports — and the GAA has a long way to go.”