Kildare dispute comes to a head

The fractured relationship between the Kildare County Board and their fund raising arm — Club Kildare — came to a head at a specially convened EGM in the Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge last night.

The meeting was called after Club Kildare officers became disillusioned with the lack of “support and co-operation” since becoming a sub-committee of the county board 12 months ago.

County board chairman John McMahon and treasurer Martin Whyte, who is also treasurer of Club Kildare, were among crowd of around 40 members in attendance as Club Kildare chairman Pat Mangan and his officers aired their grievances.

Club Kildare, who have raised €1.75m for Kildare GAA during Mangan’s ten year tenure as chairman, feel a distinct lack of communication between the two committees has severely hampered attempts to raise the sort of their funds that they have in previous years.

The fund raising committee were angered that they didn’t have a vote at the time of the removal of Kieran McGeeney as manager but had other issues as well.

One example given by Club Kildare was their desire to run an their annual race day at Naas racecourse on October Bank Holiday Monday. It was to be part of a huge weekend that would have involved a testimonial for retiring senior footballers and Dermot Earley and Ronan Sweeney the previous day and a gala dinner that night. Club Kildare felt that weekend could have raised over €100,000 for Kildare GAA but that was put on the back burner as the county board went ahead with their own fund raising initiatives which raised only a fraction of that amount.