Duffy allays Páirc Uí Chaoimh project fears
Although demolition work is well underway at the site, there has been no update on the €30 million Government funding towards the stadium after claims in April that it had been withheld, pending the Cork County Board completing cost-effectiveness analysis report on the initiative.
It has since been reported that county secretary Frank Murphy was surprised when he was asked by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for additional financial information on the €70m stadium reconstruction.
In April, the board denied the funding had been held back, while Duffy played down the issue at the time. And while he admits the redevelopment of Casement Park is a more difficult prospect, Duffy continues to insist he hasn’t the slightest concern for Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“Páirc Ui Chaoimh will be fine,” Duffy said, speaking to the Irish Examiner yesterday. “There are some issues, but Páirc Ui Chaoimh generally is, I think, making good progress and I’d have no worries about how that is developing. There will always be some issues but it’s actually going really well.
“Casement at the moment is difficult. The judicial review meant we had to reapply for planning permission. It’s a slow process. We have to make sure this time in making the application that every I is dotted and T is crossed. I am still absolutely confident it will go ahead. It will take time and people obviously become impatient but a lot of hard work is being done at the moment. We’ve probably lost at least a year but I’m still confident it will go ahead.”
Duffy said the GAA and GPA will meet shortly to address the GAA’s anti-doping committee’s concerns in light of Thomas Connolly’s positive drugs test. They were alarmed about the “apparent lack of understanding and application of the anti-doping rules and processes at county level in this case”.
“There will be discussions,” he said. “I have to be careful as there are three weeks to appeal but clearly, clearly we need to look at the findings very carefully. If there are lessons to be taken from it, then the GPA and ourselves need to do that and will do that over the coming weeks. There is responsibility on the GPA and ourselves to work together and I know we’re already looking at setting up a meeting to look at what both of need to do and what areas need to be improved on. Whatever is done will be done together.”
Meanwhile, Duffy’s fellow Monaghan man Nudie Hughes believes Drew Wylie’s season-ending cruciate injury will ensure the team are not complacent going into Sunday’s Ulster semi-final against Fermanagh.
“The injury that Drew has sustained will definitely re-engage the team and make them focus even more. There’s no doubt that complacency is something that has to be discussed going into a game like this. They know Fermanagh are Division 3 and they drew with Armagh who they saw lose so badly against Donegal. Monaghan will take no chances and I’m very confident they will win by five or six points.”
Hughes feels Wylie’s injury may not be felt until later in the championship. “He was just coming back into the right form and he’s a big-game player. Of all the man-marking jobs, he’s been given the most physical player. He is a big loss although Colin Walshe has come back and Karl O’Connell is playing well.”
The three-time All Star is also worried Monaghan don’t score enough goals. “Malachy O’Rourke has Monaghan believing and they’re going places and (Conor) McManus in the form that he is can cause every team problems. But we’re not scoring goals. The problem with the inside forward line is we don’t have a Tommy Freeman who can poach a goal. Goals kill off teams and Monaghan are lacking in that area.”
Joined by Ireland International Rules manager Joe Kernan, Hughes and Duffy were speaking at the launch of the Shabra Charity Foundation’s plans to fundraise €750,000 for Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) screening equipment in the Mater Hospital. It is Rita Shah’s determination to fulfil the dying wish of her business partner and popular Monaghan horse-trainer Oliver Brady who passed away in September last year.
Ireland is the only country in western Europe without DNA genomic sequencing equipment, which is able to detect 70% of SDS. Approximately one person a week dies in this country of SDS, Tyrone captain Cormac McAnallen in 2004 the most high-profile casualty of the gene mutation disease.
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