Congress grapples with the ‘melee’

The Oxford English Dictionary makes no attempt to quantify how many people it takes to constitute a melee but a few hundred men and women of the GAA will be asked to take up that slack when they meet at Annual Congress later this year.

“A confused fight or scuffle”, or “a confused crowd of people” is how the world’s pre-eminent dictionary — first published in 1884 — describes a melee. Now the thorny question as to what actually quantifies one is finally about to be grasped.

“The following definition will quantify a melee in relation to GAA disciplinary matters,” reads motion 21, which has been put forward by Newport GAA club in Tipperary.