Jarlath Burns: GAA may not realise scale of Ryder Cup opportunity until it's too late

Burns said a new document put forward by the Ladies Gaelic Football Association could accelerate integration.

The idea that the 2027 National Hurling League final could be played on the Tuesday before the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor was suggested by JP McManus. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

The GAA won’t realise the showcase opportunity next year’s Ryder Cup will provide hurling until it’s too late, fears GAA president Jarlath Burns.

Division 1A counties appear to have kicked to touch the idea of next year’s league final being moved from April to TUS Gaelic Grounds on the Tuesday of the biennial golf tournament, which takes place in Adare Manor from September 17 to 19.

Adare Manor owner and Limerick sponsor JP McManus had floated the idea to the GAA. Since then, the Gaelic Players Association have suggested as an alternative an exhibition game, but Burns doesn’t believe it will engage people as much as a game of consequence.

“We consulted firstly with the counties in Division 1 for next year, they are the ones who would be most directly involved. They weren't all jumping out of their skin at it.

“My own opinion was there are many ways in which you can promote hurling. JP McManus, if you think about it from his perspective, when maybe the second biggest sporting competition in the world is coming to his village, what is he thinking about? He's thinking about, ‘how can I use this to promote our native game?’ And he deserves great credit for that.

“I don't fully think we are going to be cognisant of how big the Ryder Cup coming to Adare is going to be unless it happens. And then maybe when we're in that moment, we might say, ‘Just a pity we didn't have something big.’ 

“The GPA are talking about putting on an exhibition match there, something that maybe we would be interested in, but I'm not sure if it will run because there isn't going to be a cup presented and it's not something that means massively.” 

On the subject of integration, Burns mentioned a new document put forward by the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) that he believes could accelerate integration.

US Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk and businessman JP McManus in attendance at the Munster SHC clash between Limerick and Tipperary. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

The idea would be that the three bodies, the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association, would retain more autonomy under the one umbrella.

Burns insisted that it did not mean a federation but said: “Essentially, what this (document) is saying is that it is keeping the brand identity and keeping the integrity of each of those codes intact, because they are very strong identities.

“And as well as that, we don't want a situation where we lose volunteers, where people say, ‘oh, this is now the GAA and my work is done.’ 

“GAA can't afford to lose camogie or LGFA people. There's too much embedded culture, there's too much muscle memory in all of those people for us to lose them.” 

Burns and GAA director general Tom Ryan will shortly meet with county chairpersons to further discuss the integration process. “That always gives us a great dose of reality, because they live in the world of reality. And we’ll take soundings from them, as we did the last time we met the chairs.” 

Meanwhile, Burns said the Casement Park project is “very slowly” making progress. “There has been movement on it, the stand has been demolished. We're hoping now to move into the next phase which we're trying to keep the planning permission extant.

“So, we're going to do a few basic bits of piling to keep that going because even if we do change the plans, which we probably will have to, it's easier to amend the plan than to go for a new planning permission.

“Whenever you are dealing with government money, there's procurement, there's all sorts of obligations, you have to be very careful about it and we have to be respectful to that. So that's moving on very slowly.”