It’s time we all started to play ball

THE final whistle had barely sounded on Saturday, even in the first game, when the speculation had already started.

“No better man than yourself Marty to bring it up,” said Leinster captain Brian O’Driscoll, when RTE’s Marty Morrissey asked him about the prospect of the European Heineken Cup semi-final between Leinster and Munster being played in Croke Park. This was before Munster had even taken to the field against Perpignan.

It won’t happen of course, a waste of time even discussing the possibility. But oh what a pity, what an opportunity lost for the GAA to make a financial killing, to make a PR killing, to publicise itself, its games, its magnificent stadium, to a broader public. And wouldn’t it have been great too, if the first rugby game in Croke Park had been between two Irish teams, competing in a top European competition? With the extra capacity of Croker, it would also have meant that tens of thousands of rugby supporters, all Irish, most of them also GAA fans, wouldn’t have been disappointed.

But no, it won’t happen, and that’s a pity, a huge pity. An even greater pity, however, is that there are still those out there who refuse to accept that as and from the end of this year, Croke Park will be open to international rugby, that France, then England, will play there in next year’s 6-Nations.

The wording of the original motion is what they give as their motivation, claiming that according to the proposal that was passed at Congress last year, Croke Park isn’t meant to be open to the FAI and IRFU ’til planning permission has been granted for the re-development of Lansdowne Road. Petty, lads, petty, and wrong.

The wording made no mention of planning permission, it referred only to Lansdowne Road being closed. That will happen, at the latest, at the end of this year.

Leading this charge is John Arnold, from Bartlemy, in East Cork, a long-time opponent of the prospect of Croke Park being opened up. “I accept the decision,” he says. “I just want to see it properly implemented.” Yeah, John, right.

John then goes on to quote GAA president Sean Kelly: “immediately after the vote, he said himself that Croke Park would not be open ’til after Lansdowne Road had planning permission.” Well you know, John, and well you know, the GAA president doesn’t make GAA policy. If Sean did say that, all he was offering was opinion, and if that is what he said, then intelligent and all as he undoubtedly is, he was wrong.

If Sean Kelly had come out from that meeting and said rugby and soccer could now go ahead straight away, no better man than yourself, John, to point this out, that the President was expressing mere opinion, not policy.

Let it go, lads, let it go. Without a doubt rugby and soccer will gain from the use of Croke Park, and not just financially. So will we, in the GAA. It’s a situation that will benefit everyone, and what’s wrong with that?

I hate the mean-spiritedness of this small but vocal element in the GAA. Like the Real IRA extremists politically, these Fior-Gael seem to think they are the GAA purists, that they, and only they, are the guardians of the original ideals of the founding fathers, the rest of us dangerous deviants.

I am a sporting ecumenist, I admit, but hurling is my first love. And I tell ye this, hurling will benefit from the opening up of Croke Park. I have no fear of either soccer or rugby. Let them come, let them all come.

The biggest threat to hurling is gaelic football, and vice versa. Why else is hurling suffocated in so many football-dominated counties, in Ulster especially?

Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, Brian O’Driscoll, Shane Horgan, are all as Irish as I am. To those four, I would add the likes of David Humphreys, Andrew Trimble, proud Ulstermen both. They want to assume Britishness also, that’s their right, their business, but they are as Irish as the rest of us. Sadly, however, there are those still who like to think they are more Irish than the rest of us, they are the true inheritors.

Let’s have some generosity here. Soccer is not my sport. Even so, I look forward to the day when an Irish team competes in the money stages of the Champions League. Whether that’s Cork City, Shelbourne, Drogheda or Derry City, it doesn’t matter. An Irish club, with Irish players competing with the best. That, when it’s achieved will reflect well on us all.

Let us open our hearts to each other. Hurling, gaelic football, soccer, rugby, we can all live side by side, help each other along, enjoy each other’s triumphs.

Oh lads, how much better off we’d all be.