Comment: How the Liam Miller numbers stacked up for everyone

It is rare indeed when cold, hard numbers offer the warmest antidote to a tragedy.

The scale and manner in which Irish people embraced the memorable events in Cork for the late Liam Miller means there were many thousands not present in the Lord Mayor’s chamber in Cork City Hall yesterday who found confirmation of proceeds from the events uplifting.

If Cork, and beyond, feels a tad better about themselves today, it’s with good reason. People power can do extraordinary things.

When costs totalling around €280,000 are deducted, Miller’s family and a number of deserving charities and community projects will divvy up €1.5m from the proceeds of September 25.

The Millers will get two-thirds of that, a seven-figure trust that will set up Liam’s wife, Clare, and three children for the better part of their lives. The committee discussed that and quickly arrived at a consensus that a 66% split was wholly appropriate.

The entire momentum was predicated on their tragic loss, though whether Michael O’Flynn and his organising committee dared to believe such a tailwind would spirit them to this conclusion is debatable. Perhaps no-one fully appreciated how potent the Cork triumvirate of Miller’s modesty, Roy Keane’s drive, and O’Flynn’s dynamism would prove.

From the comments of Manchester United, Ireland, and Celtic stars who happily appeared, it’s evident Liam Miller was an easy sell. He was universally liked and struck a chord with people. O’Flynn said yesterday at City Hall that he left an impact in every dressing room and town he settled in.

Just as his family preferred to maintain a dignified and humble silence throughout, Miller himself would surely have baulked at the stir his tribute match created. The change of venue from Turner’s Cross to Páirc Uí Chaoimh was the game changer in an extraordinary few weeks of high emotion, political intrigue and legal conjecture. In its starkest terms, the Páirc added €1m to the proceeds.

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There has been a touch of opportune revisionism in recent days about the back and forth with Croke Park on the issue of opening up the Páirc for the Miller match, but the merits were as compelling and indisputable then as they are today. The switch elevated September 25 to a whole new level, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Michael Finn declared.

That there was such a strong GAA and Eire Óg club involvement at its core, and that Miller distinguished himself in their colours at underage, should have rendered any GAA v Soccer narrative irrelevant. There were a handful of unfortunate — and I am sure, in Damien Duff’s case, misunderstood — interventions on the way, but Keane, for one, was never in doubt that the vox populi would win out.

“People were getting upset, but the GAA stepped up and it’s time to move on from the ifs and buts,” he said one morning in Ballincollig. “When you’re in Cork, you’re mad for different sports. Rise above where the game is at, let’s think bigger than that. I can understand why some people got upset at the time [over some comments], but there’s also a time to move on. We got there. We went around the houses, but we got there.”

Though there might have been a couple of noses out of joint, the success of the event and the profile it afforded the new stadium in Cork should offer considerable food for thought for those charged with paying the taxing repayments on the Páirc, which was redeveloped at a cost of €80m.

O’Flynn himself sits on a stadium commercial committee, and his colleagues on it will appreciate the worldwide exposure it received on September 25. The organising committee chairman yesterday said such were the unique circumstances of the Miller tribute events that their extraordinary success was a one-off.

However, selling out the Páirc must not be.

Preliminary discussions have taken place with Munster Rugby about the potential of a future Heineken Champions Cup semi-final taking place at the venue, and that should just be the start. With this country touting for World Cup business, in different codes, over the course of the next decade-and-a-half, Páirc Uí Chaoimh needs to put its best foot forward. Its shiny, best foot.

In the immediate term, one GAA family is deeply appreciative the game was moved to Ballintemple. Jack O’Driscoll, who played hurling and football for Mayfield, suffered life-changing injuries in a freak accident during the snowfalls of last February.

The €100,000 donation won’t solve all his problems, but oh to be a witness to the joy on his face when he answered the phone to Keane last Friday morning.

“His is a substantial figure,” explained O’Flynn, “and we feel it reflects the public mood in Cork, because his name was associated with the Miller event from an early stage.”

The organisers, and the Miller family no doubt, are still overjoyed at the momentum the Miller movement generated once the idea was floated on these pages on June 9 last. Once the morning of September 26 dawned, the organisers set about limiting expenditure and maximising returns.

Costs were limited to 16% of overall revenue — “the gross to net is totally satisfactory,” said O’Flynn yesterday — and the pledge to go public with all the figures remained.

“The reaction in Cork was extraordinary,” O’Flynn reflected.

“We will put out all the figures. Everyone has been such a help that people are entitled to know everything. When the public and the media got involved [in the Páirc debate], we said if this could be done, we had to explore it fully.”

“It was a lot of work, but you see the results today. It was well worth it. So many people, not just the Miller family, will benefit from it. We’ve tried to respect and deliver on public expectation and the monies we received.”

And the heavy-hearted family at the centre of it all? “They have gone through so much,” he said, his voice lowering.

“The uplift they get from this all, the public support; of course, their lives have changed forever with what happened to Liam, but they also acknowledge and appreciate the enormity of what they have received. They are humbled by the whole situation.”