This article is from page 68 of the 2011-09-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 68 JPG
IT was former American president, Andrew Jackson, who famously said “one man with courage makes a majority”. If it’s true, 89-year-old Kevin Stapleton could be said to be that man.
All because on Thursday, the lifelong Banner County supporter took to standing outside the West County Hotel in Ennis to make a one-man protest about Clare GAA as the September monthly meeting was taking place inside.
Brandishing a placard that read ‘Clare GAA Board, No Hit and Run Job, We Need Change’, the nearnonagenarian said he was moved to make his stand because of the state of the games in the county, particularly football.
“We need change,” said Stapleton. “The senior teams in the county need to get together and pick out a football manager of some kind. What we have now, we’re going nowhere.”
Stapleton, who originally hails from Kilkee but now lives in Ennis, staged his protest ahead of the county board meeting that started at 8pm – standing alone with his message to GAA leaders and delegates as they made their way into the first official monthly meeting since June.
“I’m from Kilkee, the heartland of football,” he told The Clare People . “My concerns about football are that we have nothing anymore. With the management we have with the county senior team, we’re going nowhere.
“We have to change the manager, no disrespect to the manager and his management team, but if we want to go forward we have to get a new manager from somewhere and get the best players to play for the county. That’s not happening.
“There mightn’t seem to be anyone t o take the job, but surely there’s someone in the county that will step forward. Today football is dead in the c o u n t y. W e have to change,” he added.