This article is from page 70 of the 2011-12-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 70 JPG
CLARE GAA has been told to face up to the reality that “there is a problem” with the promotion of Gaelic Games in Ennis.
This alarm was sounded out by the Banner club that has called on Clare GAA to establish a committee to oversee GAA affairs in the county capital, while ensuring that Ennis Urban Board has responsibility for all players under the age of 12 – a situation that has been directly challenged by the Éire Óg decision to establish an Academy to cater for children between the ages of six and 12.
“The urban committee should control the Urban Board – the Urban Board looks after the age group from 12 down,” Banner chairman, OwenRynne told Convention.
He made his call after tabling a mo- tion that called on the Clare County Board to abide by its own rules, by implement By-Law 19 which decrees that an urban committee be established in Ennis to oversee the promotion of games within the town.
“The Banner have proposed this motion to highlight to the board that urban areas are quite complex and need specific focus put on them,” Rynne told the Convention.
“Fundamentally there are numerous distractions in an urban area that the GAA player will encounter in their playing career.
“It is the duty of the club to highlight the fact that extra emphasis must be put on promoting the GAA in urban areas such as Ennis and making sure that the GAA marketed to compete against other sports.
“The club believes that with the implementation of the By-Law 19 that this urban committee can look at issues arising with urban areas and are ready to tackle problems as they may present themselves.
“It is imperative that we get the maximum participation of youth and adults playing our national games and raising the standard of games within Ennis.
“Coiste Contae an Chláir must ensure that we maximise our efforts to promote the GAA within the Ennis urban area and the club believes that by implementing By-Law 19 the board can deal with this issue,” added the Banner delegate.
After a number of questions from Éire Óg delegate Simon Moroney and county board chairman, Michael O’Neill, who asked “what is the intention of the motion”, the Banner delegate reiterated his club’s desire for the board to implement its own bylaws.
“The urban committee should look after urban issues. The urban committee deals with urbanisation and urban issues,” he said. “It needs to be identified that there is a problem.
“The intention of the motion is simple. There are problems within urban areas and we need to tackle that within Clare and within Ennis. It’s fairly clear, we are trying to promote the GAA within an urban area,” he added. “We appointed PJ Fitzpatrick recently to look into the overall Ennis situation in relation to The Banner, Éire Óg and Urban Board,” said chairman, Michael O’Neill.
“Until such time as PJ, and I know that he is close to coming up with his findings on that, we will hold off. Whenever that happens, we’ll leave it until those findings are available to us,” added the chairman.