The GAA is engaged in a standoff with the Irish Sports Council (ISC) over the issue of drug testing in Gaelic games. Efforts will be made later this month to clear the way for the implementation of Croke Park's Anti-Doping Code but at present, GAA officials are unhappy at the lack of preparatory education on the subject.

"This is a very complicated area," according to Pat Daly, the GAA's officer in charge of testing. "You're looking at amateur guys trying to find their way in an area where there's a great deal of ignorance. We want the Sports Council which is the body in charge of testing to take the lead in the educational process. But aside from offering assistance, they aren't willing to organise this.

"Yet they're pushing for us to start testing even though we would run the risk of members failing through ignorance and the knock-on problems that would create for us."

Last October's special congress in Dublin saw the GAA adopt their Anti-Doping Code. Last month the association's Players' Committee chairman Jarlath Burns launched the Information for Players booklet which included a briefing on the code for intercounty footballers and players - the GAA members who will be subject to random testing.

At present, the GAA and the FAI are the only major sports organisations not testing for proscribed substances.

Daly still believes that there is much work to do before the ISC can start the process. "Most team medics aren't even fully aware of what's happening. This isn't something we can rush into. The legal areas are a minefield and we've had extensive briefings from Hugh O'Flaherty (former Supreme Court judge).

The ISC's Peter Smyth rejects the charge that the council has not paid sufficient attention to education and says that he hopes to meet GAA representatives later this month and that testing under the code will start "as soon as possible".

"One of the keys to this is the education of people," he says. "Much of the comment on this issue suggests a lack of information. The GAA needs to inform and advise. The players' handbook is very useful and the same information is on their website. Since the legislation (establishing the ISC) was passed at the end of 1999, we have organised nine regional seminars on this subject. But overall it's up to the governing body of a sport to take on the responsibility in what we consider the most appropriate way.

"Early last year we offered the GAA seminars and to make people available. Our motivation is to get the programme in place as soon as possible."

Although the GAA is plainly the only organisation none of whose elite athletes are professional, Smyth disputes the suggestion that this makes dealing with footballers and hurlers a more delicate issue. "I don't see amateur status as an issue. Other athletes subject to testing are not all professional. Some receive funding through us but also have day jobs.

"A sporting venue is a sporting venue, in competition it doesn't matter what building is being used; training sessions are training sessions. There's not a whole lot of difference between various sports. Everyone has to be aware of the regulations. And not all sporting organisations operating doping control have an infrastructure as big as the GAA's."

Smyth is reluctant to discuss the possible scale of testing in Gaelic games. "Testing always starts at the top level on a national basis and we take a practical view as to what we're capable of. We won't necessarily be able to test at every championship match. I can't go into details of likely levels of monitoring because to ensure its effectiveness, testing has to be random."

Whereas Smyth wouldn't comment on the ISC's perception of any potential drug problem within the GAA, the feeling in Croke Park is that there is not yet systematic abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. One side-issue is the possibility of players testing positive for recreational drugs use which, as well as being proscribed by the ISC, is also a criminal offence.

According to Smyth, the ISC will not be identifying players who fail tests in their end-of-year reports. "That will be a matter for the governing bodies," he said.

The death has occurred of John Joe Lavin, patron of the Sligo county board. In his eighties and a long-time resident of Dublin, he was one of his county's most famous footballers, representing Sligo between 1937 and 1951, mostly at centre back. He also played in the Railway Cup for Connacht for most of the 1940s.

During the same decade, Lavin, an accomplished athlete, won national sprint titles and won two Flannelly-Fox awards. This accolade was the equivalent of today's Texaco award. In the 1980s he succeeded his brother Fr Thomas as president of the Sligo county board before becoming patron in more recent years. By a poignant coincidence, Sunday's Connacht League match between Sligo and Roscommon has been switched to Boyle, scene of many of John Joe Lavin's memorable displays against the neighbouring county.