Gaelic Games

The GAAGO controversy is daft: How can everything be accommodated if not through this?

Thursday’s documentary on the Civil War details how a real existential crisis for the association was defused

RTÉ had the Clare-Waterford conflagration live in Ennis. File photograph: Inpho

Seán Moran's face
Seán Moran
Wed May 10 2023 - 05:00

The most interesting piece of GAA programming off the field this week will not be coverage of the interminably daft GAAGO “controversy”. On Thursday, a documentary deals with one of the greatest existential threats the association ever had to face. More of that, presently.

Once you accept that there isn’t sufficient room in the terrestrial schedules for all championship matches in a radically expanded programme and that the GAA needs to generate income from media rights, how else can everything be accommodated if not through subscription broadcasting?

Could the balance between fixtures be better? Yes but the difficulty involved in striking that balance would be considerably eased were the rights holders to know in advance which fixtures would turn out to be “hurling classics”.

Who knew when schedules were being drawn up that the hoped-for climactic final round of the Munster hurling championship would be such a damp squib?

Cork and Tipp may have been fireworks last Saturday but a year ago when they met in Thurles it was more of a firebombing. RTÉ had that one live as well as another conflagration, Clare-Waterford in Ennis.

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Who knew when schedules were being drawn up that the hoped-for climactic final round of the Munster hurling championship would be such a damp squib?

This year’s balance would have been better had Clare’s raid on the Gaelic Grounds been on terrestrial TV but unfortunate circumstances — the Great Limerick Run on Sunday — moved the fixture to Saturday for which RTÉ hadn’t rights.

Might it not have been a good idea though to make that point at the time rather than allow the raucous social media discourse run riot?

Noel Quinn was recently elevated to the newly created role of Head of GAAGO the streaming service that holds rights to a significant number of championship matches.

He put on a display of heroic forbearance on Monday politely responding to Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s commercially daft suggestion that all matches be free to air — surely intended for his constituency audience rather than the disinterested observer.

Central to Quinn’s message was a request that people suspend judgement for a few years or — probably more realistically — a few months before coming to a view on the GAAGO initiative. Hurling will start to have a presence on terrestrial shortly and after a couple of decent matches, it is hoped that everybody can calm down.

As was remarked at the time of the rights deal, there was a sense that Sky’s rapid departure from the GAA rights market had brought forward GAAGO, (established by the GAA and RTÉ to serve overseas interest) as an alternative somewhat earlier than had been anticipated.

There are technical issues around accessibility and Quinn accepts they aren’t easy to resolve but streaming is now with us and like the old days of varying television reception around the country, can only improve.

On Thursday, RTÉ One broadcasts Ré Réabhlóide, CLG agus Cogadh na gCarad, an Irish language documentary about a really serious disagreement — the GAA and the Civil War

Ultimately there are, a) more matches than ever, b) more matches on terrestrial television than ever and c) more matches that would never have been on terrestrial, available to people.

On Thursday, RTÉ One broadcasts Ré Réabhlóide, CLG agus Cogadh na gCarad, an Irish language documentary about a really serious disagreement — the GAA and the Civil War.

Presented by Gráinne McElwain, it looks at the association during a time of huge potential damage.

The situation in Kerry is best known. Despite the horrendous events of the Civil War in that county, its footballers set aside political enmity for the good of Kerry football — In the Name of the Game, as is the title of the late JJ Barrett’s book about the subject.

The GAA loves this narrative as evidence of how it healed wounds, which while true to an extent is also testament to how important football had become in Kerry.

The programme also deals with the situation elsewhere in Munster, which was the cockpit of the war. The fight for Cork is described as the biggest pitched battle of the revolutionary period. Gaelic games in the county suffered badly from the impact on public transport and the general impossibility of organising fixtures.

Blood was spilt with the assassination of pro-Treaty TD Seán Hales, a prominent figure in Cork GAA, followed by the reprisal execution of another GAA activist Richard Barrett.

This turn of events prompted the Cork county board to propose that the GAA convene a special congress with a view to using the association’s standing to try and find a resolution.

Historian, Mike Cronin of Boston College who contributes to the programme, summarised in The GAA and Revolution in Ireland: “While the GAA had attempted to find a solution to the conflict, it was simply not influential enough to bring the two sides together.”

Somehow the GAA held itself together. It couldn’t engineer peace between the factions

There was a split in Clare with an alternative county board being established but measures were eventually found to unite again. According to another academic, Richard McElligott of Dundalk IT and author of Forging a Kingdom, a history of the early GAA in Kerry, the fact that only one county split was a reflection of the ardent desire to avoid division.

“Remember the early GAA almost destroyed itself in a major split over the downfall of Charles Stuart Parnell. That was within living memory of the Civil War so there were a number of officials who understood that this could potentially be disastrous.”

Somehow the GAA held itself together. It couldn’t engineer peace between the factions but by keeping an organisational neutrality — whatever the views of individual members — it achieved something important, according to Prof Cronin.

“How do you move forward with that? Number one is this message that the GAA is an open space, a shared space. You leave your politics outside as best as you can. It’s a community body. It’s a civic space where Irish people can play Irish sports and that’s its real legacy.”

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