Thomas Davis reiterate their offer of direct talks

The increasingly bitter row over the use of the Tallaght stadium site took a somewhat milder twist yesterday when the Thomas Davis GAA club reiterated their invitation to Shamrock Rovers to sit down and try to establish more cordial talks on the matter.

This follows developments earlier this week when Rovers chairman Jonathan Roche described as "a disgrace" a letter sent earlier this month by his counterpart at Thomas Davis, Christopher O'Donnell, to members of the GAA club in relation to the issue of access to the proposed stadium.

However, Thomas Davis club spokesman David Kennedy has attempted to ease the row by calling for both parties to sit down and talk, which he claims has already been offered to the soccer club on several occasions.

"We're as frustrated as everyone else by the whole saga," said Kennedy. "But, in fact, we've held out that invitation on more than one occasion over the past number of months, but have had no response whatsoever. Your guess is as good as mine why that's been the case. But we're more than willing to extend that invitation again."

In the letter, dated April 7th, O'Donnell encouraged members to make an election issue of the club's fight to win access to the stadium and provides detailed instruction to members on how the issue should be raised with politicians during the forthcoming campaign.

He also suggested they should not support local Fianna Fail TD Conor Lenihan, a Minister for State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, because he had recently signalled to club officials his support for the line taken by John O'Donoghue, that Government funding for the project be conditional upon it being used solely for soccer.

O'Donnell says the politician has been informed he will not be welcome at the club until the GAA is accommodated at the stadium.

"That letter was circulated to our members to keep them up to date in what is a very important and very sensitive issue," explained Kennedy, "and was somehow leaked to press. But we'd dismiss any claims that the contents were inaccurate.

"We're certainly not trying to sour relations here. We're happy to speak with anyone on this, including the minister, and we'd certainly like to appease any fears they might have by what we're trying to achieve here, because the reality is this stadium can still be open for use in 12 months time."

In the meantime a preliminary hearing takes place this Friday on Thomas Davis' successful request for a judicial review of the case, although that is merely to establish a date and procedures for the hearing itself. "That's essentially a planning matter anyway, but the real issue here is to get the stadium finished as soon as possible," said Kennedy.

"So we are available to talk, and always have been, and in fact we offered to bring in a mediator, from a soccer background, but Rovers haven't taken us up on that either. From what I can see Jonathan Roche is very genuine in his approach, and so are we, and hopefully we can establish some cordial relations here.

"But we certainly didn't turn this into a political issue. That was done by the minister himself when he insisted all funding would be withdrawn if the stadium went ahead as a multi-purpose facility, despite that being voted the case by the South Dublin County Council back in December of 2005."

Meanwhile, Sligo's preparations for the Connacht football championship have received a setback with the news that Tony Taylor will be out of action for a number of months. The Eastern Harps clubman sustained a serious knee injury playing in a club game last weekend. Taylor played a number of games in the NFL and showed impressive form.

Sligo's first outing in the championship is just over three weeks away when they take on New York in Gaelic Park. If Sligo win that game they will face Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final on June 17th.