On Gaelic Games:The Cork saga has lessons for all involved, not least the clubs who should demand better governance of the county in future, writes SEAN MORAN

AS THE forces of liberation rolled onwards, the Cork situation came to resemble Downfall more strikingly than most of the send-ups inspired by Oliver Hirschbiegel’s much parodied film.

Last night’s final convulsions in what has become the annual Cork upheaval clears the way for a return to normality, but for the first time since skirmishing broke out over six years ago the lessons of the whole fractious sequence of events may at last be learned.

GAA president Nickey Brennan was becoming increasingly impatient with the slow-grinding wheels of attempts either to resolve the issue or win the battle and the sight of the association’s biggest county divided and in disarray became easy to portray as an embarrassment in the midst of the 125th anniversary celebrations and as Croke Park’s strategic plan is rolled out.

In fact, events in Cork are a useful indicator to the GAA and its membership of the responsibilities involved in running a county’s affairs. But how did matters get to this stage? Is it a simple tale of authority frustrated and democracy triumphant? It’s hard to be anything other than ambiguous on this point because it was the clubs that allowed the untenable situation to develop in the first place.

Twice Gerald McCarthy, who stepped down last night as senior hurling manager, was endorsed by the county committee and on both occasions the decision was taken despite obvious alarm bells about the advisability of what they were doing. It took nearly four months for the clubs to assert their opinions on McCarthy’s appointment and the autocracy of the county executive.

And even that may not have happened were it not for the major effort put into involving the clubs by the 2008 panel of players.

It’s not just in Cork that the suspicion of being easily led hovers over county committees. Around the country there is an established perception that dynamic and innovative individuals prefer to restrict their involvement to club rather than county.

But Cork is unique in having such a dominant figure from whom radiates so much of the county’s positions and policy. The fact that Frank Murphy held such power was again the responsibility of various stakeholders within the county. The Cork secretary keeps his distance from the media and, as a result, he is someone who lives in the public mind mostly in caricature. That caricature is of a forensic weapon. People are outraged when it’s turned on their interests, but it’s the first thing the same people would reach for if under threat themselves.

County officers and representatives have had Frank available to pursue their aims and protect their interests within higher councils. Less than two years ago the senior hurlers enlisted his support in an attempt to defend the indefensible after unruly scenes before the championship match with Clare. After his best efforts were unable to mitigate the disciplinary sanctions taken, the players issued a statement complaining about the “bias against our county secretary Frank Murphy”.

Even for managers otherwise unimpressed with the high-handedness, Murphy’s speed dial will be the first to be pushed if potential suspension problems materialise.

At Croke Park level, where there is great ambivalence towards him – much of it on account of his dual role that exerts sizeable influence over setting the GAA’s rules agenda and using it to protect his county’s sectional interest – there is also an acknowledgement that if asked to put his vast knowledge of the rule book at the disposal of committees, he will oblige even if he has reservations about the initiatives under consideration.

With all of this avid seeking of his influence and patronage, it’s not surprising Murphy reacts badly to being crossed and continually blurs the line between putting his formidable talents at the disposal of the association and using them to service his own ego.

I can remember a letter written to Páirc Uí­ Chaoimh by the Gaelic Writers’ Association to remonstrate about an incident in which an Alsatian attacked two reporters (no sniggering down the back) drew a response that far from expressing contrition, mentioned the prospect of legal action (against the hounded) and occasioned enough nagging concern for it to be run past a lawyer.

The one group to confront his power and influence on a regular basis has been the county’s senior hurlers. Three times now these confrontations have ended in defeat for the county authorities and by extension, Murphy himself. Viewed dispassionately, the issues at stake have not been conspicuously worth fighting over and have been all too easily reducible to the desire to exercise untrammelled power.

None of the parties to the Cork dispute are blameless. The players made tactical errors in the early stages of the crisis, effectively by taking refuge in the belief Gerald McCarthy would not make himself available for reappointment and finding themselves wrong-footed when the manager accepted two further years. If the players’ refusal to spin against McCarthy during his second year in charge was disciplined and the reluctance to be candid in their opinion of him at the appointments committee was admirably restrained, that restraint quickly evaporated when it became clear that that the manager was to be reappointed.

McCarthy may have genuinely believed the players had come around to the idea of working with him and accepted the position on that basis. That was plausible up to the point at which it became clear that the players did want a change yet despite that knowledge McCarthy ploughed on regardless.

His vitriolic attack on Seán Ó hAilpín in November after the player had described the previous two years’ management regime as “Mickey Mouse” was a glimpse of the no-holds-barred instincts of a man wounded by the casual dismissal of his coaching credentials. When it was obvious the players weren’t coming back, the manager changed tack and became instead a bulwark against what he viewed as regrettable modern trends, such as professionalism. This was simply playing to prejudices against the same players he was trying to persuade to return.

Now that McCarthy is gone the challenge for the clubs in Cork is to ensure better governance of the county in the years ahead and that will entail more rigorous monitoring of what goes on at county committee rather than being prodded awake some months after a bad decision has been taken.

Neither should that need for scrutiny be lost on other counties.

smoran@irishtimes.com