It was a year ago at Clare GAA’s last annual convention when the first sparks hit the air, nearly setting the place on fire. Two months had passed since Niall O’Connor distributed a letter as Clare minor hurling coach to every club, prompted by the fact the Clare under-16 hurlers had been left without a manager since March. “A scandal,” he wrote.
The letter broadened out to the lack of a player pathway for their most talented young hurlers and onto the poor state of Caherlohan, Clare’s centre of excellence that has absorbed €5m without delivering anything near the facility Clare expected. The criticisms were raw and the inference was clear: Clare needed to be run in a different, more modern way.
Last December O’Connor brought a motion to the convention from his club Éire Óg, Ennis proposing the creation of a strategic review group. Éire Óg had already pulled together a list of distinguished Clare business alumni ready to delve into the whys and heretofores of the Clare GAA.
As he worked through why Clare needed a strategic review, O’Connor’s speaking time ran out and the motion got kicked forward to the following February. Stopping his plea to modernise Clare in full flow was a moment that made his case just as lucidly for him and set the backdrop for everything that has followed.
It can’t be said it’s been the most turbulent year in the history of Clare GAA — Clare operated with two county committees (pro and anti-Treaty) for a couple of years in the mid-1920s after the execution of Clare secretary and IRA member Patrick Hennessy in January 1923 . But crushing the events of the last 12 months into a timeline doesn’t do justice either to the toxicity running through so many of the debates within Clare.
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Although the Strategic Planning Group (SPG) was installed in March the tension never subsided. Criticisms of the Caherlohan complex and the breakdown in 2020 between the county board and hurling management mingled with accusations of online bullying meted out to secretary Pat Fitzgerald. When Clare GAA confirmed it hadn’t oversight of a previous supporters’ club between 2013 and 2016, talk turned to the GAA’s national audit and risk committee looking into matters in Clare.
The exchanges at county board meetings held online got sharper and more personal. In May Niall O’Connor helped source €4,000 to provide post-training food for the Clare under-20 hurlers. County treasurer Michael Gallagher offered thanks at the next meeting, then took another tack.
“I would have to ask you delegates, what was his motive for that. Was it for the good of the under-20 hurlers or was it to embarrass the county board?”
The mood exploded. Gallagher subsequently apologised.
By the end of May Clare were also entangled in a Covid controversy with Wexford. In November, a week after the SPG’s exhaustive report and recommendations were carried through a county board meeting, ticket sellers for a fundraising draw in aid of the Clare footballers were hunted from Cusack Park. An appeal by Crusheen against their relegation from the senior hurling grade was also recently upheld by the Munster Council six months after Colm Browne, head of Clare’s master fixtures committee had stepped away without being replaced.
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Everything now is informed by all that accumulated tension. On Tuesday night at this year’s annual convention, three elections will be run for places on the executive. It will be difficult for delegates to resist drawing battle lines, no matter how sketchy.
After a year as a wartime chairman Jack Chaplin will be challenged by vice-chairman Kieran Keating, a member of the SPG. The stakes are high: by vacating his spot as vice-chairman Keating runs the risk of being left out in the cold if he loses. “The scorecard on how I perform will be determined by how much we deliver on the strategic plan recommendations,” he told the Clare Echo. Rejecting him as chairman would represent a significant statement from the clubs.
Paddy Smyth will face off against Clare PRO Michael O’Connor and Neil O’Brien, Smyth’s support for the SPG effectively casting him as Keating’s running mate. Although Gallagher had appeared likely to retire as treasurer, he will pit himself against Rebecca Sexton who will expect strong support from Clare’s football wing.
On Friday SPG member Eoin Conroy confirmed on local radio the job spec for a new full-time chief operating officer had been agreed and funding for the position sourced from Croke Park. The message to delegates was clear: sticking with the SPG plan offers a way forward, retaining faith in the current executive is a vote in defiance of that.
Either way everyone will have to find a way to work together. That will continue to be the biggest challenge of all.
