They Said It ....

May 2004

The Peace Process up North appears to moving along reasonably well. However, GAA grounds and property are still in the firing line but there is a suspicion that not all vandalism is the work of loyalist groups. The Mourne Observer reports on a graffiti attack directed towards the An Riocht Club.
A weekend graffiti attack at a GAA club in the Mournes has been angrily condemned.
Graffiti was daubed on the road outside the An Riocht club grounds in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Local political representatives have condemned those responsible and praised the club for the positive role it plays in the local community.
The Mourne Observer understands the graffiti, which was swiftly removed, was linked to work that was subcontracted at An Riocht to the Portadown-based Jameson building company.
The offensive material is not believed to have been the work of Loyalists.
Sinn Fein’s spokesperson for the Mournes, Martin Connolly, has branded the attack ‘mindless vandalism.’
“Sinn Fein is quite clear on this issue that we are opposed to vandalism of any kind,” he said.
“In particular we are concerned that a facility that is used by all ages should be subjected to this type of vandalism.
“The An Riocht club is used for all manner of community events, as well as GAA activity, and as much should always be kept above politics.”
Mr Connolly said he had made “exhaustive” enquiries and was confident the graffiti attack did not have the support of the Republican movement. “It would appear that certain elements in the locality are attempting to blame Republicans for the graffiti outside the club and indeed are trying to make political gain and point score out of what happened,” he said.
“I have made exhaustive enquiries and can state without fear of contradiction that no member of the broad Republican family was involved in what happened.
“From what is being said to me it would appear that what happened was a number of young people took this upon themselves due to their anger over events that have occurred over the past couple of weeks.
“While the frustration of the young people, is understandable, their actions must be condemned and they should know that issues such as these must be dealt with in a mature manner.”
Mr Connolly said he hoped a line could be drawn under the matter and that “lessons can be learned by all sides.”
The facilities at An Riocht are above politics and should be left that way and the club should be allowed to deal with the issues raised in their own time and in their own way without outside influence,” he concluded.
SDLP Councillor Michael Cole also condemned the graffiti incident at An Riocht.
“If someone has a disagreement with the club they should discuss it with the committee of An Riocht and not resort to these antics,” he said.
“The An Riocht club has a large community centre, one of the best in Ireland. It caters for children and teenagers from all over the Mourne area.
“The committee work very hard to keep the club and have great pride in the many facilities they provide.
“The last thing they want or need is graffiti outside their grounds.”
Cllr. Cole said local people were fed up with graffiti, wherever it appeared in the Mourne area.
“Places from the Silent Valley to Kilkeel, including the town centre, are covered with graffiti and people are sick looking at it.
“Most places around are Northern Ireland are taking pride in their own areas and they are being cleaned up and are graffiti free, but not in Mourne. We seem to be taking a step backwards,” Cllr. Cole added.
In a brief statement the An Riocht CLG welcomed the condemnation by local politicians.
“The club will continue to be the best of its ability to provide a service for the local community in the tradition of Cumann Luthchleas Gael and invites all paid up members to get involved in its day to day running,” a spokesperson said.

Writing in the Donegal Democrat, Catherine Cook claims that £20,000 worth of damage was caused during a vandalism rampage in Letterkenny. The target was the dressing rooms used by Letterkenny Gaels who share the premises with the local rugby club.
Up to 20,000 euro worth of damage was caused to a house and clubrooms in Letterkenny’s Thorn Road area over the weekend during one of the worst cases of vandalism ever to be investigated by Gardai in the town.
Vandals targeted the dressing rooms of the Letterkenny Gaels and Letterkenny Rugby Club grounds at the Glebe before turning their attentions on a nearby private dwelling which was unoccupied.
The worst of the damage which was carried out in the early hours of Saturday night, was caused at the private dwelling where almost every window on the house and its conservatory was smashed.
The vandals also entered the house where they continued their spree of destruction by smashing up a glass table and throwing other bits of furniture out through windows.
Local Garda Detective James Frain, who is also the chairman of Glebe Sports Holdings, a committee made up of members of both the Gaels and Rugby club, said the vandalism was the worst he could ever remember.
“It was pure wantan vandalism,” he said. “These people had nothing better to do than to go out and cause as much damage and destruction as they possibly could. I was shocked when I seen the mess they had left behind.”
Gardai estimate that the damage caused totalled something in the region of 12,000 euro but James Frain said it could be as much as 20,000 euro.
The clubrooms at the Glebe were the first to be hit with the culprits gaining entry and removing a fire extinguisher which ironically had just recently been installed to comply with health and safety regulations.
Windows were broken and considerable damage was caused to doors, toilets and wash-hand basins. It will cost the clubs somewhere in region of 2,000 euro to repair.
Using the fire extinguisher which they took from the dressing rooms, the vandals then proceeded to smash up a largely glass fronted bungalow, on the nearby Thorn Road.
Every piece of glass in the conservatory was also attacked, and even a glass table inside the house was broken into pieces. Not only was every window in the house broken, furniture, beds and carpets were also damaged and thrown outside.
“In my 20 years in the Gardai I’ve never seen anything like this,” James Frain said.
“It’s actually the third or fourth time that our grounds have been hit but this incident was the worst yet.
In recent times, vandals have attempted to set the changing rooms alight after starting a fire in a bin and placing it inside the changing area. Luckily the fire went out before any serious damage was caused.
In a separate incident, a tractor parked at the Glebe grounds was targeted with the engine and petrol tank filled with grease.
James Frain says the Sports Holdings committee, will now have to consider introducing proper security measures to guard against further attacks on their property.
“We already have fencing but we’ll have to look about keeping the place locked up,” he said.
“The only problem with that is that these grounds are not only used on a daily basis by the rugby and GAA teams but members of the public also like to use our pitches to go for a run or to walk the dog.
“We’ve never had a problem with that but all of a sudden we’ve got to start thinking seriously about keeping the place locked up.”
Gardai are appealing to any person who was in the Thorn Road area on Saturday night or early on Sunday morning to contact them if they saw anything unusual in the area, particularly anyone with cuts or bleeding. Gardai say at least one of the vandals lost a vast amount of blood outside the bungalow.
Letterkenny Garda Station phone number is 074-9167100 or the confident line is 1800666111

And the GAA are using the facilities of other sporting groups more than what we are led to believe. Examine the little snipped penned by John O Shaughnessy in the Limerick Leader under the heading “Season of Goodwill”
The GAA hierarchy might be standing firm on their stance in not allowing soccer and rugby to be played at Croke Park, but attitudes are a little different in County Limerick.
In this week’s GAA club notes, Caherline thank the local soccer club for allowing them to train at their field, while Athea under 12s have bought forward an underage match to allow their players line out for the local soccer club on Sunday afternoon.
There have been other instances in Limerick county where rugby, soccer and GAA clubs work hand-in-hand.

And the same paper goes on to inform readers that Newtownshandrum displayed their All-Ireland Club Hurling trophy during half time in the Munster -Stade game at Thomond Park. We are sure they got a great reception.
The GAA continues to make appearances at rugby venues this season. Newtownshandrum GAA Club took the opportunity last Saturday to show off their AIB GAA Club Championship silverware at half time during the Munster and Stade game at Thomand Park.
Limerick boxer Andy Lee, winner of a bronze medal in the recent European Championships, was also presented to the crowd.

We will stick with pitches this month and head back up to Donegal and the local Democrat where Peter Campbell tells us about the comings and goings in the Killygorden pitch row.
Problems over the use of a GAA pitch at Killygordon led to a community calling a public meeting this week in order to find a solution.
The GAA grounds in Killygordon was shared by a football club - Red Hughes and a hurling club - Setanta. However, in recent weeks Red Hughes have moved to a new field because they were experiencing alleged difficulties in using the grounds which they had shared with Setanta.
Some of the alleged difficulties included the non-availability of showers for Red Hughes fixtures and clash of fixtures. When Red Hughs moved recently to grounds shared by Curragh Athletic soccer club the local community’s ire was raised.
The outcome was a Public Meeting held on Monday night in Crossroads attended by around 300 people. The meeting was chaired by local priests and the issues at the centre of the dispute were debated.
It is learned that there was quite a lot of annoyance from local community people at the fact that Red Hughes were no longer using the facilities. It is also learned that Red Hughes were not removed from the pitch but decided to move because of alleged difficulties at the venue which left them in an awkward position.
One of the questions raised at the Public Meeting was the fact that the Red Hughes club are not included on the deeds of the Gaelic grounds at the Cross. There was contrasting information on the issue with one source telling the meeting that under GAA rules it would not be possible to add Red Hughes at this stage, while another speaker said that this was not the case.
At the moment it seems as if the hurling club, Setanta, hold the controlling interest in the field and it is unlikely that Red Hughes will return until such time as they have some level of autonomy in their use of the grounds.
One of the other issues raised at the meeting was the level of local funding which allowed the grounds at Killygordon to be developed and that their use should be freely available to all Gaelic games.
As a result of the meeting it was decided to appoint an independent local mediator to find an arrangement which would be suitable to both clubs. The person appointed was Patrick Kelly Jnr, a well-known local, who will now seek to speak to both parties and, hopefully, find a solution which will be of benefit to both clubs and the community.

More agreements on land and this time in Kildare. Words by Henry Bouress of the Leinster Leader.
Sports clubs in Leixlip have come to an agreement with Kildare County Council over use of publicly owned land in the area.
Twelve acres at Loughnamona will be leased long term to Leixlip Utd and Leixlip Town. Kildare County Council will give a grant of £100,000 towards the cost of bringing these lands into sporting use.
Another twenty acres, known as Finnegan’s lands will be leased to Leixlip GAA for 90 years. The council owns around eight of these acres now and the balance is being transferred to the autohrity.
Niall Rafferty, Council Leisure Manager, estimates it will be two years before the land can be brought into use.
Leixlip Area committee was told last Friday that arrangements have also been agreed between the relevant clubs and Leixlip Amenities Group for use of existing GAA lands within Leixlip Amenities Centre while the long term leases are being finalised.
Cllr. Catherine Murphy thanked the officials for their work. She said it was important work starts on Loughnamona as soon as possible. The GAA, she added, could start using the new land straight away but Leixlip Utd and the GAA both saw the benefit of the move happening at the same time.
Cllr. Senan Griffin also welcomed the agreement. He said the legal side should be speeded up because the clubs might be held up on finances until a legal agreement was fully in place. Grants are generally not given where legal title is not held by groups receiving them.
At last December’s meeting, Mr Rafferty told members the GAA club was looking for a contribution and he did not appear to believe it was a jest at the time.
Senior official, Peter Minnock, Director of Services, Corporate and Cultural Affairs, told the councillors at the January meeting there is a need for clarification about what is happening. That came and on Friday, Mr Minnock reported the good news on the agreement.
Leixlip Utd and Leixlip Town are badly in need of land and United have been paying privately for temporary use of land. There was concern that any request by Leixlip based GAA club for money would delay the transfer of land the GAA club is using at the Centre to the soccer clubs in return for land the GAA club is due to get near new housing estates in the town.
Late last year, the Council’s Leisure Manager, Niall Rafferty, told the committee the GAA club was not ready to move into the former Finnegan’s land yet and were looking for a contribution from the council. But Fine Gael Cllr. Senan Griffin later said this was said “in jest”.
The club told the council at the time it would cost £500,000 to drain the land.
The discussions on the allocation of the land at Glen Easton and the Amenities Centre have been going on for some time. The land has come into the council’s possession on foot of housing development.
The deal is that the GAA will move from a current pitch it has use of at the Amenities Centre to make room for a new soccer pitch there.
Eight of the 20 acres are part of the former Finnegans land and are said to be difficult to prepare as playing pitches. The other eleven acres are at Loughnamona.
There is now quite an amount of sports land in Leixlip. There are sixty five acres of amenity land on the west side of Leixlip, 33 at Leixlip Amenities Centre, 12 at Loughnamona and 12 at Finnegan’s land near Loughnamona.
Public land has been provided at St. Catherine’s Park in Confey as well.

Bob Dylan is coming to demonstrate his talents on another piece of GAA property, Pearse Stadium, Galway. And guess what. Some 50 miles away at the same time the Tribesmen are taking on old rivals Mayo in Castlebar in a vital Connacht Championship match. Ivan Neill reports in the Western People.
Superstar Bob Dylan has confirmed he is to perform at an open-air concert at Pearse Stadium, Galway on Sunday, June 27 - the same day the Connacht GAA Council fixed its biggest crowd-pulling, televised live senior football championship semi-final between Mayo and Galway less than 50 miles away at McHale Park, Castlebar.
An unexpected defeat for Mayo against New York in a preliminary round tie of the championship on May 2 at Gaelic Park, the Bronx, New York would not ease the problems for the Council, as Galway would then have a home game against New York on June 27.
In that scenario the council would have no option to bring Galway v New York game forward on the Saturday evening at Tuam Stadium, as Pearse Park would have been set out for the concert the next day. The singer will join two other international acts, two Irish groups and a local group for what as been tagged as the gig of the summer.
The concert has been organised by Galway County GAA Board to raise funds to meet the debt created by the refurbishment of the Salthill Stadium. The clash of events is causing concern in GAA circles as the concert may reduce the attendance at the game in Castlebar. “A Mayo v Galway championship game has always been our largest crowd pulling fixture in any year and it’s a pity the organisers did not check for other events on that day,” said Connacht Council President Tommy Moran