That was the emphatic message given to the GAA authorities following the re-opening of the Croke Park Handball and Social Centre on Sunday 5th February. It was the case of the immovable object against an irresistible force something had to give writes Michael McGee. An Taoiseach Mr Bertie Ahern TD officially re-opened the Centre on Sunday evening 5th February last. Vinny Farrelly Chairman of the Croke Park Handball and Community Centre along with Eamon O' Brien Chairman of the Croke Park Street Committees welcomed An Taoiseach to the centre. There were over 400 people in the centre for the arrival of the Taoiseach. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was taken on a tour of the centre where the Shika Do's Little Dragons karate group were going through their paces, along with the Croke Park Dance Club and the Juvenile handball players. An Taoiseach spent time watching each group and had a photo shoot taken. Vinny Farrelly spoke first and welcomed An Taoiseach. Vinny was delighted to see such a wonderful attendance. Farrelly said everyone fought hard to retain ownership of the centre. What we have is something special, local and unique added Farrelly. Farrelly added they will be prepared to move only when they have a new centre with a bar licence to maintain funding for such a centre. Eamon O'Brien then spoke and said all politicians showed solidarity with the community and all were behind them in getting the bar license restored to the club. "We are going to maintain a watching brief on the G.A.A.," said O'Brien. "The G.A.A. planned to put us out of business and it was hypocrisy from the G.A.A. on the one hand allowing foreign sports into Croke Park and on the other damaging our national sport of handball," claimed O'Brien. "We have to be vigilant, we have won the battle but not the war." O'Brien read out a poem written by his wife Maria. titled Justice Wins it read; 'Our battle brought together those from every side. For our cause indeed was righteous, without political divide. We stood united, one and all, determined to succeed. A tough campaign was fought and won.' An Taoiseach then spoke and wished the centre well. He thanked the Centre committee for all the great work they had done for the community over the last 25 years. He reiterated, as Vinny Farrelly had mentioned, that the centre needs a bar to keep funding itself. Also present at the opening were Tony Gregory Ind TD, Joe Costello Labour TD, Senators Cyprian Brady FF, Councillors Emer Costello Labour, Aodhan O' Riordan Labour, Tom Stafford FF, Paschal Donohoe FG, Christy Burke SF, and Mick Rafferty Ind. Nial Ring advisor to the Taoiseach and Johnny Scurry, Chris O' Raillaigh and Susan Murray from Sinn Fein were also in attendance. Mary Lou McDonnell MEP, who is in hospital, sent her best wishes. Rings intervention a master stroke The problem began for the Centre in the period August 2003 to March 2004 when the GAA refused to give permission to spend the lottery grant of €150,000 on re-furbishing the centre. In September 2004, the G.A.A. called in the Fire Officer to inspect the Centre. Last March the G.A.A. objected in court to the licence renewal stating that as owners of the property they were entitled to do so. They also informed the judge during these proceedings that they would not permit the spending of the lottery grant of €150,000. An Taoiseach appointed Mr. Paul Maloney current head of the Docks Authority to chair meetings to resolve the problem. These meetings took place between April and December of last year. When the negotiations were set up with Paul Maloney there were two delegates from each side Jimmy Heffernan and Vinny Farrelly representing the club and Peter McKenna and another delegate, if required, representing the G.A.A. It was Aodhan O'Riordan (Labour) who suggested the name of Paul Maloney as intermediary. Eamon O'Brien then passed this suggestion on to the Taoiseach's office who requested his intervention. There were regular up-date meetings involving the club, the Croke Park Streets Committees and politicians. Tony Gregory TD, Joe Costello TD, Senator Cyprian Brady, Senator Tony Kett, Councillors Aodhan O'Riordan, Christy Burke, Mick Rafferty, Tom Stafford and Paschal Donohue. The Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny spent two hours at the centre and wrote to the G.A.A. on the matter. Local political activists Nial Ring and Johnny Scurry attended all meetings. An Taoiseach was also putting pressure on the G.A.A. to restore the centre to the community. As a result, the Taoiseach asked that Niall Ring get actively involved and attend the meetings and he kindly did. That was hugely important move. The fact that a close representative of the Taoiseach was actually there certainly propelled the situation along stressed O'Brien. The strength of the local Croke Park area community eventually won the day according to Nial Ring According to Niall Ring, a lot of the time, the negotiations seemed to be going well. Everyone was happy with the way things were panning out but unfortunately, the legal document would come out and would not reflect what was agreed at the meetings. At that point, meetings were arduous and torturous but all the time the Taoiseach was making huge representations, which took place during the GAA championship season. Niall became involved as he is from the community and is close to the Taoiseach. For Niall it was a personal thing the family has been in the community for over 100 years. "It's a great facility here and we weren't going to let it go for the sake of negotiations," declared Ring. "No matter what the representatives and the Taoiseach did, it was the strength of the local community together and their fight and determination to get the centre opened again that really won out at the end of the day. If the local people had not stood together, it would never have happened." I asked Vinny Farrelly when did the confrontation with the G.A.A. begin and did he realistically think they could take on the might of the G.A.A. and win. Vinny replied: "We always knew we could win. We had the local community behind us together with the local representatives. We realised that something was amiss when they (G.A.A.) refused permission to spend the 150,000 euros of lottery funds that the centre got. If a community organisation as the GAA is supposed to be does not allow you to spend the funds there was something radically wrong. From that impasse, things went down hill dramatically. There were times when the committee was at a low ebb especially when the fire officer tried to close the centre and it did become bleak," admitted Farrelly. Yet again, the local community rallied around. The fire officer gave the centre only 3 days to put in new fire alarms, emergency lighting, fire doors etc. Amazingly, they managed to get all this work done in time. "The G.A.A. must have been amazed when it was pulled off and opened for the All-Ireland Handball finals," commented Farrelly. There were over 400 people on the premises that night along with the Sean Kelly President of the G.A.A. Thankfully, the centre managed to open that night said Farrelly and he went on to say that that was the first time he realised that with goodwill and intentions that we could win their battle. He also got tremendous encouragement from the local residents to continue the fight in trying to keep the centre open when the funding stopped. It was a phenomenal response admitted Farrelly. "e could not pay our ESB bills. Eventually a new license application case went to the Circuit Court on December 21st last. Barrister Dorothy Collins was instructed by the Club's Solicitor Tony Fay of F.H. O'Reilly Solicitors. It proved a great Christmas present for all concerned when the handball centre was awarded its license having struck an agreement with the GAA on their future relationship. A great number of people worked very hard to keep the centre open and they were Vinny Farrelly, Catherine Farrelly, Eamon & Maria O' Brien, Jimmy & Kitty Heffernan, Kevin McKenna, Neville Farrelly, Padraig Gaffney, Richard Downey, Pat Ryan, John Molloy, Maria McCarthy, Fergal O' Riain, Paddy Murray, Willie & Pauline Cahill, Gareth Graham, Austin Broderick, Nicky Walsh, Ritchie & Rose Blunt, Andrew Muldowney, Eoin Walker, Eamon Brady and the Early family. As part of the negotiations it was recommended by Paul Maloney that a steering committee should be set up to stay operational and mediate between the G.A.A. and the Centre Committee. Because the G.A.A. have objected to the lottery funding being spent on the Centre a number of individuals had to come up with €20,000 euros just to pay bills outstanding. The centre costs roughly €150,000 a year to run and that funding comes from bar sales. Friends of the Centre was set up by John & Ned Downey as they raised €53,000 but that was purely as backing funds if the Centre were to spend the lottery funds. One final proposition that I put to Eamon was that handball is known as the poor relation in the G.A.A. and what does he feel the G.A.A. should do to give handball a higher profile. O'Brien replied that, in his opinion, the problem with handball is that the people who run the sport do not command sufficient respect within the G.A.A. and do not get sufficient resources from the GAA to foster and grow the sport. "I think that is a serious problem," he said. O'Brien stated that one of the GAA's weaknesses is its inability's to foster its sports equally even as between football and hurling and while we are definitely the poor relations in the corporate and overall sense others are affected as well. "Effectively what would need to happen to improve the situation is that handballers would have to stand up for themselves, get their fair share of the cake and seek the investment that is required to promote the game. Tennis was a boring game years ago and if games like that now can be hugely commercial and profitable in my view there is no reason why handball, which is the most exportable of our games, could not be equally as commercial and popular," concluded O' Brien. The Handball and Community Centre is the home to D.I.T. World University champions. It is also the home court of Naomh Padraig and Portobello. All the Dublin clubs regularly use the court including O'Tooles, Na Fianna, Brian Borus, DCU, UCD, Trinity, St. Brigids. The Centre hosted the World Handball Finals in 2003 and even the great Mohammad Ali trained there when he fought Al Blue Lewis in the early seventies. For Eamon O' Brien, Vinny Farrelly and Jimmy Heffernan together with their hard working and diligent committees the (handball) gloves are back on again. They can once again look forward to playing the sport of handball they so passionately love. They have demonstrated to all handball followers their great love of the sport and their willingness to fight for the Croke Park Handball Centre that is very commendable. Taking an adage from the G.A.A. ask not what your County can do for you, but what can you do for your County and the Farrelly/O' Brien/Heffernan combination certainly proved a case in point. Tweet

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