Mayo have now started to lead the way – a 100% County Committee vote against pay-for-play (aka grants/awards/whatever).

They’ve set a lead.

Let’s get in behind them!

What Can You Do To Help?
There’s a few things you could do to stop pay-for-play:

• If you know your Central Council delegate, lobby him before Saturday

• Bring this issue up in your Club

• Try to get it discussed at your County Convention

• Talk to people about it: tell them why we think the way we do

Above all, keep your commitment and enthusiasm!

Who Are You All?

As of 10.30 pm on Thursday 6 December, there’s 231 of you! (update – there’s 327 as of Fri 5 Dec 2007)

And you come from:

“What Was That Again ..?”

Over 400 GAA people attended the meeting in The Elk, Toome to discuss the proposed GAA pay-for-play arrangements. About thirty of them spoke from the floor. In very brief summary, here’s what they said:

• Ten years after pay-for-play club rugby in Ireland has lost its soul: Malone RFC that once had 17 adult teams now struggles to field five. The fall isn’t due to lack of interest; it’s due to lack of volunteer club activity

• If we kill the voluntary bit we kill the GAA. If the government has money for the GAA then give it to the GAA

• The GAA was never as strong. Many tried to put it down. But the only seeds of destruction lie within.

• Most of our Counties are insolvent even as it is

• You play by CHOICE, not for pay

• After last week, what happens the next time a strike is threatened?

• Do we ask too much of our amateur players (who must remain amateur)?

• When contracts came into schools, teachers’ volunteer input disappeared. County players’ careers are helped by their GAA profile.

• It took us over 50 years to do what we did in Brackaville. It’s not for sale!

• My husband’s a County player. By supporting him in his role as a player I feel I’m doing my bit for something that’s very important. Money would destroy that.

• If a County player feels it’s all too much, then walk away from it. It’s all about choice.

• Big business has rolled over just about everything else on this earth. But not yet the GAA. Don’t let it happen! A core question is: “How did we ever get here?” I have yet to meet anyone who thinks it’s a good idea.

• We’re all here as volunteers. It’s in our blood. There’s been no leadership on this. Pay-for-play is not wanted. And it is not needed. All players have the choice to stay or go.

• The GAA is the fabric of society. Pay-for-play would tear it apart.

• We should raise holy hell to get this stopped.

• Is it like Roddy Mc Corley: “Too late, too late are they”? We need to get a motion in to Central Council.

• The GAA life-blood isn’t high profile players: it’s the Clubs, big and small

• The GAA doesn’t just do what others do. We’re the true Olympians. Protect that inheritance!

• Pay-for-play is what’s proposed, regardless of the spin put on it. In the GAA you give what you can give unstintingly. Did you make the GAA or did it make you?

• Everything about our Club is the opposite of pay-for-play. We need to get tonight’s message to Croke Park.

• We must just say No! We’re not doing it!

• The attitude that “The £ is King” has to be confronted.

• The key thing is to get Saturday’s decision deferred. Then get a proper GAA discussion going on this.

• If we’re at the stable door, it’s because the GPA wasn’t properly opposed.

• This is about an issue, not particular people. The issue’s pay-for-play and the destruction of the core of the GAA.

• If the battle is lost on Saturday, we need to come back together again.

• It’s totally heartening to see the sheer conviction and commitment that’s here tonight.

• I thought I was coming to a wake … but this has been the exact opposite.

Over 400 Ulster gaels met in The Elk near Toome on Wednesday 5 December.

The meeting was called to see what the views of grass-roots GAA people were following the announcement days earlier of an inter-County GAA pay-per-play package agreed by some people in the GAA; the GPA; the Irish Sports Council; and the Irish Government.

Prior to the meeting email and telephone support had been received from concerned gaels in 28 different Counties across Ireland. Almost thirty different people, GAA men and women from across Ulster spoke from the floor on the night. The consistent threads across the contributions were:

• The GAA is being presented with pay-for-play, however it’s being dressed up

• The Association’s amateur status must be sacrosanct

• Planned decisions on the proposals at this weekend’s meeting of Central Council should be deferred

• A full consultation on the proposals across all levels and units of the GAA needs to be facilitated.

It was also made clear that GAA players are respected for the honourable place and central role they have in the Association: proper player representation needs to be urgently looked at. Similar respect was voiced for the GAA as an organisation; for its structures and systems; and for its President.

At the end of the meeting there was unanimous support for the following resolutions:

1. There must be no change (other than properly mandated via Congress) to the GAA’s amateur status as presented in its Rule 11: the current proposals fly in the face of that amateur status and Rule 11

2. The discussion of the current proposals planned for the forthcoming Management and Central Council meetings should be deferred

3. A full and proper discussion of these issues should take place across the GAA

4. Those present would proceed to use their own Club and County channels to voice their opposition to the current proposals.

Finally, the clear consensus was that should the current proposals be approved before a proper consultation with the membership is carried out, then a further meeting would be called to again gauge opinion.