Good morning Richard,

Hope you are well. Owen McGuire here from Ennistymon and for the past four years a resident of Wurzburg, Germany. My GAA involvement at the moment is being the Chairman and trainer of the two year old St Kilians GAA club ( www.stkilians.de ) here in Bavaria and a subscriber to your very interesting weekly 'Hurrah' piece.

The opening of Croke Park to non-GAA sports is a very emotive issue and one quite close to my heart. I've been meaning to get back to you on the topic but, only now have had a little time to get my thoughts on paper.

There are many reasons - pro and con - that have been well outlined in yours and other articles but, I find there are two points that we need the moral courage to admit exist and try to rationalise to a satisfactory conclusion before we can have a long lasting agreement to our national treasure. They are:

• the historical context in why the pitch ( and the GAA organisation itself ) was founded and
• how much is one prepared to win competitions at the cost to a local parish / area sporting development

Historical Context: We are all keenly aware that the GAA was formed by zealous patriots unselfishly dedicated to staving of the systematically enforced extinction of the native Irish sporting disciplines. Ultimately stemming from their vision and efforts the GAA is now in the empowered situation where it can dictate the development of our own indigenous games while also influencing the progression of sports such as Soccer, Rugby etc. If we 'lightly' decide to open up Croke Park there has to be ( whether we consciously admit it or not! ) a feeling of betrayal and shame to the work of generations of great people before us. This is my major stumbling block! Am I ( substitute We here ) going to flit away a treasure and sell the farm that I'd inherited rather than earned thus lacking a sense of genuine appreciation?

My personal conclusion is that the basis intention of the people who created the GAA organisation ( and its grounds ) was the improvement of the lot of all Irish athletes, particularly the young. I believe that there has been too much division on our island. In these historical times of change the legacy we can pass to future generations is that we made the heart searching and difficult decisions for the improvement of the lot of all Irish athletes.

Win at very high costs: We have all been exposed to the 'hard man win at all costs' rhethorics that seem to permeate GAA dressing rooms from U12 teams upwards. " De Unbelievables " hilarious sketch of a win obsessed manager invoking images of past barbarism and cruelty to inspire his young charges ( all of thirteen years of age!!) to exact just revenge with equal or even crueller acts of violence in a local County quarter-final isn't, at times, too far off the mark! This mentality extends to the higher administration levels of the GAA - dual players being forced to favour one code above the other, the only objection to new hurling club being formed in a small parish coming from the existing football in the parish or exploiting any paperwork technicality to hinder opposition players playing.

In a way this is a natural human instinct to weaken any opposition. This also applies to the advantages other sporting organisations would gain from availing of Croker. There is a finite pool of young players within each locality that all sporting disciplines have to compete for and attract to their teams to perpetuate their own games. The bottom line being that it is thoughtless and dumb to speed up the process whereby current GAA clubs are deprived of enough players to field underage teams. But taking a holistic perspective this attitude may be so repulsive to those new generations of players that we are trying to attract, that long term we may be pursuing the false course of action to maintain and strengthen our pool of younger players.

This segweys into the more important and interesting point of what positive proactive actions can we, as an organisation, now undertake to encourage the future players to be interested and remain loyal through their playing careers and beyond. Making it as financially rewarding as soccer, rugby, basketball et al isn't going to be a realistically viable option but, focusing on my first point above may be one way forward.

It's going to be intriguing to see how Central Council votes on this issue. I feel there will be many, like myself, torn between conflicting emotions but, we need to make the decisions that will strengthen long term the organisation we love.

Mise le meas,.

Eoghan Mac Ghuidhir.