Just like the US constitution, the GAA’s official guide is outdated

by Kevin Egan

In a little over a fortnight, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States.

While we won’t go down the road of the Skibbereen Eagle, who famously warned Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in 1898 that the paper’s intention was to ‘keep its eye on the Emperor of Russia, it’s not a controversial view to say that things aren’t going particularly well on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean right now, and most of the world will be immensely relieved if they aren’t a lot worse again by the time that this Presidency comes to an end.

Much of the decline of that nation can be attributed to a ferocious sense of American exceptionalism, and the idea that their constitution is absolutely sacrosanct, despite the fact that it is a document that in many respects, is very much “of its time”.

One can only imagine that if the writers - James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay – had been able to look ahead 235 years to today, when Elon Musk is dictating policy and mentally-ill teenagers have access to assault weapons, that trio might have been inclined to say “hang on a minute lads, that’s not what we meant”.

But as we hinted above, the power of this Offaly Independent column to influence US politics is quite limited. Now some might say that the power of this column to influence anything at all is extremely limited, and that’s fair enough too. But our remit is still to look at matters within the sporting world, particularly the GAA and particularly here in Offaly, and with that in mind, this week we consider some aspects where the GAA’s Official Guide might be different, if it was written in 2025, as opposed to re-interpreted (or forgotten about) over the past century and more.

Supporting Irish business

It remains in the rulebook that “all jerseys, shorts, stockings, tracksuits and kitbags… shall be of Irish manufacture”, and at the time when this rule was originated, it made perfect sense. There was a native clothing industry that needed support, and the value of supporting local business was every bit as important then as it is now.

However that was written at a time when units of the GAA didn’t buy a lot else, other than the gear that was used for playing. Now the association, units, and members, are large-scale consumers, but the same ethos isn’t applied as a matter of policy, even if the community ethos of most volunteers means that there will always be a bias towards local suppliers. But to give one example, does it make sense to have such a deep association with Ticketmaster, when there are so many Irish-owned alternatives?

Promoting Irish nationalism

Few artists are as divisive as the Belfast trio Kneecap, and yet even those who would never dream of loudly declaring themselves as a “H.O.O.D.” would struggle to deny that they have done more for the popularity and image of the Irish language than any piece of legislation or public policy has done for a generation.

The lesson is obvious. Win the hearts and minds of the general public, and GAA’s basic aim of “strengthening of the National Identity in a 32-county Ireland” will be advanced.

Leinster’s local dominance and the inaccessibility of the Irish national team means that rugby has stagnated. The domestic soccer scene is stronger than it has been for some time, but the idea that the local game is a stepping stone to the wider European scene is broken, while the national senior men’s team is spectacularly off the pace, while the merchandise is overpriced and unappealing.

Gaelic games associations are welcoming environments to those born into other cultures, but active measures to promote our games to new audiences are still desperately inadequate, even though the iron is hot and it’s the perfect time to strike.

Amateur status

It’s not in 2024, or even in 2014 or 2004, that the GAA’s commitment to amateurism became an ‘ethos’ as opposed to a rule. Given that a full-time work week in the public sector is 37.5 hours, one wonders how many inter-county players would read the line “Members of the Association may not participate in full-time training” with a wry smile. Likewise, “A player, team, official or member shall not accept payment in cash or in kind in conjunction with the playing of Gaelic Games” doesn’t exactly hold water in a world of sponsored cars, sponsored social media posts, or four players arriving in the one car to training, with each one signing for their own mileage.

Like US politics, repairing a structure that has been allowed to rot so deeply is beyond the carpentry skills of this writer, but what US and world politics teaches us is that a culture of elitism, and a permanent divide between the haves and the have nots, is not a recipe for success.

GAA and Irish culture, as well as having a myriad of positive traits, has plenty of negative ones too. One of those is an understanding that rules will be bent to breaking point and beyond, if that’s what it takes to get success on the field. Moving the goalposts on the amateurism front – and that’s clearly the way the wind is blowing – is only a recipe for the wealthier counties to move farther and farther into the distance when they apply the same ‘push the envelope’ philosophy, and that will inevitably lead to some weaker counties ceasing to field teams. Already a precedent has been set here when pressure was exerted on some counties not to field in the National Hurling League.

Promoting Irish culture

There are some incredibly devoted volunteers and evangelists in the Scór section of the GAA, and their efforts should continue to be supported as much as is possible. Undeniably, Scór promotes traditional Irish arts and culture, albeit it’s a cultural perspective that is a little bit frozen in time.

What we can say however is that the wider Irish arts and music scene has never been as vibrant as it is now, and while there is merit in keeping older forms of our culture alive, surely that should go hand in hand with support for artists that are at the forefront of the evolution of Irish expression.

Yet last year we saw a worrying trend develop, where official match programmes and some officially licensed GAA products have used artificial intelligence (AI) artwork. Aside from the fact that this “art” is clearly and painfully devoid of any soul or character, it’s not unreasonable to guess what Michael Cusack or Maurice Davin would have said about that policy.