Out of touch politicians could learn lessons from GAA mindset

Kevin Egan Column

Older readers of the Offaly Independent don’t need to be told about a time when Irish society was deemed to be held up by the three “traditional” pillars of the Catholic Church, Fianna Fáil and the GAA. Meanwhile, younger readers couldn’t possibly conceive of a time when the first two of those organisations held such power.

Both groups would agree, however, that outside of the actual arms of the state, there is no organization or movement with anywhere near as much influence as the GAA right now.

While the others have lost significant numbers of active volunteers and, some would argue, much of their moral authority as well, the Gaelic Athletic Association has moved into that space and commandeered it, particularly in rural Ireland.

In Offaly, we are in the narrow window between the end of the inter-county season, and the start of adult club championship action. It’s far from a lull, however. Local pitches are buzzing, with adult teams working hard chasing their dreams, underage teams getting their championships up and running, and preparations are well underway for Cúl Camps, which have become a national phenomenon, with as many as 150,000 participants likely to take part this summer.

The influence of the association doesn’t stop there. Clubs have become de facto health providers too, as they work to support the physical and mental health of their members and the rest of the people in their catchment area.

When hard times befall people, it is often the local GAA that rallies around. As just one small example, the Sheffield family of Shannonbridge recently were devastated by a house fire that left them needing to rebuild their lives, and the club is helping to run a fundraising drive to help the family through this tough time. On that note, if you are in a position to log on to GoFundMe and search for the Sheffield Family Support Fund and make a contribution, please do.

GAA clubs frequently operate as networks to help members get their businesses and careers off the ground, they often offer support for their younger players in education, and they invariably serve as a rallying point when there is a matter of real concern to an area.

Of course, there is a world outside the GAA too, where other sports, other cultures and other ways of life hold sway. Certainly, the GAA does not have a monopoly on community togetherness and support, and all across Irish society, these attributes are on display. In fact, one could argue that the GAA’s culture is not unique in Irish society, but it is reflective of the people, and the way we think.

All of which makes it more bewildering and concerning that right now, there is a stark disconnect between the way Irish society acts and thinks as manifested in our largest community organization, and how Ireland is currently being administered and governed.

One of the huge strengths of this country for many years was that while our culture of clientelist, parish-pump politics had immense drawbacks, particularly for those who were in any way disconnected from the cliques and groups that existed at the centre of every community, the nation’s politicians at every level were acutely aware of being in touch with ordinary people, of understanding their concerns and their way of thinking.

Shortly before he ascended to the office of UK Prime Minister, a clip surfaced of Rishi Sunak where he said “I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are, you know, working class” before he thought for a second and corrected himself, saying “well, not working class”, as if that was a ridiculous notion.

There was a time when a remark like that would have spelled political suicide in Ireland, yet now, we have elected officers with multiple properties getting caught out blatantly breaching rules with regards to planning applications and the official Register of Members’ Interests, and their primary concern seems to be to try and undermine the media outlet that broke the story, rather than being seen as living in a different world to their constituents.

One could argue that gombeenism and fighting accountability with a brass neck is not a new development in Irish politics, but failing to read the tea leaves and see where the public is at, definitely is. This is where the contrast with the mindset of the GAA and the mindset of public administration is very different.

Take for one example, the thorny issue of immigration.

In the vast majority of GAA clubs, the attitude would be that more people in the catchment area are welcome, and that while they might not be able to make a big contribution now, we’ll make them feel welcome, and give them every support possible to get their feet on the ground, and hope that in time, they will become part of what we do. On a national level, there are programmes in place to support this.

Government policy has been to put immigrants in situations where integration into the community is impossible, to give them no support whatsoever, to provide as little information as possible and thus allow rumour and disinformation to fill the vacuum, and to provide no pathway or vision for people to appreciate that in the long run, this can make the country stronger and better. Moreover, their response to local disquiet is not to come out with explanations and information, but to create deeply-flawed hate speech legislation, which only further fosters resentment.

In the GAA, if one club had a huge deficit in the area of facilities, and were unable to cater for their population, the association at large would look to support that club in getting their infrastructure up to the level that was needed. The club would run fundraising events, and neighbours would support them in doing so.

In society right now, there are huge infrastructure deficits, particularly with respect to housing. Yet the official response is not to address it, but to allow the crisis to grow, all for fear of doing anything that might upset existing property owners. An explosion in supply and a subsequent drop in prices would only be a negative outcome for those who own multiple properties, which is clearly a well-off minority.

Ask any GAA club officer about their top priorities, and they won’t get far down their list before the topic of underage comes up, as they understand that every club’s long term future hinges on having a broad and solid base on which to build.

Opinions vary widely on topics such as the perfect competition structure for players aged 17 to 20, and which age groups would lead to the optimal level of player retention, but almost everyone shares the same goals.

Irish society has created deeply inhospitable conditions for graduates in many vitally essential fields, the most obvious example being medical and nursing, and yet shows no sign of trying to address those problems to address our own huge problem with “player drop off”. Moreover, one would imagine that nothing could be more important to future generations than food security, and yet we have allowed a situation to develop where our beef and dairy industries are being demonized, and there is an upcoming fruit and vegetable shortage because growing that produce has been made uneconomic here.

In the GAA, there is always a practical element to solutions, and while people appreciate that problems need to be addressed, and urgently, you still have to have the solution in place before you can flick the switch. That’s not exactly what happened when peat factories such as Derrinlough were shut down, leaving imports to fill the gap.

Most of all, imagine the GAA was in a position where a windfall was coming their way, and it was proposed to use the windfall in a way that would benefit the strongest clubs the most, benefit middle of the road clubs a little bit, and offer no benefit whatsoever to the smallest and weakest? Does anyone believe that proposal would pass Congress? Yet that’s what looks set to happen when Finance Minister Michael McGrath delivers his budget later this year.

Here in Ireland, we are not all part of the GAA, but the GAA is a reflection of who we are. Our administration and government, clearly, is not. It’s not entirely clear what that says about us, other than it doesn’t bode well.