The County Council of Cork should take care of his own, not the rulebook

By Michael Moynihan

The people of Cork pride themselves on being a race apart. Whether or not you have a t-shirt with the People's Republic in red and white, nice reader, you are not aware of this phenomenon.

It's this sense of difference, which sometimes reads as a superiority, ongoing controversy over the Liam Miller charity match.

Tickets for this match are on sale this morning and are expected to sell quickly, with a host of players at Turner's Cross

As you know, the organizing committee first sought to hold the match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. As reported by the Irish Reviewer earlier this week, Michael O'Neill Flynn of the committee said: "The Cork County Council was receptive, but Croke Park and GAA can not do anything about it. this subject as long as this rule is there. "

The rule is simple: in 2010, it was agreed that Croke Park could be used for other sports, but not for other reasons in the country. For "other sports" to be played in these lands, permission must be granted by the GAA Annual Congress

. But an absurdity

An organization can not position itself as anchored in its communities like any other body, with a national reach like no other, and a sense of social responsibility unlike any other – and then use the grape leaf technicality to abdicate its responsibilities towards these communities.

We do a lot of things that are slightly tangential to this controversy. For example, the fact that Liam Miller played GAA with his local club, Éire Óg, before enjoying a spectacular professional football career, or the public funding that was invested in Páirc Uí Chaoimh during his redevelopment.

There is also much talk of PR disasters and old-fashioned schools of thought, not to mention the false indignation that we can not hope to find on social media.

None of these paradoxes takes precedence over the fact that someone who brought celebrity to his birthplace all over the world is denied his due. That's the bottom line in this case, do not twist hand over bureaucracy and permissions.

(In fact, it is curious that no one thought of charging the game as a Gaelic football game of charity between the participants, with the procedure turning to "football on the ground" right from the start. Sending the party, this was the first time that it happened on this parcel of grbad.)

To be parish on this subject, it is particularly disappointing that the county council Cork is not more proactive in this regard.

While Michael O 'Flynn pointed out that the board of directors was receptive to the idea of ​​using the stadium for the match, and that he was offering his facilities free of charge to the organizers, it would be interesting to see the reaction if Cork County Council unilaterally decided to allow the game to unfold in the stadium, and to do what it was necessary to do by his own people rather than by the rulebook.

It is not too late for the GAA to act. Whatever the Jesuit rejuvenation of approval or permission needs to be done.

Print another 36,000 tickets and it becomes the occasion that it should be.

Otherwise, well, there was a time when Cork was known to know his own mind, for doing what he thought was right and for taking the consequences for what he thought was just.

The following weekend, there will be thousands of Corkonians at Croke Park singing about what it's like to be a rebel.

How about a certain rebellion for one of yours?