Treacys West County hotel was the venue for the May meeting of Clare GAA on Tuesday night.
The meeting attracted one of the smallest attendances for quite some time with just about a quarter of the clubs of the county represented. Despite the small attendance, a number of new committees were put in place
New audit committee.
Board chairman Kieran Keating presented the names of the incoming Audit committee to the meeting for ratification. The committee comprises Mark O’Connell (Clarecastle), who was a member of the committee which drew up the strategic review report, Vincent Delaney (Sixmilebridge), Fergal Cahill (Cork and Clooney/Quin) and Mayo native Paula McDonnell.
Keating told the meeting that Ms McDonnell will oversee the changeover from the secretary to the H.O.O. and that Central Council delegate Simon Moroney will co-ordinate this. “This will be her first task as we need to get the money from Croke Park”.
Munster council delegate Bernard Keane asked if this committee is to replace Michael Curtin’s committee to which the chairman replied yes. They were there five years and should only have been there three”. Keane replied that he “would not like to see Michael Curtin lost to the organisation”.
Criticism of ticket distribution
Strong criticism of the manner in which tickets are being distributed for the Munster hurling championship game on Sunday between Clare and Limerick was voiced at this week’s county board meeting.
Most of those who spoke expressed opposition to the system climbing that they were forced to log in “several times”.
It was pointed out that one could only download 6 ticket at a time which forced clubs to log in multiple times. Inagh/Kilnamona delegate Paul Gannon pointed out that because of this fact that clubs had to log on many times, the system was closed down.
Contrary to most delegates views, Clarecastle’s Neville O’Halloran described the system as “a great system stating that he provided the link to members who were able to log on”.
Replying to this Paul Gannon said that was fine if a club had enough tickets but if the demand exceeded the supply it would not work.
Caherlohan committee:
Clairman Keating also announced a new committee to deal with the Caherlohan development and he named Colin Kelly, Conor Gilligan and Brian O’Connell to serve on this committee; Kelly and Gilligan were members of the committee which drew up the strategic review report while O’Connell is a former chairman of the Éire Óg club.
Keating told the meeting that he had yet to fill the club committee but that Tom Crotty from Scariff will be a member.
Replying to a query from Clonlara’s Flan Mullane as to whether or not clubs can nominate people for these committees, the chairman said he had spoken at previous meetings that he would be appointing these committees and nominations can be made.
Nominations
Clubs are to be written to this week and asked to nominate for the vacant position of assistant secretary.
Informing this week’s meeting that two nominations had been received, chairman Kieran Keating said “these nominations have come in but all clubs are entitled to nominate”.
He told the meeting that nominations had been received for Deirdre Chaplin of Cratloe and Corofin’s Ambrose Heagney.
He made no reference to the vacant position of assistant treasurer. This vacancy arose following the resignation of Éire Óg’s Tony Brohan
Manager’s reports
Reports from the county under 20 managers, Michael Neylon (football) and Terence Fahy (hurling) were read to the meeting by the chaimran Kieran Keating. Having read the reports to the delegates, the chairman said the reports will be passed on to the coaching and games committee.
In the reports the managers gave detailed accounts of the season just ended, their training programme, their games, the results while they thanked those who had assisted them during the year under review.
Junior B and C championships
Competition regulations and formats for the junior B and C hurling and football championships will be presented at the June board meeting, chairman Kieran Keating told this week’s gathering in response to a query from Sixmilebridge delegate Pat Keane.
Later in the meeting he announced the pairings for the opening rounds of the senior, intermediate, junior A hurling and football championships and informed those present that the full list of the game will be e-mailed to them this week.
