GAA president John Horan yesterday said social media did not influence him in the way he dealt with the controversial Liam Miller benefit match at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
And he said the GAA took “an unfair bashing” and in a “funny kind of way it highlighted just how strong an organisation we are”.
The GAA got heavily criticized, especially on social media, over its initial refusal to allow the soccer match for the Cork dual player to go ahead at the Cork venue.
But the match will go ahead at Páirc Uí Chaoimh after the organisation performed a U-turn on the matter.
Horan said that the organization “did allow it to happen and I took opinion from the grassroots of the organisation. I am not going to be influenced by social media, I wasn’t and people may say ‘ah you are only saying that now’ but I wasn’t.
“I don’t do social media, I don’t Facebook Or Twitter or anything like that, I try to avoid it and then you can look at things in a clearer manner. When I rang around the country and asked people about the grassroots feeling, an awful lot of people felt look we should let it go ahead.
“That proposal was brought to management and Central Council and people say it took us a long time well – you know it did not as we met the committee organising the match on the Tuesday and we had the matter resolved on the Saturday.
“I think we did take an unfair bashing as an organisation and in a funny kind of a way it highlighted just how strong an organisation we are in the way we dealt with it the way we did and we were the ones in the position to have the facility to be provided”.
He added: “It was in everybody’s best interests and a lot of charities in Cork will benefit from this. It is more than Liam Miller’s family that will benefit as a hospice in Cork will also benefit and other charities will also benefit from this fundraiser.”
But he rejected a suggestion that this decision to make Páirc Uí Chaoimh available might open the door to other GAA grounds.
“No and I made that very clear already. This was a decision taken at Central Council level and that is how important these decisions are that it goes to that level.
Huge positive
“I don’t see that being a regular on the agenda at Central Council. I think the circumstances in this one were special and particular.
Speaking at the turning of the sod at a €2.1m development at the Donegal GAA Centre of Excellence in Convoy, the Dublin native said the recent Super 8s were have proved a “success”.
“People’s great concern was that there would be a lot of dead rubbers towards the end. But we didn’t really as three of the last four matches had an impact on the outcome of the competition. It has been a huge positive in that it has brought All-Ireland quarter-finals out to the provinces.
“I was in Omagh for the Tyrone match and whole town of Omagh buzzed that night and the GAA community were delighted to see business in the town where, unlike NFL games, a lot of people stayed in the town overnight.
“Ballybofey was also a great success as was Newbridge and Salthill. We will be looking at any tweaks that might be necessary.”
When asked about Donegal’s major concerns that Dublin were effectively getting two home games in the Super 8s, he said: “Well that is in rule and that can only be dealt with at Congress and nowhere else. We don’t have the authority to tweak that. It is in rule that the games are in Croke Park, but that will be dealt with at Congress. People will make recommendations but if there is any change, it can only happen at Congress.”
When asked if he could foresee this issue being raised at Congress, he said: “It is not for me to predict the opinion of the membership”.
He agreed that the current system could be changed in time for next year’s championship. When asked if he had an opinion on whether Dublin should not have two effective home games, he said;
“I am not going to lead on that one. I will let the membership bring it to the table and we will see what the discussion brings out. Naturally coming from where I come from I am not going to get involved in it.”
