Kilkenny motions fall short at GAA Congress
The annual GAA Congress took place in Donegal Town last weekend with delegates from across the country and even further afield gathering to discuss a number of issues.
Two Kilkenny clubs (Danesfort and Muckalee) brought motions to the table but both proved to be unsuccessful in their efforts.
The Danesfort motion has sparked plenty of debate around the country and it was about the Use of Association Property. It was motion 10 on the clar and it stated that Central Council can permit central, provincial or county property to be used for other purposes. This proposal permits that exception to be applied for club property where clubs can make available their ancillary club facilities for use by organisations in the community. It is extending the exception that applies to Association property to be permitted to be used for other purposes.
Kilkenny vice-chair Jim Fennelly was among those to debate in the club’s favour and even though it got 52.8% of the vote in the room, it still fell short in getting the required 60% majority vote.
Despite the defeat, it is expected that Danesfort will come again as they weren’t far off getting the vote over the line. It’s something that may well be needed around the country with a lack of facilities and a multi-sport model may be the way to go.
The other Kilkenny motion of the weekend was from Muckalee and it was something that was debated strongly at the county convention before Christmas.
The proposal from Muckalee was that there will be an additional power for Development CCC to enforce the scheduling of inter-county competitions and blitzes to be finished before Week Two in August for hurling and Week Three in August for football.
Unlike Danesfort however, this motion was well defeated with only 24.5% in favour and this decision could have major implications for underage games in Kilkenny later this year with development squad fixtures possibly clashing with club games in the county during the split-season and it’s not one that will be met with universal approval among the clubs.
Away from the Kilkenny side of things, A motion from St Mary’s, Rosslare in Wexford seeking to make it mandatory for every club to field hurling teams from u-7 up to U10 was withdrawn.
Following an initial address from former Wexford manager Liam Griffin, Gerry Reilly, Chairperson of the Hurling Development Committee discussed the importance of developing the game all around the country: “We’d like for Congress to adopt the spirit of what the Wexford motion has outlined,” Mr Reilly said.
Another hurling related subject saw the hand-pass motion defeated from the Nenagh Éire Óg club in Tipperary where it only got 32.4% buy in from delegates in attendance.