Cowen and Offaly GAA

[TruOYSupporter]

Brian Cowan once famously said that he could get a donkey elected on the Fianna Fail ticket in Offaly. On the basis of that particular pronouncement it is less difficult to understand his brothers success in the most recent elections. What is much more difficult to determine however is why this love affair with Fianna Fail and in particular the Cowan family should be so. Statistics back up without fear or contradiction that Fianna Fail's legacy to the well being of County Offaly in the Brian Cowan era was disastrous. At a time when his local electorate was given him the biggest personal vote in the country, Offaly as a county was continually being highlighted in various reports as under performing and falling behind the national average economically. The county had a raft of negative endorsements, as the poorest county per capita in the country. That in the event of a down turn in the building industry the county was more likely to suffer financially then any other county in the country. Subsequent figures post crash have confirmed this to be the case i.e Tullamore unemployment black spot, Edenderry longest waiting dole ques in the country, the list goes on and on. This was achieved at a time of Fianna fail domination of local government. But for most it appeared that a ballad sung by Brian Cowan in a pub in Tullamore on a friday night was all they aspired for. At half past seven on the evening of the election a cowan canvass van with loud speaker blaring out the offaly rover drove through the streets of Tullamore stopping occasionally to endorse cowan as your man. This was the cowan philosophy to getting elected. The cowans were digging up the old sporting achievements of a truly remarkable GAA county who had wonderfully talented players and then align themselves with those winning compilations. The irony should not be missed that those sporting achievements were built on the county's previous ability to keep its young men employed within the county and grew out of the pre cowan days when bord na mona and the esb employed vast numbers of its young men. As those jobs were shed over the last twenty years no obvious though went in to their replacement. Offaly as a small county with a small pick of players and other resources will suffer more then most from this depression and the county's best gaa players are lightly to play again in places like New York just as they did in the 1940's and 1950's before Offaly ever had success at senior level as a gaa county on the national stage.

[turk]

I'm sorry, I just don't get this.

[TruOYSupporter]

I have been away oversees trying to make a living for a number of months and only found "Turk" reply to my article on the Cowans today. All I can add is that I would not be to concerned about not understanding the article. At least you seem to have a few words of English. I on the other hand do not speak a word of Turkish.

[High School Musical]

I'm with Turk on this. What's this all about?
Is there a valid point to be made here?

[Lone Shark]

Struggling to grasp the point behind the post myself. We're all well aware that the country has been badly damaged by years of misrule and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed that FF didn't get utterly wiped out at the last election, but having said that, I don't see that Offaly has suffered disproportionately in that regard. Our dole queues are long, as they are everywhere, but while I abhor parish pump politics, Brian Cowen did leave some positive legacy in the local area, even if nationally he will not be remembered kindly.

[TruOYSupporter]

To those who are in support of Turk's contention that my original post was in some way incoherent, let me attempt to rephrase and expand on the content of my earlier text. Cut more to the chase, so to speak. The first point that I made, namely that we have fared poorer economically in County Offaly over the last twenty years than most other counties is a
simple enough one to prove. According to the governments own figures, County Offaly's position in the years 1989 to 2010 relating to both average individual earnings and disposable income has fallen from thirteenth position on the national chart to last bar none. According to the department of education we have as a county the poorest take up of third level education in the country, again directly linked by the report to poorer parental income. According to the Auctioneers Federation of Ireland most recent report, for the period 1/7/2010 to the 31/6/2011 County Offaly has recorded the largest drop in house prices in the country. Country Offaly has recorded the second largest increase as a percentage in unemployment in the 18 to 25 year old male group behind Donegal. When all the proceeding negative statistics are grouped together it should be evident to even the most ardent supporter of Mister Cowan's that the time he spent on the "edge of the square" for Offaly economically, resulted mainly in a concession of own goals.

Had I been a Fine Gael activist (which I am not) in the run up to the second last general election, (at the time Mister Cowan was minister for Foreign Affairs), I would have suggested creating an election banner for their campaign in Offaly, composed of the following. Bertie Ahern is looking after Drumcondra and North County Dublin, Mary O Rourke (in and out of Government) is looking after Athlone, Brian Cowan is looking after Northern Ireland, but who is looking after Offaly. Twenty five years ago i used to ride my bicycle in to Mister Cowan's home town of Clara. My most vivid memory of the very centre of the town was the trees growing up through the roofs of the derelict houses. All that has happened in the intervening years is that the trunks of the trees have got bigger. (Check it out don't take my word for it)

Twenty years ago, if my family wanted to buy something we could not find in Clara, we always went to Tullamore as against Athlone. We always found Tullamore to be a far better shopping town than Athlone. Compare them today! Athlone with its shopping malls including leading brand outlets such as M & S, Pennies, underground car parks, International branded
Hotels. Tullamore on the other hand, nearly empty Town Centre, derelict buildings, (as an example) ex Texas building and site, former north offaly co.op building, Kilroys and approx. another fifty or so smaller ones boarded up, many before there was any sign of a recession. Consider on the other hand, P. Flynn's Castlebar, Mary o Rourke's Athlone, Noel Dempsey's Trim, a town which was approx. the same size as Edenderry before the Dempsey years. Compare the ranking of Tullamore today in relation population wise to other county towns in the country, then check out the rankings for the same towns twenty years ago and find out what I am getting at. Get out of the county for a few hours, open your eyes and see whats being happening around you. Sure everywhere is struggling now, but compare where individual places have come from and where they will go as the country in general comes to terms with its past mismanagement.

Naturally I don't expect everybody to have the same opinion of Mister Cowan as I have. What I am writing about here will not sway those who already have good semi- state jobs such as those in the ESB for example.( and more power to them) Some of those people may not want any further development at all.They may be happy to allow other locations far away from County Offaly to provide the job opportunities for the coming generations of Offaly's sons and daughters. The point I was
trying to make is that there will be downsides to our children leaving, one of which is the loss of those individuals to sports within the county. While the same could be said of most other counties, there is one very fundamental difference between every other county and Offaly. Relative to our size we have had monumental success in comparison to any other county in both football and hurling and therefore we have much higher expectations from our county hurlers and footballers as a
consequence. As the games becomes more and more professional it is my opinion that a county's overall resources will play a bigger and bigger role in determining which counties come out on top and in this respect Offaly is already well behind the eight ball.

It could be said that coaching and proper management can make up the difference but remember other larger counties will have the same ambition. As an example, as I have watched the superior growth of towns like Athlone and Mullingar in comparison to the Offaly towns, it has coincided with Westmeath's ascendancy over Offaly in Football. I have heard Offaly people say this situation will change again, that we have the tradition and we will have our day again. This may not be the case, it has taken the guts of 15 years for their ascendancy to come about to the level it's at today. As for tradition where was ours before 1960/1. While our county senior hurlers would still be expected to beat their counterparts in Westmeath, look at what is happening at minor level and what happened the last time a Westmeath senior hurling team met one from Offaly in the Leinster club championship.

I have always associated a county's sporting success with its economic well being, relatively speaking. As an Offaly supporter all my life, it frustrated me to see so little being achieved economically within the county other than building related activity during Cowan's tenure. The way I saw it, Cowan was so powerful, he could have achieved real sustainable advantage for the county if he had both the aptitude and desire. The reverse was always going to be true when he had not. In that event it was better if he had been less powerful, so that the fianna fail leadership would give our constituency its share of investment to get him over the line in elections. As it was, it was more of a case of where will we spend it elsewhere to get some more shaky candidate over the line and it is becoming more and more evident from day to day that Mr. Cowan's over riding mission above all else was to get as many fianna fail candidates over the line as was possible.

Why then was he so popular? Well civil servants including semi-states would have loved him, every time they would have seen him, they surely called out "Santa Claus", equally some people whose granny was pushed up by three places in the hospital waiting list at the expense of someone's Else's granny would have similar feelings for him. Then there were the people who thought he was doing something more communal for them, like delivering a new hospital. I was once one of those myself until I overheard a conversational at a football match by a senior midland health official who informed another person unknown to me that Mr Cowan had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the debate. It appeared to the official involved that Mr. Cowan only became enthusiastic when the commissioning of the project became a fait accompli. The official may not have known the full story of course, Mr Cowan could have played a covert role in the affair. Maybe whoever knows the real truth might come forward and tell us.

For me I am unfortunately away back to an oil rig off the coast of Norway in the morning, in order to keep a roof over my family's head. Apart from my family the most thing I miss is all the football and hurling championship games, especially as it gets nearer the county finals

Against this backdrop when I then saw another member of Mr Cowan's family jumping onto the bandwagon of Offaly's sporting achievements, in order to get elected, it was more than I could take. I suppose our individual circumstances determine what way we look at things. P.S. Catch up at xmas Hopefully

[Abercrombie Fitch]

TrueOYSupporter

The first point I must make is that the surname Cowen, as used above is spelt as i have spelt it. Brian Cowan has never been elected in Offaly. Get it right.

Secondly, if you ever come home from Norway and have to avail of Tullamore general hospital for you or your family(and i hope you dont obviously), then dont kid yourself that Cowen had nothing to do with that. Its a credit to Offaly. A hospital for the Midlands and a job creator, both in construction and now. But if you consider Marks and Spencers more important than treating our parents and family in general then fair play to you.

And lastly, if you wish to tell this forum where the trees are growing through houses in Clara town centre for the last 20 years I would be glad to go look for them, although i doubt they are big enough to be seen from Norway.

Now grow up and leave this forum for GAA people and GAA purposes. If you have a problem with Barry Cowen then vote against him.

Uibh Fhaili Abu!

[icursedtheday]

Jayz lads, no need to jump on the mans back. First of all its a fair commentary in many respects, but the emphasis should be on 1) the disappointing nature of his tenure in charge, 2) How a family member was able to walk in after him. This is an indication of the Fianna Fail clique that exists in Offaly. I have to say though that Fine Gael were lucky to get the 2 seats, bad and all as Cowens may be, Corcoran Kennedy is a disaster and will not deliver anything.

I have to say that there is a real issue in Offaly during the 80s and 90s with guys going on to take up 3rd level education with so many apprenticeships available and the over dependance on construction. One of the points that has been made here over the years is the fact that we have so few players playing Fitzgibbon & Sigerson.
Another key area that will play a big role is the lack of proper gym and astroturf facilities to hone players strength and skill levels in the individual clubs.
This is more important in the area of offering year round coaching for kids. This is not the case in Dublin, and other counties. I know in the club I am involved with, all you here from the parents near the end of August is "when are ye finishing up for the year?" and my view is that this is an area that needs to be addressed.
Look there are serious problems with the underage that are only coming to light now, never mind being addressed. And I dont have the time to talk on this now, but suffice to say that this os not Brian Cowens fault. Clubs need to invest more in the national schools and teachers can not be expected to deliver this on their own.

Anyway best of luck on the oil rig in Norway, and I am sorry you have to leave your family in order to provide for them. It is one of the great scandals of modern times, and overall they grey brigade with their pensions and free this that and the other, allied to greed need to take a hit in order to get this country back on track. (Im grey meself, but have not reached the age where I can benefit from the freebies and indeed am private sector so what is there for me will be minimal by the looks of it!).

Its time for a clear GAA structure to be put in place and and clubs need to stop wasting money on trainers who have no idea on physical fitness and more importantly coaching. Easier said than done, but look it needs to be addressed and is one of the key drivers of the poor standard we see today.

[TruOYSupporter]

OOOOPHS I seem to have hit a raw nerve with poor old swanky brand here. We all have heard to our cost of Bertie and the Drumcondra Mafia. I never heard if Mr. Cowa/en had a similar entourage! (Possibly E.S.B and Bord Na Mona employees)(or recently retired)(in jest, honest). If he had not then I would suggest that poor old A.F. here is merely a typical Cowan supporter and there is none so blind as those who will not see, even well dressed ones. My new found friend is obviously incapable of even seeing, what is the physical appearance of trees growing up through the derelict houses in the centre of Clara town. On that basis, it would be rather foolish of me to expect him or anyone like him to see the wood from the trees on more considered topics. In relation to the misspelling of the surname Cowan, quite frankly if I thought that it was going to form the basis of his rather defensive letter, I would have taken greater care, I may even consider sending future texts to him for spoofing, ooophs sorry I meant proofing in the future. Should he ever require medical treatment in Tullamore hospital irrespective of who commissioned it, (possibly for eye ailments) lets pray he does not have to fly in from Brisbane or Broken Hill or some such place to receive it. On the other hand, maybe he will never have to go to places like the north sea. Perhaps he is one of the aforementioned workers or he was lucky enough to win his money on Paddy the plasterers horse. One way or the other he should lighten up, it would be no use having all his money if he got a heart attack or stroke, in that event not even our beloved Tullamore hospital may be in a position to safe him. P.S. I hope I passed the spelling test on this occasion and that he learns to recognize trees when he sees them again, as for seeing the wood from the trees, that my friend is a different matter entirely. (Thankfully helicopter trip delayed owing to the weather. I am beginning to enjoy the banter)

[The Magpie]

The tree's through houses argument is an easy one to win. Just post the link for Google Streets (yes, it exists for Clara!) and we can all judge who's telling the truth.

That is of course, assuming that the Cowen entourage haven't photo-shopped the Google images. They would have that kind of power

[TruOYSupporter]

Perhaps the Shark could check it out, only quickly. The houses together with the trees are on the left hand side approx 30 to 40 meters from the main T junction in the middle of town as you drive in from the direction of Ballycumber. If the trees are not to be seen, maybe the Shark could make local inquiries as to when they were removed, as they were there up to the time I posted the article and for thirty years before that.

[Lone Shark]

A small selection of derelict houses would neither win nor lose this argument in my view. For many years Offaly always had a disproportionate amount of public sector/semi-state employment due to the prevalence of Bórd na Móna and the ESB, so it stands to reason that as the bogs begin to be cutaway, there would be a marked decline in well paid, easy employment - particularly since many posts within those companies, particularly the ESB, were the kind of handy numbers for decent money that will never exist again. Equally, since there is no third level institution in the county - and I'm pretty sure there never was any real push to create one from within the Tullamore community - it stands to reason that a disproportionate amount of young people in the county would instead go down the route of the trades.

A lot of people involved in the trades is no bad thing, however it can become a bad thing if a boom economy is created around them and thus they earn supernormal profits at an age when they aren't mature enough to realise that this is not how things will always be, and then feel the pain twice as hard when the pendulum swings the other way.

It is on this count that Brian Cowen stands indicted. I would argue that as a parish pump politician, he is more than the equal of any of his peers in the party. I would take Tullamore hospital as an amenity over Charlie McCreevy's beneficence to Punchestown or John O'Donoghue's ridiculous decision to move government departments to Caherciveen any day.

The problem is not that Brian Cowen did not look after Offaly, it is that Brian Cowen, along with pretty much everyone in the failed institution that is Fianna Fáil, failed to look after Ireland. They misunderstood the process, and nobody was concerned with the process of making sure that the pot was always full of soup - they were all too busy making sure their own constituency had the biggest spoon to draw out of it. If Ireland was a good place to do business, if the institutions of the state ran efficiently, and if a structure was created to ensure that the working person had enough to sustain themselves in a dignified way and that those who wanted to work but couldn't had a safety net, then we'd be fine. Instead we missed the point, and created a system whereby pulling strokes was mistaken for genuine wealth creation, and where the squeakiest wheels got more grease than they could ever need. The government of the day created a system where the tax structure and the regulation culture favoured the accumulation of land, dodgy zoning and the building of future shanty towns. We rewarded bad behaviour, and people engaged in it, at every level. The fact that people blame Brian Cowen even now for "not looking after Offaly" as opposed to causing hardship for thousands of Irish families says it all about how deeply ingrained this selfish, ugly and ultimately self-destructive streak is in the Irish people.

I have no doubt Bertie Ahern deserves to be remembered in Irish history alongside Oliver Cromwell and the Black and Tans, as a malevolent force who was happy to wreak destruction and inflict misery on the people for his own selfish ends - in his case, his own legacy and that of Fianna Fáil. Charlie McCreevy had a very utilitarian view of Irish society and wished to change it more towards his vision, and while I wouldn't agree with his methods or his goals, I appreciate that he was pursuing a philosophy, which in itself is a novelty in this country. He stood for something, and sought to implement it.

Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan I can't pigeonhole as easily. They were born with the double edged sword of being indoctrinated into Fianna Fáil from birth. It gave them a fast track to power, but it warped their sense of right and wrong. They could not separate the welfare of the party and the welfare of the state, and I believe they genuinely felt that actions which served Fianna Fáil's interests, by definition, served the interest of Ireland. If they saw it was actually the other way around, they might have actually done some good. Nonetheless it is hard to believe that two well educated men with a knowledge of the legal profession and both of reasonable intellect could commit such deeply destructive acts without understanding what they were doing. Their legacy is that somewhere between gross incompetence and treason, but I can't for the life of me figure out which it is.

On the other hand, you see people happily letting Barry inherit the "family seat" and you start to think that maybe, they were just giving the people what they wand. After all, if we're masochistic enough to vote for them, it seems foolish to give out to them for fulfilling their destiny as Fianna Fáil men and pillaging the local society for all that it's worth? It's what they do - and seemingly, it's what we want them to do. Like a warm, familiar, comfortable, urine soaked and infected blanket.

[RexHamilton]

Perhaps the Shark could check it out, only quickly. The houses together with the trees are on the left hand side approx 30 to 40 meters from the main T junction in the middle of town as you drive in from the direction of Ballycumber. If the trees are not to be seen, maybe the Shark could make local inquiries as to when they were removed, as they were there up to the time I posted the article and for thirty years before that.

The derelict buildings you're referring to are on a private patch of land belonging to a local family. They are adjacent to both the family home and the family business of that local family. What Brian Cowen could have done to ensure this piece of land was developed is beyond me.

[browser]

I am not so sure what trueoysupporter is getting at here, he seems to have some bee in his bonnet and I am not sure if we have the story yet. He makes a number of points in his posts that are to say the least contentious, certainly as evidenced by some of the replies. Contentious as some of his claims are, it is important not to completely throw the baby out with the bathwater. His claim concerning trees growing up through the roofs of derelict houses in the centre of Clara town seems to be the one that has had the most reaction to and that to me is unfortunate. It was but one point in a number of other more important issues which he set up for discussion. Whether he is right or wrong in any or all of his conclusions is not for me to say at this point, but I for one would like to find out what is really going on here. It was rather a pity then that Abercrombie and Fitch dived in feet first concerning the derelict site, which according to Rex Hamilton post is in fact there. Unfortunately in making an issue in the way he did he allowed trueoysupporter to think that by proving that there was such a site, that he had won the overall argument, as against drawing him out a little further, to see exactly what is truly motivating him on those issues. As Rex stated in his post, “what has this to do with Brian Cowen” is anyone’s guess. In attempting to try and get into trueoysupporter’s head on the issue, I have read and reread what he has written in his posts. The one thing, which to me is clear, is that he is convinced that Brian Cowen had great power both nationally and more importantly at local level in a council dominated over a very long period, by his party. He may well feel that collectively they did not do enough to further the cause of Clara as a viable market town, thereby increasing site values to a level where owners felt compelled to either develop or sell them on. Failing that, that the local council would apply derelict notices with sufficient strength to stop individuals hoarding derelict and unsightly property over such long periods, (as he described in his post) to the detriment of other traders in the same town, who are making every effort to sell the town as a whole for the betterment of all. If the second point in particular is partly what is motivating him then I am in complete agreement with him at least in that regard. I am not able to quote rankings, as trueoysupporter seems to be able to do, but I am deeply disturbed concerning the numbers of long term derelict buildings which are located in otherwise beautiful Tullamore. If in the future we receive further posts from trueoysupporter we all may decipher better just what is going on in his head. My own opinion on everything he wrote is broadly in line with the Lone Shark except what is acceptable behavior from a national politician in relation to the needs of his constituents. I am with the Lone Shark ad nauseam on stroke pulling especially where someone else loses his or her place in the queue to facilitate the stroke and furthermore it is all a waste of the politician’s time. Even with large projects like regional hospital’s (and we are blessed with what we have got, I would hate to think that we got it at someone else’s expense. For that reason I was always under the impression that it was Tullamore’s geographical position that won it for us, i.e. halfway between South Laois and North Longford. Where I am more in agreement with trueoysupporter is that there is nothing wrong in my opinion, with a national politician working within his own constituency to bring about positive and sustainable industry and commerce within his vote gathering area. For example (and I don’t have all the answers either) we have a number of meat slaughtering and processing operations in the county and because of our geographical position in the centre of Ireland, a center of excellence could have been established whereby food production including value added concepts could be evaluated and taught at a site in and around the town of Tullamore. Let the like of the college that was provided in Athlone do its thing, but let us develop our “thing” as well. Reading through his posts, this I believe is what trueoysupporter was actually driving at. If he has a problem it is maybe that he is a little dogmatic in his phraseology. Also he may have chosen the wrong site to illustrate our shared distain for long neglected buildings, as the rumor was rife some four years ago in West Offaly that Barry Cowen jointly with Ger Kilally in fairness to them were trying to buy that particular site for development.

“Uibh Faili Abu!” always.
But let’s begin not to confuse it with “Yaaa hoo”