www.uibhfhaili.com

(From Hogan Stand)

Birr are to take their fight to the GAA’s new Disputes Resolution Committee (DRA) after a boundary with neighbours Crinkle, which could mean that Brian Whelalan is no longer in their catchment area, was rubber-stamped at the August meeting of the Offaly County Board.

Birr officials were furious after their attempts to bring the contentious matter to a vote were ruled out of order by chairman Ollie Daly. Under the terms of the border sanctioned with Crinkle, Offaly hurling legend Brian Whelahan is now living in the Crinkle area and he made an emotive plea to the meeting for a final decision on the matter to be deferred, and he was furious and clearly upset afterwards.

“We feel we have been rolled over in here tonight,” he blasted.

Chairman Ollie Daly ruled that Birr should have proposed their amendment at the start of the meeting. He deemed the minutes of the meeting to have been passed and refused to put the matter to the floor.


_____________________________________________________________


No I'm not familiar with the nature of committee meetings etc., but refusing to discuss something that clearly needs to be discussed seems foolish and pedantic. Equally, I'm not sure what this means - most people when they grow up are no longer living in the jurisdiction of their home club - but they keep playing for them. Maybe it's Whelehan jr. - no bad hurler himself- that will be affected.

Anyone able to shed light? Treasurer?

Doesn't have any implications for Sid himself, but does for his son and for the Birr club in general.

Birr didn't raise the objection to the minutes at the correct time, so technically Ollie Daly was correct, but Birr raised it at what they believed was the correct time and a bit of leeway could have been given, IMHO.

Very messy situation and there will be no easy outcome.

You would have thought that with the plethora of court cases, the need for the CDC, and all else that's gone on, people would be beginning to see that using pedantry to avoid discussing an issue is hardly the way forward. It's not as if Birr are going to lie down and take this.

I've no view on the rights and wrongs of the issue at hand by the way - I don't know enough about the details involved to have formed an opinion - but it's just that handling things like this invariably ends in tears. And it's probably something as stupid as someone wanting to get home to catch the last of the golf on TV.