No other sport wanted to share with the GAA when it was being founded. The British hated our culture and wanted to destroy the GAA.They sent their soldiers into CRoke Park and shot at players and supporters. Crossmaglen Rangers matches were routinely disrupted by low flying army helicopters flying above their grounds. Players with hurleys and gaa equipment were kept for hours at army checkpoints on their way to matches.

If that is the case gant, the camp could have taken place in a variety of other locations without disrupting parents/children. I don't blame the organisers of the camp, I blame the gaa club for thinking they could receive funding from the gaa to build pitches and use this to promote other sports thus generating money to piss away. I'm not trying to prevent other sports from taking place as I enjoy playing soccer and other sports myself. I just understand why the gaa would not like their money being used to promote other sports popularity.

The kids will still play the sport they want to play this won't stop them, surely the GAA know at this kids will want to play football or rugby and they can't be stopped so they may as well allow their clubs to profit from it rather than ultimately close (i believe it's called amalgamation in HQ), after all their parents as tax payers have paid for their facilities.

I will try and spell it out for Ozymandius.

Imagine you are sitting in Paters favourite armchair listening to Peter Grimes on the phonograph,you have just had a light luncheon of grilled fish washed down by some Chateau dyquem when you spot an uncouth scruffy individual making his way up your tree limed avenue.

Its one of those neer do wells from the labourers cottages on the estate.

He knocks impudently on the front door,your butler lets him in.
You are forced to deal with this unwelcome intrusion.

Hogan what is the problem you ask,he shuffles nervously,its the daughter he replies she is 18 on Sunday and we were kind of wondering like would it be alright for her to have her party here.

Rocketfingers , I purposely did not comment specifically on the Longford situation as I know nothing about it .  Any comments in my post are of a general nature , having lived ( and survived) in a state where discrimination affected myself and most of my co religionists adversely on a daily basis , jobwise and daily living. I suffered lengthy hold ups at check points because there was an O' Neill ball in the boot  , and my car was turned inside out when I was boarding the ferry to England with the kids hurls in the boot . My children were not allowed to transport hurley sticks on the public bus going to school , hockey sticks were OK ( and potentially of an equivalent degree of lethality ) . Ulster GAA club fines I am blissfully unaware of , anyway they are purely a matter for internal regulation  , and injustices would rebound long term .

The real Ireland you refer to is a mess politically , south and north .  South is unstable politically , Lord knows what sort of "government " will emerge next time , if I was a betting man I would be punting that it was not going to work . In the north the powers that be have cobbled together an unholy alliance which staggers from one disagreement to another .  The annoying thing is that potentially we have a great country , provided everyone was pulling in the same direction and took any "hard " decisions initially to ensure a stable and well motivated state , not divided by artificial borders or religion or race . A hard debate surely , but ultimately we have to live together and a 32 county country would work well provided all the checks and balances were agreed and guaranteed .  But a cursory glance at posts on this forum would indicate the current impossibility of that in the short term .

I do not regard myself as anti British , some of my best friends and family live happily in England . I would be anti colonialist though . I love cricket  , I like rugby but have reservations about the "collision" game as against the "evasion " game I grew up playing . Soccer is a business , top heavily organised and marketed , where it goes long term locally is anyones guess .

South is unstable politically is a bizarre and patently untrue statement.

More lies from you Kelly the south is unstable? The Grab all suits have to look at their rule book as in 2016 it is utterly pathetic behaviour from them. They are a very rich organisation who don't pay their players, they don't need the fine but the club probably does, from your ivory tower you may have not noticed that part of Ireland are badly struggling i am guessing there is only so many times a club can go to the local people at the moment to fund raise. Gant is another who let it slip it came from a very privileged background and came from the old political elite stock, he is another who makes jest of the working class people of Dromod on this thread.

In a Upotian world working together for the common good would be an ideal way forward but unfortunately it's far better in theory than in actuality.The pervasive interests of lobby groups from big business combined with the naked self preservation of public sector unions ensure that it won't happen especially as the decision makers in the civil service are more interested in ensuring their pampered existence continues than effecting significant change.

Combine this with far left wings parties mopping up disaffected votes with clearly unsustainable tax policies and you have a recipe for a volatile political situation.

This does not equate however to an Italian type situation.We are from coming from a situation where a government has lasted a full term and has to any reasonable judgement been more successful than could have been envisaged.

Obviously the next Government will be a coalition of some form which is not in itself a bad thing.Too much power in the hands of a large party over a long period breeds corruption and contempt for the public.

I would take our so called "unstable politically" situation anyday rather than the political climate in which you reside.

Where the fcuk is Dromod?? To call it that once could almost be called a typo but twice just proves you're on the wind up and haven't a clue what you're talking about.

While I enjoy watching the sports, I'm not a fan of the association and this rule can and probably will be changed in time, but for now that's the rule and the people of Dromard knew it at the time. I think the main reason comes down to insurance,  these pitchs are covered for GAA sports and training, what would hace happened if someone got injuered?
Anyway why wasn't there an Irish player or even a LOI player running a skills programme?

One other point, if you're going slagging the GAA, attendances are the one thing you should avoid, ffs if any other sport in this country could get half of what the GAA get at matches they'd be over the moon.

That was meant for Rocket, Kelly in fairness said he knew nothing about the place

Wildman his original response was deleted, it was anti everything, i pulled him on it, saying that i did not see enough for it to be deleted but i can see why it was.

Wins got mixed up between Dromod and Dromard.

My word starts off by saying that rules and fine are a joke and then can resist to turn it into a pop. Anyway i agree about the rules being bigoted, first time ever i think we have agreed on anything.

i look forward to Sligo Rovers fortunes in the season to come, Rocket. wasnt a peep out of ya last season about them. more from u about the GAA in fact

Part of the reason relates to the "arrangements" in 1922 , Tolmi . Approximately 35% of the northern 6 counties population with a desire to be part of a sovereign 32 county Republic were left out in the cold at the mercy of an intransigent unionist population with a track record started up by the Ulster Volunteers in 1912 .

Why there were no proper checks and balances put in place to ensure fair treatment for those 35% is a sad statement on the politicians of the time , south , north and on the other side of the Irish Sea .  Had that been done properly  might have seen an agreement in 1939 to re settle the matter in return for war efforts ( which occurred anyway despite the official neutrality ), but the south missed a trick and discrimination continued wholesale in the north until fairly recently . The cost of controlling the situation here in the north from 1966 ( the actual seed start of the ensuing 30 years plus "troubles" ) until present day has never been quantified ( including 600 million plus in one incident in  "mainland" London ) , but has been huge and undoubtedly would have been better spent constructively , a fact sometimes lost on some of our intransigent lot , a lot of whom are still buried in their study of fundamental faith .