Saturday 6 December 2008

Don't support the local GAA club – slow down!


Well, Gombeen Man has seen it all now. He’s often pondered the questionable institution that is the GAA, and its special status in the country as a founding pillar of the State, and here’s your proof.

Bit late with this one, but yesterday’s Irish Times carried a report by Joe McCabe and Tim O’Brien on a woman who was summoned to Naas court for exceeding the speed limit in a 50 km/h zone. It seems that Alison O'Donovan had not received a fixed penalty notice in the post, so she was given the opportunity to make a “charitable donation” in lieu of penalty points and a fine.

All very commendable so far, you might think. After all, isn’t it about time we had a bit of latitude in these matters, rather than slapping penalty points onto people’s licences for exceeding (often inappropriate) limits by a few kilometres an hour?

And no doubt the charity would be a good cause, especially in these recessionary times. So who would it be? St Vincent de Paul? Simon? Concern? (no, they use chuggers, and don’t deserve a penny), Help the Aged?

None of the above, sad to say - for the body chosen to receive the “donation” was Sallins GAA club. Yes, in a time when more people are falling into the poverty trap, and living rough on the streets, a GAA club was the beneficiary of "charitable" Court Service funds.

So whatever you do, if you find yourself speeding in Naas, for Christ’s sake, slow down!


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2 comments:

Bernd said...

Ola Gombino!

Found this interesting snippet in today's Irish Times:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1209/1228571685794.html

Not only shows it the slight mis-perception of reality in GAA-circles (commuting for one game from London to Cavan should earn the player in question a big carbon footprint up his arse), it also highlights the GAA as a local "see the lads right"-club:

"There were lots of people asking me to hang around, but no one could guarantee me a job. All the factories were shedding staff. Often in the GAA there's a builder who might throw you some work, but things were so tight that that wasn't even possible," he says.

By teh way ... did anyone else receive those cold-calls from telemarketing companies flogging a phone deal "on behalf of the GAA"?

The Gombeen Man said...

Hiya Bernd.

That's an interesting one, alright (don't know why it's not displaying as a link). Ireland's answer to the Masons.

Haven't had any such phone calls to date, I'm glad to say.