Ruislip redevelopment and Jerry Kiernan reaction

iDave

So a decision was made yesterday for fairly modest improvements to the already out of date facilities in Ruislip home of last years Connacht finalists.
A combination of central GAA, government and London GAA funding will make it happen.
A long overdue recognition of those who fly the flag for Irelands national games in London. With London also having an encouraging year on the field it does seem the time is right for both the GAA and government to do something useful for Irelands emigrant population in the UK capital.

But....an individual who has a history of belittling the fitness levels of GAA players decides to rile everyone up with a nonsensical rant.

http://thescore.thejournal.ie/jerry-kiernan-gaa-1380369-Mar2014/

I can to some degree understand arguments regarding how its funded but how is this relevant to the situation:

I don’t actually think it’s a particularly skilful game

“there’s not an awful lot required” to play football and hurling.

Pure ignorance and hes taken a massive dump if you ask me in the very point hes trying to make but going off tangent and using funding to engage in After Hours standard trolling.
You could reduce athletics that's he loves so much to just running in a line but most proper sports fans recognise different skill sets and training required for different sports.
This individual really is poisonous and does no good for Irish sport in general.

Kiernan, who coaches some of Ireland’s best track prospects

Hilarious, how does he explain Irelands need to turn to Boxers at every Olympics for a medal then.

Pandiani

Agree completely here, he may have a point in how government money is being spent even though this is coming out of an Emigrant Support Budget which to be fair you could also argue that this is a fair distribution of these funds really. To question the skill levels of GAA players just shows him up to be a bitter little man and any decent points he may be making will just get lost because of these remarks.

Hammer Archer

Gas.
As soon as you mentioned "an individual", I knew it was going to be Jerry Kiernan.
If he actually went about his arguments in a mature and reasoned manner, then he would have much more attention paid to him. But, like last time, he goes into rant mode and any point that he had is lost in it.

I don't think he even deserves a response to be honest.

Hanalei

He is correct that the funding given to Athletics in Ireland is inadequate and by all means he should fight for his sport, but he really lets himself down with bitter vendetta against the GAA.

adrian522

Is this the guy?

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Debating whether the GAA should receive such funding is fine.

Insulting the people who play football and hurling is nothing short of pathetic.

toxicity234

If i had a son or daughter and they was good enough to run at an international standard and they told me that Kiernan was going to be his coach. I wouldn't let him run anymore or i move him to a different country.

I wouldn't let that hateful little man near any of my family.

ultrapercy

Very restrained on here compared with Hogan Stand, they are mental on there. Jerry makes some good points and the situation is worthy of proper mature debate.The funding of sport should be reviewed and overhauled. Unfortunately Jerry chooses an obvious wind up and disrespecting sports people, who have no part to play in the process, over mature debate and so any validity in his argument is lost.

iDave

Boxing can produces Katie Taylors, Ken Egans etc without moaning about funds. Cian O'Connor came back from his set backs without moaning about funding. The IRFU seem to be getting on just fine.
In fact I don't think Derval O'Rourke, Rob HEffernan and Fionnuala Briton have got on just fine without moaning about funding.

O Riain

From wikipedia in relation to Kiernan:

"He has spent so much time in Dublin that despite being from Kerry his views on the GAA, a grass roots organisation in Ireland which promotes the playing of national games has become distorted. Perhaps if he came out of Rathgar and visited rural areas of Ireland where the GAA is prominent, and very often the only sporting outlet, he would finally grasp the difference they make in smaller communities with no other sporting infrastructure."

lukin

Former Irish Olympian Jerry Kiernan has said that the GAA should not get any money from taxpayers because it's not a difficult sport to play:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/not-an-awful-lot-required-to-play-gaa-says-irish-olympian-kiernan-626008.html

He also said that GAA players weren't fit and “I don’t actually think it’s a particularly skilful game.”

Edit: sorry this was mentioned in another thread (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057176064)but I think that was more to do with the grant that was given.
I am posting with reference to his assertion that GAA is not entertaining or "difficult to play".

Hammer Archer

Threads merged.
Also edited thread title to maybe make it easier for people to recognise.

iDave

Dignified response from Coggins

http://hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=212753

Stroke politics FFS, what the hell is he insinuating?

yop

He is a little embarrassing at this stage with his rants. For someone who is a public figure for Irish Athletics they would want to have a word!

sean mac

I heard this interview and to be honest it was an unstructured rant. It is up to athletics Ireland to seek funding as hard as it can and they are failing miserably to do this. However an annoying issue Kiernan keeps bringing up and getting away with is the fitness issue. I would respectfully put it to jerry that the fitness required to run a 1500metres on a track and being able to sprint/jog/shoulder/lift/kick/tackle/strike in hurling/football are fundamentally different. He should ask Matthews in cork who thought all you had to do in hurling was train 800metre runners and he soon found out there was more to it the that.
Jerry also never discerns between the various levels of gaa-intercounty, senior club or junior b club in his little rants. And for someone who states that he doesn't like the sports to talk about skill levels etc I would respectfully say your opinion is off kilter, to lift a ball at full pace and strike it accurately 80 metres or solo a ball at full tilt for 30/50 metres with a man tackling you and kicking it over a bar is a serious skill. One could easily say there is very little skill involved in running very fast as long as you can around a circle but that would kiernanesque in its ignorance

wonga77

He gives those genuine people in athletics a bad name, im sure some of them must be cringing at his comments

Smith614

Outside of ROb Heffernan it is a case of poor us where Irish athletes are concerned. We have produced NO world class athletes in a long no. of yrs. Sonia was probably our last Athlete of note. The Olympics and world championships are the barometer in Athletics and poor Jerrys Athletic cronies are doing miserably. He is a bitter little man. Money wont turn average athletes into Olympic contenders.

premierstone

This is the man who once announced at the actual awards ceremony that it was plain wrong that Henry Shefflin be awarded the Sports Person Of The Year because hurling isnt an international sport :rolleyes: even George Hook and Eamon Dunphy told him to shut up that particualr night, he is a sad bitter little man and as others have alluded to any validity in his arguements is lost in his trolling.

He also fails in this particular instance to recognise that the Government are actually only responsible for approx 12% of the total funding of the project in Ruislip with the GAA and local London organisations providing the remainder. I do also love the hypocrisy of him claiming that Gaelic Games aren't particularly skillfull or difficult sports when he himself made a career out of running around in a circle, and not very successfully either

keane2097

premierstone wrote: »

This is the man who once announced at the actual awards ceremony that it was plain wrong that Henry Shefflin be awarded the Sports Person Of The Year because hurling isnt an international sport :rolleyes: even George Hook and Eamon Dunphy told him to shut up that particualr night, he is a sad bitter little man and as others have alluded to any validity in his arguements is lost in his trolling.

He also fails in this particular instance to recognise that the Government are actually only responsible for approx 12% of the total funding of the project in Ruislip with the GAA and local London organisations providing the remainder. I do also love the hypocrisy of him claiming that Gaelic Games aren't particularly skillfull or difficult sports when he himself made a career out of running around in a circle, and not very successfully either

TBH I've argued in the past that the GAA should get a much lower % of the sports council funding, but it's not like Kiernan actually makes any points that support that view in the slightest.

The stuff he comes out with is the same stuff he's literally been saying since 1988 (can provide link if required) which suggests to me that he hasn't looked at a game in the intervening time as there's no way you could possibly hold identical opinions about GAA players' conditioning over the last 25 years, since they've changed utterly.

Realistically, this is a Dunphy/Spillane wannabe who knows he can wind up lots of people like us with this garbage every 12 months under the flimsy pretence that he's angry about funding. Bitter that no one gives a **** about him bar for a couple of weeks every four years, and even then the vast majority of the country just ask who this clown is and why is he complaining about everything.

BKWDR

Listening to the interview yesterday i thought he came across as a bitter little man altogether. I can't stand his voice!

At a time when running is so popular and the amount of fun runs / races organised is higher than ever just to listen to him makes it sound like an elitest sport. What a tool.

We are all designed to run. Some have a natural ability to run faster than others, you could argue that there is little to no actual skill in running. Sure guys put in the slog and pound the pavements and put the miles in but thats DEDICATION not skill. Intercounty players can train up to 6 times a week which is the same dedication, in my view.

jack o shea

id like to see some of our athletes who disgrace the country every 4 years in the olympics compete against our top gaa players in just running and see who is the fittest and fastest, eddie brennan ex kk hurler would have destroyed any of our 100 or 200 metre runners, im sure there is loads of other examples out there?

blue note

jack o shea wrote: »

id like to see some of our athletes who disgrace the country every 4 years in the olympics compete against our top gaa players in just running and see who is the fittest and fastest, eddie brennan ex kk hurler would have destroyed any of our 100 or 200 metre runners, im sure there is loads of other examples out there?

Just because Jerry Kiernan is an embarrassment to his organisation doesn't mean we should be too. There's no need to insult irish olympians (and make yourself look stupid). And I think Paul Hession was the fastest white man in the world over 100 metres for a while. It's no disrespect to fast eddie to say that he'd have lapped him in a 100m sprint.

Hanalei

jack o shea wrote: »

id like to see some of our athletes who disgrace the country every 4 years in the olympics compete against our top gaa players in just running and see who is the fittest and fastest, eddie brennan ex kk hurler would have destroyed any of our 100 or 200 metre runners, im sure there is loads of other examples out there?

Ah here! That's as bad as something someone like Kiernan would come out with!

No offence, but Kiernan's comments illustrate that he hasn't a clue what he's talking about when it comes to GAA, and similarly yours illustrate you don't really know what you're talking about when it comes to Irish Athletics!

And come on- our athletes really "disgrace the country" at the olympics??

iDave

Look at Eamon Wallace. Before the ACL a great example of how he transferred his skills across disciplines. What does Kiernan think of him, another unfit GAA player for Meath or prized athlete on the track?
Ireland needs more Eamon Wallaces and less Jerry Kiernans.

Also best of luck to London on the building of their well deserved new home.

ProudDUB

....puts on Mother Superior hat....

Come on folks. I understand that as GAA fans, we get pissed off when people belittle its games. But if we start abusing athletics as a sport and, the people who participate in it, we are just lowering ourselves to JK's level. Lets prove that we are better than that.

There is no harm in a discussion about sports funding and where the money all goes. It doesn't need to devolve into a pissing contest as to which one is better, or which one requires more/less skill.

....takes off Mother Superior hat....

The Lost Sheep

ultrapercy wrote: »

Very restrained on here compared with Hogan Stand, they are mental on there. Jerry makes some good points and the situation is worthy of proper mature debate.The funding of sport should be reviewed and overhauled. Unfortunately Jerry chooses an obvious wind up and disrespecting sports people, who have no part to play in the process, over mature debate and so any validity in his argument is lost.

Ah here reading hs forum..,, terrible forum. Yes Jerry makes some good points but how he expresses them is terrible. No real thought behind what his criticisms are

iDave wrote: »

Boxing can produces Katie Taylors, Ken Egans etc without moaning about funds. Cian O'Connor came back from his set backs without moaning about funding. The IRFU seem to be getting on just fine.
In fact I don't think Derval O'Rourke, Rob HEffernan and Fionnuala Briton have got on just fine without moaning about funding.

Boxing get very decent funding quite a few of our top athletes don't.
IRFU very very different to all those you name. completely different animals in relation to funding/income

jack o shea wrote: »

id like to see some of our athletes who disgrace the country every 4 years in the olympics compete against our top gaa players in just running and see who is the fittest and fastest, eddie brennan ex kk hurler would have destroyed any of our 100 or 200 metre runners, im sure there is loads of other examples out there?

:rolleyes:. Ah here.
"disgrace" they are not. Any irish Olympic sprinter etc would destroy any top gaa player in just running. Athlete would be fittest and fastest.

jack o shea

how many medals have irish athletes won in olympics?its a pityful amount and take the boxers out of it and it is a joke. michelle smith and one of the horses were loaded with drugs,dont here little gerry mention that.

Hanalei

Yeah. It's also a disgrace that we never won the rugby world cup. And it's a joke that we have never won the FIFA world cup. It's a disgrace that none of our soccer clubs have Champions League medals.

Because, medals and trophies are all that matter. Regardless of resources :pac:


I'd hate to be that ignorant....

jack o shea

what resources do you need to be the best at running? the africans can do it and their lucky to have a pair of runners for training.

jack o shea

and we should have got to at least a rugby world cup semi final by now as there is only 8 decent teams in it, soccer differant ball game.

Hanalei

Nice try, I know better than to argue with those who are blissfully unaware of the fact that they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

Carry on if you wish, but I'm done here....

ProudDUB

jack o shea wrote: »

what resources do you need to be the best at running? the africans can do it and their lucky to have a pair of runners for training.

It's not that simple. The Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes (who dominate middle distance running) live and train at very high altitudes. They are breathing in less oxygen on a daily basis, than you and I are. Over time, their bodies just adapts to it and function as normal.

When they get to a more oxygen rich environment (where races are normally held,) the additional O2 acts like a rocket booster to their systems. Athletes who live/train at sea level don't get to experience that, so they are lagging behind from the get go. Hence the African athletes success at track events. If they had even a fraction better funding and resources, they would blow people away, even more than they already are.

ultrapercy

jack o shea wrote: »

how many medals have irish athletes won in olympics?its a pityful amount and take the boxers out of it and it is a joke. michelle smith and one of the horses were loaded with drugs,dont here little gerry mention that.

You seem very confused. All sports outside of GAA are NOT the same sport.Michelle Smith was a Swimmer which means she competed in the sport of swimming. The horses competed in Equestrian sports(sports for horses) neither of those are athletics. Other sports that are notGAA or Athletics include golf boxing soccer(the bad protestant sport that will get you burned in hell) tennis(you might have noticed this one because of the ladies, that can also result in hell) snooker/darts(more hell) basketball theres a long list of them but be carefull a little knowledge etc. Glad to have "learned" you something new.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Jerry Kiernan being a fool does not equate to the sport of athletics being useless. I've nothing against it at all. I do have a dislike for Jerry Kiernan however as he's an ignorant petty man.

padd b1975

adrian522 wrote: »

Is this the guy?

No, this is him.....

Always_Running

Coggins Responds to Kiernan’s Controversial Remarks


Jerry Kiernan’s controversial “’stroke politics” claim in relation to the government’s €600,000 grant for the Ruislip development has been rebuked by Roscommon native Paul Coggins who of course is also the manager of the London senior Football team.

It was announced earlier this week by the Government and the GAA that London will receive the grant as part of the Emigrant Support Programme and it will go towards the €5m redevelopment of their grounds at Ruislip which would be very familiar to followers of the Connancht counties who play at least over there once every five years.

Former Irish Olympian Kiernan has criticised Enda Kenny & Co for handing over taxpayer’s money to the ‘richest Association in the country’ and the manager who guided his side to the Connacht final last year has expressed his amazement at the outburst.

“I know of Jerry Kiernan growing up and he was a fantastic ambassador for Irish sport. I have the height of respect for him as an athlete but I think he’s wrong.”
“It’s not a well thought out statement. Give it (the grant) to us, don’t begrudge us and wish us well as we wish everyone else well in whatever sport they compete in.

“Why would the government not support their exiles? They are people who have supported our home country for many year and helped it regenerate.

“And when they had the gathering last year that wouldn’t have happened without people coming from far and wide.

“I think he has his own agenda. We are competing with other sports over here and as emigrants we are trying to make sure we keep the games going as everyone keeps telling us.”

Coggins added: “I’d be quite amazed, staggered anybody would be criticising our exiles getting a few pound to try and better themselves.

“We help the economic climate at home when we can and do our best while in exile.

“We are going to raise a lot of money ourselves. It’s great Croke Park are funding it, a fine decision. It’s been a long time coming.”

seligehgit

^^^^^

Totally agree with these sentiments.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Good Article by Derval O'Rourke in the Examiner

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/columnists/derval-orourke/crediting-the-gaa-doesnt-take-away-from-other-sports-264651.html#at_pco=smlwn-1.0&at_tot=1&at_ab=per-14&at_pos=0

Crediting the GAA doesn’t take away from other sports

By Derval O’Rourke

My husband is an Olympic sailor and occasionally he runs with me, but he isn’t much of a runner.

Sometimes I try to sail, which I’m totally useless at. We’re both Olympians with different strengths and achievements in our chosen sports and being useless at each other’s sport doesn’t detract from our own sporting ability.

That’s the thing about various sports, they require all kinds of talents, so why waste our energy comparing them? When I hear an athletics versus GAA debate, I start to cringe.

Recently, Jerry Kiernan, former Olympic marathon runner, made negative comments about the GAA receiving a grant of €600,000 to upgrade a facility in London. Kiernan has a habit of wading into GAA discussions with his athletics flag flying high. He has questioned the players’ fitness, their right to taxpayers’ money and the general popularity of the sport in Ireland.

Sonia O’Sullivan was in town this week and when questioned, she expressed her view that in athletics people are killing themselves training and getting very little acknowledgement or funding for it.

There are two elements in sport that bring out extreme opinions in people. The first is money, always a contentious issue. Also it’s usually taxpayers’ money being spent, which makes people feel like they have even more of a right to complain. There is always grumbling when government funding is announced.

I’ve a pact with myself not tocompare my funding with that of other athletes in other sports. I think its counter-productive, petty and a little mean in my opinion. It never leads to anything good.

The notion of sportspeople being given appropriate credit for their achievements is the other area I think rankles with people. For me to get a lot of coverage for my running, I need to win a medal, the difference between fourth and top three ismassive in the consciousness of the general population.

The popularity of athletics hinges largely on winning medals butwinning medals on a world stage in a sport that has arguably one of the highest rates of participation of any sport globally is a tough ask.

Year in year out, there are Irish athletes putting in amazing performances but other than athletics fans few people will notice.

They stroll down the street of their local town and few people will have a clue about their achievements but a lot of those people will know the results of the club GAA matches from the previous weekend.

This isn’t the fault of the GAA or of any of the players who take to the pitch each week. They are doing a great job at what they do.

Little kids in every town want to emulate them, playing for their club or county and winning trophies. I think that’s positive, getting people interested in sport, any sport, is a great thing.

In 2006, Henry Shefflin won the RTÉ Sports Personality of the Year ahead of me, I was a world champion and a European medallist that year. Yes, it stung a little, but I didn’t resent Shefflin, I think he is one of the most successful Irish sportspeopleever. I also think comparing what we do is futile. I had anawesome year at what I do, he had an awesome year at what he does. It’s as simple as that.

In 2010, I won a European medal and a week later competed as part of a Munster relay team in Croke Park during the All-Ireland semi-final. The race in Croker gave me a tiny taste of what it must be like to play there in front of a capacity crowd trying to win an All-Ireland. It must be epic. The atmosphere in Croker felt similar to the one in London for the Olympics.

Unless you are winning medals on a regular basis as an Irish track athlete, you’re never going to get the same level of attention and adulation as a GAA star. While Kiernan attacks this fact with the blunt force of a hammer, Sonia O’Sullivan was a little more measured.

Of course it can be frustrating to be an athlete but I chose to be in this sport and was well aware that it’s a global sport with an extremely high standard. Success in athletics andsuccess in GAA are measured differently and that’s fine by me. TheGAA is not to blame for the lack of recognition athletes receive — is recognition really all that important? As an athlete I think your focus must be on performing for yourself, pats on the back are all well and good but they are not that important to me.

Sport should be making our society a healthier place and that means any sport that reaches people and encourages them to participate is a success. Imagine the effect on communities all over Ireland without the GAA?

Crediting the GAA for what it does as a sport for this country isn’t something that takes away from other sports. I chatted to Rob Heffernan, 50km walk world champion, about this and he praised the brilliant support system the GAA provides.

Take, for example, the great work of the GPA in protecting the players. Athletes would love that set-up. As a father, Heffernan sees the brilliant work the GAA does with kids and admires it. He’s an athletics man with a background in GAA and an appreciation of both sports.

GAA isn’t my sport, it never has been, but I can stand back andapplaud what it does. Sport is about the masses and GAA does that, itappeals and works for the masses.

Complaining about that is just cringeworthy.

© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved

Syferus

That is an absolutely incredible article by Derval.

rebel girl 15

Would love to see Ruislip open to all, not just the GAA - the mens get a load of money to support ladies and mens, but the ladies are not supported at all by the men financially, the money from the ESP is not passed on for development. Its shocking carry on - London ladies county team are on a shoe lace budget, yet managed to reach a provincial final, having previously won an All Ireland.

aidan24326

Fair play Derval.

The bitter one could do with a lesson in your humility and appreciation of sport in the wider sense.