Manhattan College, GAA in Gaelic Park standoff

By Pierce O’Reilly

Manhattan College officials refused to allow New York’s senior hurlers to proceed with a challenge game at Gaelic Park last Friday evening, claiming that the GAA event was in violation of the organization’s verbal agreement with the college.

College officials converged on the site and prevented the game from going forward. They informed the GAA president, Monty Moloney, that they would not allow a game involving as many as 30 players to proceed when only training was scheduled to take place at the park at that time. It is believed that a similar challenge game had taken place in the park two days earlier.

"We’ve never had a problem with the GAA in the past and we hope that nothing surfaces now," Br. Thomas Scanlan, the president of Manhattan College, said this week. "We were informed that roughly a dozen players would be training for approximately an hour on Wednesdays and Fridays and instead we get fully blown challenge games taking place. Nobody told us that would happen."

Gaelic Park is owned by New York City. Manhattan College holds the lease and rents the playing field to the GAA for weekend games and some training sessions. Since 1984, the GAA has paid Manhattan half of all gate receipts. Their eight-year contract, which is reviewed annually, is due to expire at the end of the year.

When he became president of the New York GAA three years ago, Monty Moloney was eager to get more access to the field and improve the conditions of the contract for the association. He met with the college last month and a number of proposals were discussed, among them, he said, the construction of new dressing rooms, the sodding of the softball diamond, additional playing dates for the GAA, access for its county teams and the installation of a sprinkler system. Scanlan, however, is adamant that the written agreement submitted subsequently by the GAA contains provisions that were never agreed to.

"There are things in this contract that I never heard of or saw before," Scanlan said. "We want to work with the GAA, but they can’t tell us one thing and then go and do something else; that’s what seems to have happened here."

The college has scheduled a meeting with New York GAA for tomorrow evening to discuss the issues in dispute.

"Right now we’re eager that the lines of communication are kept open and that our relationship continues to prosper," Scanlon said.

New York GAA officials, meanwhile, said they don’t wish to do anything that would jeopardize the scheduled May 13 Ulster championship clash with the Down hurlers. The game would be the first All-Ireland game ever played at the park.

They added, however, that thay are looking into Friday’s incident.

"There was clearly a misunderstanding over the weekend and we’re very eager to rectify the situation," the GAA’s public relations officer, John Moore, said. "If it’s the GAA that is at fault, we’ll make sure the situation doesn’t arise again. The most important thing is that we work with Manhattan College, especially with such important games coming in the next two weeks."