February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
This contest turned ugly quickly with Moore accusing Dooley of trying to keep him off the ballot, a charge Dooley denies.
Moore then upped the ante, at the NYGAA’s regular meeting two weeks ago, asking the chairman why Monaghan, Dooley’s club, were not suspended when they failed to fulfill their fixture versus Tyrone at the end of the season.
Dooley angrily responded at the meeting’s close saying: “It would take a better man [than Moore] to suspend my club.”
The candidates spoke separately to the Irish Echo on the issues, the charges and, to borrow a phrase from political elections, “the vision thing.”
Dooley said that he had five primary goals when he took over the top job last January.
First was the health and well being of the New York Minor Board, an independent body that has never been fully embraced by the New York GAA. Dooley believes that “we achieved a lot for the minors this year.”
He mentions the flying out of Pat McAnaney, a top flight referee from Ireland to instruct the refs here in New York as well as the importing of John Tobin, “one of the best coaches in Ireland,” to coach the minors. Dooley also pointed out that all the Minor Board finals were played in Gaelic Park this year and that the minors were given a Field Day at there, allowing them to raise some much-needed funds.
Dooley also said that he secured Gaelic Park for the New York under-14s to train before they flew to Ireland to compete in the Feile Peile competition. He also noted that the Association sent three referees to San Francisco for the Continental Youth Championships.
“I encouraged the senior teams to draft Minor Board players, and my own club, Monaghan, drafted five,” Dooley said.
John Moore has almost certainly been courting those minor delegates behind the scenes. Although the Westmeath man concedes that Dooley has done more for the minors than previous administrations, he believes a lot more needs to be done.
Moore would like to see more players coming through to the senior ranks, a concern both men share, and he is unhappy that the U-21 final went unplayed this year.
Moore argued that the U-21 division should be under the auspices of the senior board. Interestingly, Dooley said that he would like to see the Minor Board itself under the Association’s jurisdiction.
Both men were quick to praise Chris Dalton’s work in Rockland with underage hurlers. Dooley would encourage further development but Moore takes it further. “I think that each of the six senior hurling clubs should sister up with an underage team to set up underage hurling in New York.”
Moore also said that he believes Gaelic games can be included in the New York City public school curriculum as part of a fully realigned Randall’s Island development. “In fact, I think it will be easy to get the teaching of the games into the curriculum,” he added.
Dooley’s other goals were to add a fourth dressing room and a protective awning over the Gaelic Park bleachers, both of which are now in place.
Dooley also sought to take better care of New York’s junior footballers. He pointed out that he secured Gaelic park for junior matches on Tuesday and Thursday nights and he was able to acquire first aid kits for all the clubs.
Dooley has also been participating in meetings with local politicians to address the difficulties faced by players coming from Ireland with the immigration process.
He recently joined Nollaig Cleary, representing the Ladies GAA and Patricia Grady of the Aisling Irish Community Center at a meeting with Congressman Engel.
Dooley says he has also spoken with Congressman Peter King and he believes that “This is definitely part of the NYGAA’s role, part of the chairman’s role and it should be a bigger part.”
His challenger, John Moore, readily concedes that the chairman’s reputation as a hard worker is well earned but he accuses him of lacking vision. “The chairman wasn’t elected to work, he was elected to lead, and he has not led this association anywhere,” he said.
Moore would like to frame this election as a battle between the future, Moore, and the status quo, Dooley.
“The status quo is what Seamus Dooley is all about,” he said.
Moore believes that the delegates face “a stark choice,” between the two men.
No one issue better illustrates that choice than Randalls Island.
Each claims Randalls Island as a priority, but that is where the consensus ends.
Moore is a founding member of the Randalls Island Gaelic Sports Group, which is a separate entity from the New York GAA.
RIGS received the Letter of Intent from the City of New York in October 2003 granting them permission to proceed with the project. In January 2005 RIGS was given the right to go into contract.
At that time RIGS President Monty Maloney confidently predicted that this would take just a matter of weeks. but money has proved to be a stumbling block with the Irish GAA’s $2 million pledged, the only investment revealed so far.
This past July, a GAA delegation traveled from Ireland to revive the flagging project. GAA President Sean Kelly and former chairman Peter Quinn formed an advisory committee, with Quinn as chairman, to investigate the viability of the project.
Four months later nothing has been resolved and the project is once again at a crossroads. (Kelly and Quinn are due to visit New York again on Dec. 17.)
For Moore a lack of leadership from the local GAA is the problem.
“This project has sadly lacked the support of the GAA [N.Y.] They are the anchor tenant,” Moore said. “Their future is there, written in stone in the RFP.
Moore was vice president of the New York GAA under Monty Maloney when the Randalls Island plan was first conceived and has been with the project since.
Now with the Irish GAA an even larger presence in the project Seamus Dooley contends that the original RIGS has been displaced, a concept Monty Maloney challenged at a recent New York GAA meeting. A combative Maloney addressed the delegates the night of the nominations saying that he is the president of RIGS, “by law, by contract and no one can change officers.”
This contrasts sharply with Dooley’s view. The incumbent, who maintained that it was his call that brought Kelly and company to New York in July, said that there is a new RIGS under Peter Quinn and that Maloney should step aside.
“Croke Park has appointed Peter Quinn as chairman and we can only have one chairman,” Dooley said. “Croke Park has put up $2 million with the promise of more, so they should be in charge.”
The “new” RIGS is comprised of the chairman, 1st vice chairman and secretary of the N.Y. GAA, and Sean Kelly, Nicky Brennan, outgoing and incoming chairman of the GAA and Peter Quinn as chairman.
Moore feels that Dooley has come late and reluctantly to the project and says that, “it was not the NYGAA under the chair or the previous chairman who got Sean Kelly to come out here, it was Monty Maloney.”
Since Maloney left, Moore charges, “the Association never got any leadership on Randalls Island from the people that succeeded him.”
Further, Moore accused Dooley of bad mouthing the project on a trip to Ireland, “when he should have been thanking them for the $2 million.” A stark choice for the delegates indeed.
The rest of the slate on Sunday at the Riverdale Steakhouse from 2 to 4 p.m., is as follows: 1st Vice Chairman, Paddy Gormely, Leitrim; John Riordan, Kerry; 2nd Vice Chairman, Brendan O’Sullivan (incumbent), St Barnabas, Eugene Kyne, Astoria Gaels. Treasurer, Paul Tuffy, Galway (unopposed); Larry McCarthy, Sligo, secretary (unopposed); Financial Secretary, Tom Nugent, Galway (unopposed); Registrar Joan Henchy, Kerry (unopposed).
Auditors (3) Frank Molloy, Donegal, Mark McAllister, Armagh, Greg McIntyre, Derry, Donie O’Sullivan, Cork, Geraldine O’Brien, Long Island Gaels and Peter McKiernan, Cavan.
Trustees (3) Paul Levin, Roscommon, Damien Devlin, Tyrone, Tom Lally, Donegal, Tom Fahey, Waterford.
Sergeant at Arms, Joe Prunty, Leitrim (unopposed). Custodian, John Cox, Roscommon (unopposed). Additional delegate to Congress (if required), Terry Connaughton, (Roscommon), Danny Doohan (Leitrim).