Plans to exclude a British Army team for playing in a local championship in England have been halted at least for the moment.
We told you over the weekend that London GAA had received an email from a disgruntled club that was opposed to the idea of the Irish Guards regiment putting forward a GAA side, Garda Eireannach, to compete in this year’s London junior championship.
No reason was initially given by the Granuaile club for their displeasure at the soldiers inclusion, which was ratified by the London county board last September, and passed by a single vote.
Club Notice: County Board Meeting
Monday 11th January – 8.30pm#IrishTVGroundsRuislip— London GAA (@LondainGAA) January 8, 2016
The matter was due to be discussed at last night’s London County board meeting, but according to various reports, Central Council in Croke Park intervened in the row, and no discussion on the matter took place.
The Irish Post are reporting that the GAA emailed the London County Board over the weekend and asked that the matter be put back until an investigation into the issues takes place.
The newspaper are reporting that a GAA official confirmed the idea a club should have their affiliation as a GAA team rescinded, has been nixed
“The GAA at central level has procedural issues with the suggestion that a club affiliation could be rescinded at this evening’s meeting and has requested that any discussion or decision be put on hold until after scheduled meetings of Management and Central Council this weekend.”
The Irish Guards is along-standing regiment of the British Army and contains soldiers not only from Ireland, but all over the world.
Speaking to RTE today, the GAA President Aogán ó Fearghail confirmed the association had been in touch,
“I’m aware of that, it’s been brought to my attention. Paraic(Duffy) and I have had discussions on it and Paraic, in discussion with myself, we’ve written to the London GAA board and we’ve asked them not to make a decision on that until we, as a management, have a look at that.
“Because it’s nothing to do with one club, it’s all clubs. We’ve close to 2,000 clubs, if we accept a club into our association, having done that, then it shouldn’t be so simple to just remove them.”
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