More clarity is needed on Mayo GAA affairs

I’m not a fan of Facebook, or any social media for that matter. I’m not a follower and I’m not followed. Some time back, perhaps as many as 20 years ago, I made a heroic effort to stop Facebook telling the world that my birthday falls on May 1st. I did my best but I failed. Facebook took no notice of my request. I have a valid reason for not wanting my birthday broadcast to the world. I’m trying to forget birthdays. They are coming around far too quickly. But, thank you to anyone who took the trouble to wish me a happy birthday.

I take time to digest things, especially important things. On my occasional visits to Facebook I see things that I might have an interest in but something else catches my eye and the thing I’m interested in is briefly put to one side. And then when I try to get back to the item of interest I find that it has disappeared.

Recently, I came across a post (I hope that’s the right terminology) by John P Kean. My mind went elsewhere and when I tried to get back to JP’s post it had disappeared. It took me three days and some outside help to retrieve the piece. Normally I would not be bothered to labour at Facebook but JP’s post referred to the Mayo GAA board, the former county board donor Tim O’Leary and an award-winning sports journalist named Ewan McKenna. I’m not so sure that the award-winning sports journalist takes himself so seriously. He self-deprecatingly styles himself as “Sports writer of the year, once upon a time”. That “once upon a time” suggests he has moved on from award-winning status. Whatever, that’s just an irrelevant aside.

Mr O’Leary has Mayo connections and is a London-based businessman successfully working in the financial services sector. He may not be in the Warren Buffet category but according to reports he is pretty wealthy and has a bit of a Midas touch, which he displayed when he fundraised on behalf of the Mayo GAA International Supporters Foundation in New York prior to Mayo playing the home side in a Connacht Championship first round game. It is generally accepted that Mr O’Leary invested a considerable sum ($150,000?) of his own money to support the Mayo team’s All-Ireland ambitions. The fundraiser in New York raised some €340,000.

Everything appeared rosy in the Mayo garden but, not surprisingly, the relationship between the Mayo GAA International Supporters Foundation and those who are charged with looking after Mayo GAA affairs was ruptured. How that happened, I do not know, but it would not surprise me if Croke Park had a hand in matters.

Mr O’Leary, and one presumes, with the agreement of the members of the International Foundation withheld €250,000 from Mayo GAA, alleging a breach of good governance on the part of the Mayo Board. That money later found its way into the coffers of a number of Mayo charities. Good for them.

As in every organisation - financial services being no different - good governance is important. A person’s reputation is important. One would have expected, and certainly some people did, that Mr O’Leary would decide to put his support for Mayo down as a bad experience, cut his losses, pack up has bags and go away. But, instead of doing that, he chose to explore Mayo GAA’s finances going back over a period of more than a decade. He got financial experts to do the checking of the Mayo Board’s audited accounts. 

Now, I’m no financial expert. I have trouble accounting for the money in my pockets. But, it would seem that Mr O’Leary’s trawl through the accounts of Mayo GAA Board unearthed some matters of interest.

For years now, clubs in Mayo have been bailing out the County Board which took on a huge debt when it took over and developed MacHale Park. Costs for the development escalated over time, but nothing very unusual (or is there?) there. Mayo GAA Board borrowed €5 million from Ulster Bank and €5 million from Croke Park for the development. Later, Ulster Bank decided to shut up shop and the suggestion is that Croke Park bought the Mayo bad debt, along with the debts of a number of other county boards, at a discount of 50%.

And this is where John P Kean enters the story. John P needs no introduction to the followers of Mayo football. He made his name on the fields of Mayo with his club Claremorris, with UCD and with Mayo at every grade, captaining Mayo minors to Connacht success and winning an All-Ireland at Under 21 level. He also managed county underage teams with considerable success. He was involved in county administration. He was never slow to speak out when he found flaws in the administration of the games in the county. No serious person could doubt his commitment to Mayo.

As a solicitor he stood back from the information that arose from the O’Leary trawl which seemed to show that while Mayo GAA, to put it succinctly, was doing well financially, they were being ripped off by Croke Park. For the finer details readers should delve into John P Kean’s post on Facebook (good luck with the search!). He cut through much of the non-consequential stuff in the O’Leary trawl and the McKenna reporting and put his finger on the relevant issues: did Croke Park get a 50% discount on the Mayo debt, reducing the €5 million to €2.5 million? If so, did Croke Park pass on the saving on repayments to Mayo GAA Board? And, if this bad debt purchase was not discounted, why not say so.

“No comment” from Croke Park does not pass muster on this issue. There is a pressing need for clarity. There is also some question that €2 million of Mayo GAA Board funds sits in a Croke Park account, doing nothing at a time when clubs in Mayo are struggling to prop up the County Board. It simply is not good enough to say “no comment”. As for the Mayo Board hiring a Dublin-based PR team to say no comment that, in itself, is an absurdity.

Mr O’Leary too might provide some clarity around the Mayo GAA International Supporters Foundation. Who are the trustees? Do the trustees support Mr O’Leary’s interrogation of the County Board finances? Is Mr O’Leary on a solo run? These are peripheral questions but answers would be helpful.

Finally, I have to admit to complete bafflement that anyone would try to make a political issue of this matter. An attempt is being made to drag Mayo’s Dáil deputies into the fray. Alan Dillon played football for Mayo and was quite accomplished. Dara Calleary, I know to be an avid Mayo supporter and I’ve no doubt that Rose Conway Walsh, Paul Lawless and Keira Keogh wear the green and red with pride. But they have no place interfering in Mayo GAA affairs. There was a time when politicians seeking to exercise any influence on the County Board would very quickly be told to get stuffed.

Mayo GAA Board may have flaws but politicians will not sort out those flaws. The issues raised by John P Kean can very simply be sorted by Croke Park. Either the suggestion that Croke Park got a 50% discount on the Ulster Bank debt is correct or it is not. If it is correct, then Croke Park need to explain why the benefit of the discount did not pass to Mayo GAA and also what steps they plan to remedy the situation. Mayo clubs deserve relief, club members deserve relief, and supporters deserve relief. No comment is not acceptable.

Since this column was drafted there has been comment made by the Treasurer of Mayo GAA Board to the effect that the reduction due to the Board from Croke Park has been honoured. There has been no figures to support this statement. The simple reality is that it is not the Mayo GAA Board Treasurer who should be answering these questions. She can only explain what Croke Park allows. The duty to clarify lies with Croke Park. They have the details. It is only Croke Park who can provide the answers. They should make a clear statement, with facts and figures, if the matter is to be resolved.