LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Community games Connacht finals fiasco A Chara, On the morning of Saturday April 14, eight under-13 girls arrived punctually in Castlebar as Galway County Champions ready to take their place in the Connacht Community Games Indoor Soccer finals. Following an attempt to register, it soon became apparent that an error had occurred on the part of Galway County Committee. The under 13s match was delayed for a considerable amount of time as there was a question around the registration of the Newbridge-Ballygar-Toghergar (NBT) Under 13 team. This caused confusion and uncertainty among all the participants of the indoor soccer competitions with many other teams presuming that NBT had acted illegally with their entry. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In actual fact two Under-13 teams from NBT were submitted for the Galway Indoor Soccer competition. One of those teams had not progressed beyond the County semi-final and the other team became County Champions. The Galway Champions were the team that travelled to Castlebar on 14th April.[private] All paperwork had been correctly completed and submitted by the NBT secretary, however, an administrative error had occurred, in that the Galway County Committee had submitted the panel sheet for the other NBT Under-13 team to the Connaught Committee. At this stage NBT thought that this error was not insurmountable and could easily be rectified and once the other teams understood the problem, they too were of the opinion that the issue would be resolved and were eager to play against our County Champions. Word slowly filtered down from the Connacht headquarters through unofficial channels that the NBT team had been disqualified. At this stage NBT had no other option than to appeal this decision on behalf of the eight young girls affected, their parents and supporters. Chaos ensued as no-one at the indoor soccer venue knew what would happen next, due to the lack of an event co-ordinator and little to no communication. Eventually our worst fears were realised and it became clear that our girls were not going to get a chance to play the match that they deserved to play. Up until this stage we had sheltered our young players from the bureaucracy, in the hope that common sense and fair play would prevail. It was time to deliver the devastating news to both the players and their parents that the Galway County Champions were being denied their place in the Connacht Finals. The hardest part was explaining to the children why they were being punished when neither they nor the area made the mistake. No-one from the Connacht committee ever did come to St Gerald's College to explain to the NBT girls, their managers and parents why they were being punished for something they had not done. NBT have subsequently appealed the decision of the Connacht appeals committee at National level but to no avail. Later in the day, our Under-15 girls progressed to the Connacht final which resulted in a penalty shootout. The game was ended with a breach of an activity rule around an illegal penalty. This was appealed to Connaught and subsequently to the National Appeals Board, again to no avail. Community Games must stick rigidly to the rules or at least to the administrative rules, however the same diligence is not applied to the activity rules. Community Games is supposed to be all about involving children, but this was not evident in this case. This fiasco resulted in the resignation of Galway's progressive and committed County chairperson, who has worked tirelessly for the last number of years. The girls' Indoor Soccer Connacht Finals were a shambles where the Connacht committee lost the respect of areas and counties alike, respect that will take a long time to earn back. There are eight young girls from the Newbridge, Ballygar, Toghergar areas whose wounds from the Connacht Finals will take a long time to heal. Something has to change to ensure that the Community Games do not punish children for mistakes that are made at higher levels of the organisation. In this case it was the children of NBT who endured the punishment for something they had not done. Children from other areas throughout the country are open to similar punishment unless common sense prevails. Yours in sport John Mockler Chairperson NBT Community Games Look towards economic association with UK A chara, How do you define normal? Is it doing what the majority do? Not so sure. After all, countless millions of Germans, Austrians and to a lesser extent other nationalities, threw their weight behind the Nazi party as soon as they came to prominence. On the other hand, when Winston Churchill flew back from Berlin in 1936, he stood alone among his political peers when he forewarned that that country was preparing for conflict. Yes, paying attention to your gut instinct will always have its place. When it comes to EU fiscal policy, once again Britain is isolated. Which means that we in the Republic of Ireland have an additional issue to address. On May 31, I for one will unreservedly be voting no, with an aspiration towards an economic association with the United Kingdom on my mind, for the following reasons: 1. The UK has been loyally purchasing our goods and services, ever since the ending of the Economic War in 1938. Action speaks louder than words. 2. When Queen Elizabeth visited our shores in 2011, she was brimming with both affirmation and respect for her hosts. A new day has come. 3. The Cameron Administration has made an open-ended offer to their Irish counterparts â€â€ 7 billion of seriously sexy Sterling. Money talks. That's my decision made vis-a-vis Referendum day. Now over to you. Is mise, le meas, Peter Mahon Kilmore Tuam[/private]