Football

McAteer accuses media of lack of interest in GAA 'ethos'

The lengthy delay in the appointment of Eamon Burns prompted speculation as to the identity of the next Down football manager  
The lengthy delay in the appointment of Eamon Burns prompted speculation as to the identity of the next Down football manager   The lengthy delay in the appointment of Eamon Burns prompted speculation as to the identity of the next Down football manager  

DOWN GAA secretary Sean Og McAteer has launched an outspoken attack on the media, including suggesting the "ethos of the GAA… is not something of interest" to reporters who also cover soccer and rugby.

The Mourne county was regularly in the headlines after a narrow vote in favour of retaining Jim McCorry as senior football manager; he subsequently resigned and there was then a lengthy delay until the appointment of Eamonn Burns as his successor. McAteer hit out at the coverage of this process, writing in his report to Wednesday's annual convention at the Canal Court Hotel: 

"The media, I also felt was very imbalanced in its treatment of Down GAA over those summer months and really I think we were witnessing the demise of the GAA journalist and the coming to prominence of people who are as happy to be reporting from the Aviva, Ravenhill or Windsor Park as they would be from Pairc Esler or the Athletic Grounds.

"The ethos of the GAA which has stood us well since our founding in 1884 is not something of interest to these people what is more important is sensationalism, rumour and innuendo."

Although almost all, if not all, articles in this newspaper followed conversations with county officers, McAteer criticises media standards, saying: "The meetings of the Down County Committee were now in 2015 being called by the media, they were deciding when the Down County Committee was going to meet.

"It was farcical as they bandied names about at will and prepared their readers for imminent announcements that were going to take place at meetings that were not even scheduled to be held. This was hardly good journalism, there was no evidence of checking with official sources within Down GAA no indeed better to speak to some unnamed source within the County who knows more after all than any officer of the County.

"Indeed for one journalist to refer to the Down Senior Team Managers job as a 'poisoned chalice' showed a basic ignorance of Down GAA and what the job of managing a County Team and in particular the Down team means to many many people."

Despite the torrid summer and autumn, McAteer predicts a bright new year for Down, stating: "It is often remarked that the darkest hour is just before the dawn and if that is to hold true then there will be a great dawn for Down GAA in 2016 and beyond.

"There is no doubt that there was much darkness in Down GAA from the month of June onwards, the prophets of doom and gloom were in their element and they found plenty of organs to vent their gloom."

The Newry Shamrocks clubman says county officers were affected by what was written, particularly anonymous criticisms on social media, although he acknowledged they had made errors: "The constant negativity over a number of weeks during the summer months directed towards Down GAA in no doubt took its toll on the efforts of those Officers in key positions within the Administration.

"What was not factored into the equation was that these administrators are made of stern stuff, they are committed and dedicated GAA people who only want to give of their time selflessly in the cause of Down GAA. They opened their shoulders and they had the courage of their convictions to make decisions and to stand by their decisions doing things in the right manner and for the right reasons.

"Did we make mistakes? Yes in some cases we did and in the future we will all make mistakes at varying stages of our lives better to have lived and tried than never even to have made the effort.

"There are indeed lessons to be learned from all of the experiences of this summer the challenge is to learn and to change what needs to be changed, to feel the fear and do it anyway, to be positive and to hang out our brightest colours even in our darkest hours".