THE Poc Fada’s sponsor is optimistic that the event can take place as soon as late August – to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
The sliotar-striking contest on the Cooley Mountains in Louth may only be delayed by a month at most from its usual date in early August, reckons Martin Donnelly.
The Clare man, who will mark 25 years of backing the event, said: “Health and safety are paramount [referring to coronavirus], but the course is over five kilometres and nobody will be standing too close to someone striking a sliotar, they’ll keep well clear!
“The Poc Fada is slightly different from other GAA activities – there’s no physical contact in the Poc Fada.
“It’s a competition held in the open air and social distancing wouldn’t be a problem. It’s similar to golf and if you can play golf, with certain restrictions, as is the case now, we’re hopeful.”
Obviously the even won’t be held behind closed doors, but Donnelly also points out that attendances shouldn’t be an issue either: “Crowds would be manageable as well, I think the most we’ve had is 1,000. The spectators are basically hill walking and they’re doing that now already.”
Donnelly accepts that there will probably have to be changes, at least in advance of the event, explaining:
“I doubt if it will happen as early as usual – the first of August is the traditional date – if you look at the roadmap, the 8th of August is when we’re planning to get back to some kind of normality down here, although social distancing is going to be with us…
“By this stage any other year most of the county qualifiers would have been completed and the provincial dates would be set to find the two winners [male and female] in each province.
“Now I don’t think it would be possible to run off qualifying in that way, so we may have to look at nominations, or players going to one pitch on a day to qualify, like in the old days, or invitations.
“We’d have to look at if hotels have opened up by that stage to have accommodation for the competitors, a lot of them would have to travel.
“Obviously the defending champion and the All-Star Hurling goalkeeper will probably be involved, as is traditional.”
Cillian Kiely of Offaly is on course for a hat-trick of titles, having won with a record-equalling low tally of 48 pucs in 2018 then retained the The Setanta Cup last year with only one more strike.
Although the local Louth and Armagh committees help organise and run the event, with the Carrickdale Hotel in ‘the wee county’ providing a convenient base, as an All-Ireland competition the final say comes from Croke Park, says Donnelly:
“I have been speaking to Tom Ryan [long-time Croke Park steward], chairman of the national competition, discussing possibilities, and ultimately the decision is going to lie with Croke Park for the All-Ireland competition.
“We had a lot planned around it because it’s the 60th anniversary and I’ll have been sponsoring it for 25 of those years.
“It’s still kind of up in the air but I’d be optimistic it could go ahead end of August or early September because it wouldn’t be clashing with the All-Ireland Hurling Final.
“With drone cameras it could even get some live coverage. If things keep going in the direction they’re going we are optimistic.”
