The Man Behind the Wire: End of O'Connor Park impasse good news for Offaly and Tullamore GAA

THE decision by Tullamore GAA Club to approve a revised deal with the Offaly GAA County Board over the lease terms of O'Connor Park is very good news for both sides.

The row had gone on for almost three years after the County Board initially withheld a lease payment to Tullamore GAA Club, citing financial difficulties because of loss of revenue over the Covid-19 pandemic.

It escalated badly from here and at one stage, it looked very possible that the County Board would terminate the lease and full control of the ground would revert to Tullamore GAA Club.

O'Connor Park has been the premier ground in the county since being developed by Tullamore GAA Club in the early 1930s. From the late 1970s/early 1980s on, the County Board made several approaches to either buy or lease the ground from Tullamore but these were not successful until the signing of a historic agreement between the two in 2002.

That lease enabled a multi-million euro redevelopment of O'Connor Park to be carried out, transforming it into one of the top stadiums in the country. It now has terrific spectator facilites and its pitch is among the very best in the country.

That development would not have taken place without the County Board taking over the ground and that was an absolute necessity at that time. Offaly had lost home advantage for a 2004 championship match against Westmeath over spectator restrictions with the fixture moved to Croke Park, where their neighbours grinded out a controversial one point win – a Brian Morley point was later proven to have been wide.

Things were very messy in Offaly at that time, and indeed, later. Apart from a venue for big games, training faciilities for county teams was a huge issue, before Faithful Fields was developed in Kilcormac a few years ago. The County Board relied on clubs for the use of their grounds for training county teams but this often led to a lot of hassle, contributing to uneasy relationships between them and team managers.

At one stage just over a decade ago, things reached their low point when Offaly footballers had to train in Mullingar and the hurlers went to Ballingarry in Tipperary as they could not get training pitches in Offaly. Faithful Fields was developed a few years afterwards and between that and O'Connor Park, Offaly now has training and playing facilities to match any county, and better than most.

O'Connor Park has been an absolutely pivotal piece of the facilities jigsaw in Offaly. It is the best stadium in Offaly by a country mile, comparable with any outside Croke Park and perhaps Pairc UiCaoimh in Cork but it has been far from a trouble free ride.

Almost from the start, there were occasional to regular clashes between the County Board and Tullamore GAA Club. The lease provided specified access to O'Connor Park for Tullamore GAA Club for training and games but the level of this was a frequent bone of contention for the landlords. The use of those magic words “where possible” gave the County Board a way of limiting access that could not be challenged – protecting the pitch and ensuring it is not over used remains a priority for O'Connor Park.

There were occasional clashes over the lease fee being paid late. At one stage, former Tullamore chairman Fergal McKeown expressed his anger over this at a County Board meeting and friction has never been far beneath the surface for both parties.

At the same time, there were long periods where things floated along nicely, they got on well and there was no obvious acrimony, to the public eye anyway.

Things, however, took a very quick turn for the worse around the start of 2020. After that lease payment was withheld, things went downhill at a rapid and alarming rate. At one furious meeting between County Board chairman, Michael Duignan and then Tullamore GAA chairman Tom Martin in 2021, Mr Duignan threatened that the County Board would terminate the lease.

Tullamore GAA reacted furiously, outlining their position in correspondence sent to clubs. In a hard hitting missive, they stressed that O'Connor Park was not for sale and that there was “no legal basis” for a review of the lease. They presented two options to the County Board: pay the fee or terminate the lease, giving six months notice. They outlined what was to happen if the lease was terminated and it was all very ugly at that stage.

Thanfully things did not get any worse from there on. Michael Duignan quickly pulled back from his entrenched position, stating that the County Board did not wish to exit O'Connor Park. Mediation attempts involving Croke Park and Leinster Council had failed and it dragged on for a long time after that 2021 blow out – it eventually went into legal arbitration where there were a number of postponements but at least both sides had put the guns away, not washing their dirty linen in public.

Eventually, an agreeemnt was hammered out, almost at the 11th hour. As you would expect the County Board approved the revised lease agreement unanimously while Tullamore GAA Club rubber stamped it by a considerable majority at their AGM on Friday evening.

Buying O'Connor Park would have been the preferred option for the County Board and it would have been the best thing for Offaly GAA. That, however, was a bridge too far for Tullamore at the moment – for mainly emotional rather than practical reasons but it is Tullamore's ground and their rights and feelings must be respected.

For a number of months at the height of the dispute, there was an almost complete breakdown in relationships between the County Board and their biggest club. It was not healthy for Offaly or Tullamore and it sucked huge energy and time out of the people at the coalface – people with much better things to be doing.

At the same time, the outcome brings a satisfactory end to the dispute, and hopefully things will never again disintegrate to the level that they did. The revised deal more or less gives the County Board what they want. It addresses two of their big bones of contention with the original lease – Tullamore having a veto and rights to a cut out of any deal for naming rights of O'Connor Park and staging of special events such as concerts etc.

The County Board were wrong in the way they dealt with it originally. If they didn't have the money to pay the lease, they didn't have it but unilaterally withholding payment was not to way to deal with it. Talking was the way forward and Tullamore could have been dealt with a lot better. The County Board approach got their gander up and was at least partly responsible for the way things went.

At the same time, would they have got the revised agreement and the changes they sought by adopting a different approach? Perhaps not, and it doesn't really matter now anyway.

Part of the problem was that both sides treated O'Connor Park as if it was a business and not a GAA-community asset. There was all sorts of mutinuous talk coming out of some Tullamore members – wild statements such as take the ground back, lock the gates and throw the county out. Tullamore GAA Club could not control what their members were saying but there was a lot of petrol being thrown on the fire by both sides for a few months.

Fortunately, no one got badly burnt. In the midst of the dispute, Tullamore did not have a lot of public sympathy behind them. Their attempts to bring clubs onside did not work and for a while, it seemed that Tullamore's duty to the greater good of the county and not just themselves was being ignored.

The original lease was a great deal for Tullamore GAA Club, not so good for the county. Back in 2002, the County Board were desperate to get their hands on O'Connor Park and they signed a very generous lease agreement. At the moment, Tullamore are getting well over €50,000 a year from the lease. It is a huge start to each year for them, a huge advantage over other clubs - O'Connor Park is their asset and they are entitled to be paid for it but the lease is being paid by the clubs of Offaly, including Tullamore, who it should be noted pay the biggest levy of all.

When Bord na Mona secured naming rights for O'Connor Park a few years ago, Tullamore sought and got a percentage from it and there is no doubt that when the new County Board chairman Michael Duignan and treasurer, Dervill Dolan discovered the full terms of the lease after taking over in 2019, they were shocked.

They were right and entitled to seek changes and whether their approach was right or wrong, doesn't matter now. It happened and thankfully agreement has been reached – even if you would wonder was it really worth going to war over and both sides now face hefty legal bills.

It is, however, crucial that things never breakdown to this extent again. As things stand, both sides come out of it with their heads held high. The County Board got some of the amendments they sought and the lease is more favourable now for Offaly GAA than it was.

Tullamore come out of it smelling of roses. They also pulled back from an extreme stance, where it looked like they would not budge an inch. They considered the wider implications for Offaly GAA and its clubs and they made compromises that were necessary to end the dispute. The lease is still very good for them – they will still get over €50,000 a year and that is a huge amount to be able to mark down at the start of each year.

Down the road, the County Board buying O'Connor Park is still the best way forward for the entire GAA body in Offaly but that is a non runner at the moment. In the meantime, both can concentrate on their core business of promoting and playing the games, and it is a case of all's well, that ends well!.