Controversial Tullamore motion aims to introduce parentage rule into Offaly GAA

A CONTROVERSIAL Tullamore motion aimed at introducing a new parentage rule into Offaly GAA will be debated at Convention in December.

Their proposed motion represents a very significant change to one of Offaly GAA's longest standing bye laws, the Parish Rule – it will require a three fifths majority or 60% to pass at Convention.

Their motion asks that players now be allowed to play with a club outside the parish he resides in if it can be demonstrated that a strong family connection exsists between the player and the club that he wishes to join.

The Tullamore motion seeks a change in the Offaly bye-law dealing with a player's attachment to his first club and players seeking to move to a club outside their catchment area must submit an application in writing to the Offaly GAA County Board by January 28 each year. The Offaly GAA Competitions Control Committee will then adjudicate on the application and Tullamore have clarified that the strong family connection must be via parents/guardians.

The full text of the Tullamore motion is:

“A person seeking to become a member of the Association shall be restricted to joining a club in the catchment area of his residence or a club to which he has “Other Relevant Connection” as defined below
“Other relevant connection – a member shall be regarded to having “Other Relevant Connection” with a catchment area if:
“It has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the CCCC that a strong family connection i.e. parents/guardians exists between the player and the club with which the players wishes to become a member.
“Application from a Member to become a member of a club outside his catchment area shall be submitted in writing to An Runai Chontae on or before January 28 of each year.”

Tullamore GAA Club have written to every club in Offaly, outlining their motion and seeking support – they are also approaching personnel in each club to explain their rationale. It will, however, be a contentious motion and it certainly will not be passed unanimously. Indeed, the odds will be stacked against Tullamore but they have taken the step of publicly explaining where they are coming from and their reasons for it.

The Parish Rule was introduced in 1909 and has been an abiding principle of Offaly GAA since then. For decades, it proved controversial as Offaly GAA dealt with breaches, punished clubs and individuals and frequently debated proposals to delete the rule. Since the 1960s, however, it has been more or less accepted and while breaches of it became less frequent, there are still cases dealt with regularly.

The parish rule basically means that a player must play with a club in the parish he lives in – parish in the Offaly GAA cases refers to the Catholic boundaries, though there were audacious attempts by clubs to argue the case for accepting players in the Church of Ireland or civil parishes in several of its early years.

It means that a player can play with any club in the parish he lives in, unless there are specific borders between clubs – and there are a few designated borders between clubs in Offaly parishes.

It has been known for several weeks that Tullamore were going to submit a motion to seek this derogation of the parish rule. Over the years, there have been a number of cases of players playing with clubs outside the parish they live in. Some of these players have been quite high profile and there have been cases involving sons of former Tullamore players now living in rural parishes – it is, however, an issue that affects a lot more clubs than Tullamore.

Last year, things came to a head when Cappincur asked for an investigation into young players in their catchment area being illegally registered or playing with Tullamore.

The matter had originally been raised in 2021 and it was dealt with again this year.

A group of Offaly GAA officers met Tullamore GAA officials and a parent of one of the players as they investigated the claims and they ruled against Tullamore. Cappincur had queried the status of seven players and the Offaly GAA Management Committee ruled that the parish rule is in force for all grades in Offaly and stressed that the GAA's ethos is based on the allegiance of its members to their local clubs. They also re-iterated the rule defining a members' permanent residence.

Tullamore GAA were told that a player may not be a member of a club he is ineligible to play for and that those players should not participate with the club.

Tullamore GAA Club, however, have stated that the issue affects far more than them and both chairman Paul Dillane and vice chairman Tom Moloney pleaded for support in an interview about the motion on Tuesday morning.

Both stressed that they did fully respected and agreed with the parish rule and that this motion was an addendum to it.

Mr Dillane remarked: “The reality is we will end up losing more players than we will gain. You look at the way planning is going in the country, it is all in urban centres now. People from rural areas and villages will probably have to live in Tullamore. This will give an avenue for their kids to play where they grew up. We still respect the parish rule. It is what the county is built on but this supplements it and it probably clears up a lot of anomalies in the county at the moment with guys playing for clubs where their mammies and daddies are from. This makes them legal now.”

Mr Moloney added: “Another thing that is very important, we acknowledge and respect the parish rule. This is an an addendum to that. The first option is you play where you live and then if you wanted to bring in this other relevant connection, that is there. The reality is most people will play where they live. This is not going to start the movement of children all over the county.”

When it was suggested that the motion was a bit loosely phrased about the definition of a parent's or guardian's connection to a club and would need to be tied down more, Mr Moloney stated that it would be up to the Competitions Control Committee to adjudicate on each application and they would accept their decisions.

Click on the link to read the full interview with Paul Dillane and Tom Moloney

Tullamore officers hope new parentage rule will clear up anomalies across Offaly GAA