Comment piece: Donegal debacle shows that silence proves anything but golden

This afternoon came the latest twist in what is an extraordinary tale when Paddy Carr, Donegal's manager of only five months, made the decision to step aside.

“Following a discussion with some senior members of the Donegal football team, I want to announce that I’m stepping away from the position of Donegal team manager with immediate effect,” Carr said. “I want nothing more than the best for Donegal and that will never change”.

He is another Donegal GAA man who has opted not to stay involved. This is merely the latest chapter in what has been, quite frankly, perhaps one of the dankest eras in the history of Donegal GAA.

On Tuesday of this week, the GAA clubs in the county were informed of a ‘Special County Committee meeting’ that will take place on Thursday, March 23, at 8:30pm in the Donegal GAA Centre in Convoy.

“There is only one item on the agenda, the Donegal GAA Academy,” it read as it made its way to the media, who were not informed by official means. In a second correspondence, sent Wednesday before the real headlines, it was noted: “This meeting is called to address recent media/publications surrounding the Academy and other unrelated matters raised in these media/publications.”

It was felt “the appropriate forum to address these matters is at county committee level, thus, the reason for calling this special county committee meeting.” So, effectively, the best way to answer the media is not to answer the media.

The local media in Donegal have not been permitted to cover county committee meetings in regards the runnings of Donegal GAA for some years but seeing this was a ‘special’ meeting, a request was lodged for access on Tuesday. It was refused one minute later.

The Donegal GAA Academy was supposed to open its doors for its third year on March 1. But the Donegal GAA Academy didn’t open that day, as scheduled, because Karl Lacey, the Head of Donegal Academy, had resigned from the position.

Lacey, who has an MSc in Sports Performance from University of Limerick and is a lecturer in Sport Coaching and Performance at ATU Donegal in Letterkenny, was over the coaching of players from U-14 level up to U-20.

“It is with a heavy heart and deepest regret that I have to announce I am stepping away from Donegal GAA academy effective immediately," Lacey, on resignation, told his coaching staff, numbered in the ballpark of 35, who in a show of solidarity followed him out the door a week later.

“We feel that the development, vision and pathway for Donegal is not aligned with or supported by leadership within the county,” they said in a statement following resignation.

The reporting of such issues locally was deemed of importance. On the field, Lacey was and is Donegal’s most decorated footballer - the 2012 Footballer of the Year, an All-Ireland winner, four-time All-Star and part of five Ulster SFC winning panels as player and coach having been involved in the Donegal set-up since the development squads as a teenager in the late nineties.

There was also the matter of the impact on the Academy's 350 young men having their pathways, at best, put on ice, as rival counties move on.

The matter was reported in a factual manner by certain outlets and regardless of stance, it was certainly deemed newsworthy.
On March 1, instead of the Academy reopening, a statement was released from the county board, who had been offered a reply throughout the month of February following the spate of resignations and uncertainty over the continuation of underage structures in the county, to a select few - but not all - of the media.

“As a journalist who held firm with us while we dealt with this challenging issue, I am issuing it to you under embargo, until it appears on our social media platforms,” it said. “I thank you for your professionalism and journalistic ethic and trust that you will hold this in strictest confidence until it is officially released. I look forward to working with you in the future.”

The terms “transparency” and “governance” were mentioned in the statement, which was in relation to Lacey’s resignation, which had been “reluctantly” accepted, while stressing there was “no suggestion or inference that there was any mal-intent or neglect on the part of the Head of Academy or the Coaches.”

Since the reporting of the debacle, certain local media have had their attendance at fixtures questioned. When Galway visited Letterkenny earlier this month, some were told of access issues on arrival, despite being formally notified that same morning by the official Donegal GAA channels that “you'll be advised of your area, on arrival at the media gate” and, in regards interviews with players and management afterwards, invited to a “media briefing in the area near the referee's room about fifteen minutes after the game.”

Last Sunday, another official correspondence was sent out, via text, prior to Donegal’s clash with Mayo in Ballybofey.
“If you have applied for accreditation for today's game in MacCumhaill Park, can you please present to the side gate, where you'll be shown to your appointed position,” it said.

Again, certain local reporters, trying to do a day’s work, were told “the gate was closed” and not permitted entry until 2:15pm for the 3:45pm throw-in, despite the ground being open to other media, who were wandering about inside having been allowed in to set up from early morning.

The GAA scene in Donegal is a fabric of local media but it’s supposed to be a two-way street. For example, the Donegal Democrat was founded in 1919, whereas Donegal only won the first Ulster SFC in 1972. It’s not even a ‘which came first? the chicken or the egg?’ situation.

There are literally hundreds of people who, sometimes thanklessly, offer large chunks of their lives to the administration of GAA in Donegal. Most do great jobs, away from the headlines, and are comfortable in doing so. The media frequently volunteer their services for promotion of events, official launches at unsociable hours and free contributions to match programmes for example. They’re just trying to do their job too, as the coaches and many more who offer support are.

On the night Carr and Aidan O’Rourke were announced as the new management team for the Donegal seniors, the media in attendance were told not to ask any questions in regards the makeup of the backroom team and that they would be informed through the official channels in due course. They never were.

This came after a protracted affair that, from the day Donegal lost to Armagh in Clones in the All-Ireland qualifiers on June 12, took 97 days with both mounting speculation and frustration to replace Declan Bonner. Granted, the appointment of people willing to take on positions of such magnitude is not always straightforward and linen, dirty or otherwise, shouldn't always have to be washed in public. Yet, here we go again.

A simple request was made two weeks ago to more than one official for the All-County League fixtures for 2023, which begins in 10 days time. The request has yet to be answered. As mentioned, the statement on Lacey was only sent to a select few media, the ones with “journalistic ethic” - those “who held firm.”

Comment from both sides in regards to balance and right of reply, whether on or off-the-record, has been offered throughout. This, by and large, which is anyone’s right, has not been taken up so instead there's a meeting to quell media speculation without the media, which will add to speculation. Tomorrow night’s special meeting is paramount to the future of Donegal GAA.

A special meeting with the usual restrictions, which, unless there is a sudden change in policy, will only be covered at best by a drip-feed of secondhand information, without the permission of the meeting to be put on the record on the night, from the actual event.

With the agenda for the Academy, the managerial twist has brought a whole new element of pressing needs. Donegal are one game out from Ulster SFC against Down in Newry in five weeks' time. That one game is a deadrubber in all but name away to Roscommon on Sunday in Division 1 of the Allianz League with relegation all but confirmed.

The media’s role is to inform the public, the supporters and potential sponsors of basic happenings and, when the need arises, to ask the questions that need to be asked. But, in regards to their acceptance to do so, transparency, it seems, is only important whenever it suits. Now, things really need to come out into the open. Local stories are now national. The silence has proved anything but golden.