(The following was submitted by John Moore, candidate for chairman of the New York GAA.)

All clubs and delegates now know that I am running for the job of chairman of the New York GAA for 2006. The nomination process was completed last Thursday night to a packed house in Riverdale.

This election will probably be decided by two issues. One is whether or not the clubs are happy with the status quo and the way things have been handled in the past.

The second issue is if the clubs are not happy and believe the New York GAA and all Gaels deserve a better future with a plan and a vision to have a permanent home on Randall’s Island.

I have met with all of the clubs and most of their delegates and firmly believe that most players, delegates and clubs are embarrassed by what the New York GAA has here in New York. This feeling is shared by the majority of people involved in the New York Minor Board, Senior Board, hurling division, senior football division and junior football division. All divisions are totally disillusioned by a Senior Board that has no plans for the future. Anyone who traveled to Boston for the interprovincial finals held there recently and saw the facilities, verified for themselves how far New York is behind the times.

GAA President Sean Kelly and former president Peter Quinn are very enthusiastic about the plans drawn up by the Strategic Review Committee in Dublin for the future of the GAA. This is not a six or 12-month plan. The plans drawn up are for the next 50 years.

At present the New York GAA has no plans whatsoever for the future. The only plan they are working on is how to stop John Moore from being elected to lead the New York GAA.

They are working hard on this with the old Riverdale establishment that has no time for anyone that believes the New York GAA is entitled to a better future with a permanent home on Randall’s Island with possibly three or four playing fields, where they will build a better future for all present Gaels and the millions who will come after us.

I say millions because the New York GAA has been in existence in New York without fail since 1914. It is not unrealistic to envision the New York GAA 50 years from now with a headquarters firmly established in the middle of New York City on Randalls Island and Gaelic games being taught as part of the New York school curriculum.

When I left Ireland for New York in the mid-1980s, a lot of club games were still being played on fields where cows grazed and you had to tog out in the back of the car or in the bushes. Today in Ireland, every club has three or four pitches complete with proper facilities, meeting rooms, party rooms, bars, etc.

I arrived in New York to a dilapidated Gaelic Park that was a total embarrassment to all Irish emigrants who arrived here in the 1980s and since then. Many of those who arrived in the ‘60s and ‘70s think differently. They left Ireland and arrived in New York to find a Gaelic Park that, at the time, was way ahead of any club in Ireland.

The New York GAA has never moved with the times. Successive county boards have failed to move with the times. They are held hostage by an old mentality that cannot see any further than Gaelic Park.

The present chairman, Seamus Dooley, is a worker who will always be around. A leader he is certainly not. He has no vision or plans for the future. He is part of the old mentality and the Riverdale establishment that believes that Gaelic Park is good enough.

He has made “groundsmen” out of the senior hurling board chairman and the senior football chairman. He has not created any plans for the future of the New York GAA or demanded any plans from either divisional chairman.

The only job he has demanded they do is put down lines, drag water hoses, and hang signs in Gaelic Park for an hour on Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday. Plenty of big dinners and refreshments are to be enjoyed afterwards.

There is no demand for monthly meeting from the divisional chairman to deal with issues such as getting the under-21 football competition and final played. There is no demand to find out what the hurling division is doing to support Rockland County and Chris Dalton’s underage hurlers.

There is no demand from divisions as to what plans are in place to achieve victory against Derry and Roscommon in next year’s championship. The management of these teams has not been put in place.

There are no demands from the divisional chairman of what plans they have for stamping out illegal players in both divisions. There are no demands from either chairman for a budget of expenses to cover the costs associated with the county teams.

There are no plans in place or being created for better playing conditions for our junior teams who play in Van Cortland Park. This is the biggest division in the association!

There are no plans on what to do about the problem of so few young players coming through from the Minor Board. “We gave them a field day and let them play some of their finals in Gaelic Park,” is what you will hear.

While this is welcome, it is certainly no substitute for aggressive plans that need to be created between the minor board and the senior board where all Minor Board games will be played on fields with proper facilities.

Every club in Ireland has proper playing facilities for their minor and underage competitions. The New York Senior Board must invest heavily in the Minor Board. We must create plans for the future that will pay dividends. It is the job of the County Board to lead on this.

The day is long gone in Ireland when players had to tog out in the back of cars or in the bushes. Today, this practice continues to thrive in New York for our Junior Board, Minor Board, and even our Ladies’ board games. Most clubs and players are outraged by this, but you will still find officers and club officials out there canvassing to keep the old mentality and the Riverdale establishment in office. These officers and club officials are pawns of the establishment who view the New York GAA as belonging to them.

In their eyes, it belongs to them and must be controlled by them. Everyone else is considered an outsider if you do not subscribe to their point of view. They are afraid of change and afraid they might lose something if the games or meetings go anywhere else.

These good GAA people are trapped in the mindset of the old establishment. There is no reason to be afraid. There is a great future for the New York GAA. There is a whole new world out there that wants to New York GAA to step into the future. The association needs a leader who believes in the future and Randall’s Island.

If I am elected chairman, many of our future meetings will move to facilities on McLean Avenue in Yonkers, where the Irish community is most vibrant today and many Gaels can walk to meetings. Some meetings will still be held in Riverdale and anywhere else there is a GAA stronghold. This can only help to promote the association.

The old establishment and the current chairman do not view favorably the use of the press by myself to get my message out to the public and all Gaels. This mentality is part of the old establishment and was created and used to stop the emergence of progressive leaders who might upset their old ways.

I view the media as being vital to the promotion of Gaelic games and the best way to get all the facts out to the clubs and players, etc. I believe that it has been to the detriment of the New York GAA and the Randall’s Island project that not one interview has been given to the press for the last three years by the current chairman or his predecessor to promote the project, even though all of the players and clubs support the project.

Everyone knows that for seven years Mr. Dooley has been against the project and continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth, stating that he is now for the project only because Croke Park have placed pressure on him. Most people also know that this summer he led a delegation back to Croke Park, where he was very negative about the Randall’s Island project. It was left to other officers, who traveled with him, to defend the project.

This was after Croke Park granted $2 million to the New York GAA for the project. This old mentality was the reason why we lost the great opportunity to gain control of Gaelic Park in 1990. Their mentality leads to nowhere – only status quo.

These past few years I have been busy working with the Randall’s Island Gaelic Sports Company (RIGS). We have been busy creating the greatest opportunity the Irish community has ever had for their cultural organizations, business organizations and people who want to invest in an opportunity for the New York GAA to build the home of their dreams as the back bone of the project.

There are no fundraising plans from the County Board in place for Randall’s Island, as requested by Croke Park. No money has been raised.

I have been busy with my wife and kids, introducing my kids to Minor Board football, first with the New York Rangers and now with the Long Island Gaels in Lynbrook, Long Island. There is a GAA community, Mr. Chairman, outside of Riverdale, if you ever decide to go on a tour yourself.

I have decided that I will not be apologizing to any future generations for the failure of my generation to build a better future. My generation believes that your old Riverdale establishment mentality belongs in the past.

On Sunday, the fourth of December, my tour will take me back to Riverdale, where I hope to find a packed house of clubs and delegates and the young candidates from my generation who have put their names forward like myself, who have the vision and energy to lead the New York GAA forward to a better future and a permanent home on Randall’s Island.