Beara GAA rocked as officers step down

Board to move quickly to replace four officials who have exceeded five-year rule

BY KIERAN McCARTHY

BEARA GAA has been rocked after four divisional board officers had to step down from their positions immediately this week after exceeding the five-year rule.

The Beara divisional board received an email from the Cork County Board last Friday informing officials that four current officers have exceeded the five-year limitation.

The four officers are Garnish’s Finbarr Harrington (secretary), Terence O’Shea from Glengarriff (vice-chairman), Danny Crowley from Adrigole (treasurer) and Seamus O’Shea from Garnish (development officer). All four have stepped down from their roles on the Beara board.

In correspondence sent from a Beara official on Tuesday, it explained: ‘A member who has served five years either consecutively or cumulatively, in a specific officership, shall be ineligible to hold that officership for the five-year period following immediately after serving the fifth year in that office.’

There was a meeting in Castletownbere on Monday night where Beara club delegates were informed of developments, and clubs have now been asked to make nominations for these vacant positions.

Nominations must be made by email by 5pm on Friday, February 17th, and there will be a special AGM held in Twomey’s Bar, Castletownbere, on Monday, February 20th, at 9pm, as the board looks to fill these positions.

‘We have sent nomination forms to clubs in the division and given the time of year, proceedings need to move on quickly. We need to get in our new officers as soon as possible,’ PRO Michael O’Neill told The Southern Star.

O’Neill admits that the officers in question have exceeded the five-year rule but he also highlighted the current plight that has seen divisions, as well as clubs, struggle to get new people on board.

‘We accept that some officers have exceeded the five-year rule but given the lack of nominations and for the sake of continuity, etc., giving us 12 months to get more people on board seemed like the thing to do, rather than having a divisional board working without officers,’ O’Neill said.

‘Like a lot of small clubs and now with divisions, it’s very difficult to get officers to take positions. This existing board tried to stand down two years ago but there was no one to come on board. We were asked by the clubs to stay in place.

‘You can only take people off the board when others make themselves available. 

‘Every organisation has to have rules but you also need flexibility. We are not looking for people to stay for ten years or sign up as our secretary for 25 years, we want people to move around, we want new blood, the only reason it didn’t happen is that we were asked by all the clubs in the division to remain in place.’

O’Neill added: ‘It’s not a great situation to be in, we need officers on the board to move things forward in Beara. There is a lot of work to be done, we were doing an awful lot of work and that has to be put on hold now until we get the board in place.’