UCD Professor of History Paul Rouse believes that while the GAA have led by example in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisation remains vulnerable.
Speaking on the Sunday Paper Review alongside commentator Dave McIntyre, both said that it was no surprise that GAA clubs were forced to close.
“You can’t read the COVID stories in the sports pages without reading the COVID stories in the news pages. While COVID hasn’t roared back, it hasn’t gone away, and it wouldn’t take a huge push to get around the country again,” said Rouse.
"If you look at the GAA, it has presented itself as a community-based organisation. It does not run itself in the professional context like the major leagues of European sport and of American sport who create essential bubbles to protect sportspeople.
“This puts the GAA in a very vulnerable position because if the coronavirus gets into clubs, it will spread across the community. That is going to naturally happen.”
While McIntyre praised the GAA for leading by example in the pandemic, he feels public perception of how the GAA is handling the issue is nothing more than naivete.
GAA Covid response
In that, McIntyre also questioned Colm O’Rourke’s comments after he blamed young people's attitudes for clubs getting shut down again.
McIntyre said that the GAA's recent closures are the first 'misstep' by the organisation that has otherwise handled the situation well.
But it was O'Rourke's comments that confused him.
“What did Colm O’Rourke expect? He’s a very experienced man, he’s a school principal and he seems to be shocked by the general responsibility.
“His naivety not knowing that this was going to be a major issue for the GAA when it came to returning the organisation to some form of normality.
“I don’t think anyone should be surprised that we are seeing clubs shut down.
“Colm is blaming young people at a time when the government has not banned travel, allowed a number of people to congregate indoors and allowed people to return to sport, so he has a lot of contradictions.”
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