Much has been written about the idea of a player leaving his home club and county to play with another, but what happens when your club and county leave you?
This strange situation is currently facing the residents of Hodson Bay, Monksland and Belnamulla, as Keith Duggan of the Irish Times has written about here.
Minister for the Environment and friend of John Delaney Alan Kelly has appointed a commission to review four borders around the country, and one of the recommendations is to rezone 35 square kilometres of Roscommon to Westmeath.
The gains to Westmeath would be sizeable, but the losses for Roscommon huge: an estimated loss of €1.5million in annual rates along with a population loss of 7,000 people, roughly 12% of the entire county's population.
A Save Roscommon campaign has been launched, with 1,100 people attending a meeting at the Athlone Springs hotel about the issue. Independent TD Denis Naughten, has admonished a "set of invaders marching from Mullingar" looking to take the economic heart of Roscommon, and the campaign has received some high profile support:
Just catching up on this #SaveRoscommon thing. They're trying to do WHAT?!
— chris o'dowd (@BigBoyler) January 17, 2016
The area under review includes two of Roscommon's most storied and successful clubs: 2013 All Ireland Club Champions St Brigid's and reigning county champions Clann na nGael.
Duggan's piece spoke about the fear this prospect has generated among the clubs, so Balls.ie spoke to their respective chairmen, with Clann na nGael's Declan Rock highlighting the long-term effects of such a population drain:
At the moment, were the change to be implemented in the morning, it wouldn’t immediately impact us. It would definitely affect us in five or six years’ time. Ultan Harney and Donie Shine, for example, would be under the jurisdiction of Westmeath.
While there is no question of either Harney or Shine switching allegiances to Westmeath, Rock's concern is that future generations might, considering they have no obvious allegiance to Roscommon:
If you are new to the area, your area will be Monksland, Athlone, Westmeath, so you’ll go to play with Westmeath. It’s a huge challenge for us.
Clann na nGael have committed considerable time, money and effort to grassroots plans in the Monksland area, efforts and expenditure which Rock worries will "go down the drain for us".
There is also the serious issue of a lack of playing numbers in the future, a sparsity which would affect the club both competitively and financially.
A number of years ago we bought land and we are trying to develop into having two full size pitches. We are developing our facility to cater for the seven thousand there [in the areas under review], so it would discommode us greatly. We would lose two schools in a rural area, leaving us with one.
A future decline in playing numbers also troubles St Brigid's chairman Michael McDonnell. Although the Brigid's pitch would remain under the jurisdiction of Roscommon, much of their catchment area would be ceded to Westmeath:
What will happen, maybe not this year or next, but if you change seven thousand people and if their address becomes Athlone, County Westmeath, and their administrative masters are in Westmeath, the people who move to the area will be disenfranchised from Roscommon and Roscommon GAA, as they will be Athlone and Westmeath people.
I would suggest in ten to fifteen years’ time, there will be very few of those kids playing GAA in Roscommon; only the really die-hard Roscommon parents will be bringing their children to play in Roscommon.
McDonnell also highlights the slightly more abstract although no less important issue of identity and heritage:
The Department of the Environment, for whatever reasons that suit their purposes, are going to move people who have always been of the West of Ireland and Connaught and Roscommon into a neighbouring province.
It’s a massive undertaking to take someone’s heritage and say sorry, although your forefathers were born here and farmed this land and were Roscommon born and bred, we have decided now that you are no longer affiliated with that county and province.
The first thing you are asked when you walk into any pub in Ireland is “what county are you from?” Your county is a massive part of identity.
Most remarkably - given the emotive and wide-ranging aspects of the decision - is the lack of communication with the people of the area.
Rock revealed that Clann na nGael were never contacted for their opinion on their possible rezoning, and were only made aware of the situation by a December advertisement in the Roscommon Herald inviting submissions from individuals to argue for or against the rezoning.
Furthermore, the people of the locality are frighteningly powerless to stop it. The commission will make their recommendation to the Minister of the Environment, and should the minister approve it, it will be passed subject to a Dáil vote.
When asked if he felt Connacht and Roscommon were being forgotten about, Rock replied:
We are being neglected, pushed into Westmeath.
Because we are West of the Shannon, maybe we are being targeted. Look it’s hard to know, it’s down to money I suppose.
Should the policy be passed, among the hidden losses will be this fine Roscommon musician:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws2c9ZOcZc0
