This article is from page 3 of the 2012-04-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
WHILE the county’s hurlers are making progress on the pitch, Clare Labour TD, Michael McNamara, has been forced to cut short his own hurling come-back after a spat broke out between the East Clare deputy and Labour’s National Organiser, David Leach, at the recent Labour VS Fine Gael charity hurling match.
Deputy McNamara, who last played hurling for the Scariff Junior B Team in 2006, saw red after a disagreement with the Labour team manager, David Leach, and walked off his party’s team.
According to McNamara, the Labour manager was packing the team with young Labour staff members and only allowing the party’s TDs “cameo” run-outs during the match. McNamara has a loud disagreement with his own manager before leaving the field, without pucking a ball in anger.
The tactic clearly worked for the Labour team, who ran out comfortable winners on a score-line of 68 to 1-12, but left a sour taste in the mouth of the East Clare TD.
“It was billed as a match between TDs on both on both sides. Instead, the Labour manager, one of the [party’s] head back room staff, decided to play young researchers, advisers and secretaries with the TDs making cameo appearances, against a team of FG deputies,” he said yesterday.
“Labour won very easily and Fine Gael, managed by Jerry Buttimer, complained that the format was unfair. It is five or six years since I played a game of hurling, with the
Scariff Junior Bs, and I
was looking forward to
the game. Oh well, may
be next year.”
The Labour team in
cluded just only one
elected member, 66
year-old Kildare TD and
goalkeeper Jack Wall, in
their starting line-up for
the seven-a-side clash.
In contrast to this Fine
Gael fielded six TDs,
including Clare’s Joe
Carey, in their starting line-up, but were no match to the young ringers in red.
Despite conceding six goals, the man-of-the-match award went to Labour Jack Wall, the oldest man from any party to take the itch on the day. It is as yet unclear whether Deputy McNamara intends making a surprise comeback to bolster Scariff’s hopes in their Division 5 A opener against Kilmaley this weekend.
Deputy McNamara’s ‘Tevez moment’ was the talk of Leinster House, with even Miriam Lord mentioning his disagreement in her Irish Times column last Saturday.