20 August 1997
By Jonathan Mullin
Anger is growing in Attymass and throughout the region over the disqualification of an all-conquering under-16 table tennis side from the national finals of the Community Games in Mosney.
A public meeting was held last night (Tuesday) in the north Mayo parish to discuss the sensational development and court action threatened to remedy the "injustice".
And, in a separate development, Councillor Terry McCole, Chairman of Ballina Urban District Council, has returned his invite to the Community Games because of his "disgust" over what happened.
Councillor McCole said yesterday (Tuesday): "The whole spirit of the National Community Games has been broken.
BUREAUCRACY
"This is the worst form example ever of bureaucracy and red tape.
"Unfortunately, youngsters are the victims. I have witnessed their tears and disappointment. They have practised wholehartedly for a year and beaten the best in the province".
The Attymass side was ruled ineligible for the Community Games finals because their entry to the regional finals was a day late.
The Sligo County Board, who were represented in the championship by Drumcliffe - the team defeated handsomely in the Connaught final - threatened a High Court injunction stopping the Community Games going ahead if the Attymass lads were not removed from the competition.
The National Executive Council, taking into account the rulebook which stood behind the Sligo allegation (and the fact that they could not possibly financially absorb such costs), ruled that the Attymass side be disqualified.
ERROR
The row centres upon an administrative error in which the registration of a single Attymass team player, one of five, arrived a day after it should have done, prior to the Connaught championships in July.
In Ballina last month Attymass moved through to the provincial championships. The subject of the registration was raised by the co-ordinator of the table-tennis championships, Eamonn Neelan, who is also the coach of the Attymass side, and after widespread agreement, he announced that play would go ahead with Attymass in tow.
The talented quintet, brothers Denis and Johnny McDonagh, Rory Gallagher, Aubrey Mulhern and Kieran Mulhern, triumphed over all rivals, impressively defeating Drumcliffe in the decider.
COLLECTIONS
Door-to-door and church-gate collections demonstrated the goodwill in Attymass towards the first team they had ever entered in the competition.
Carmel Kilgallon, Secretary of the Attymass organisation, said that the Sligo County Board should be made eat the Community Games pledge which higlights friendly sportmanship rather than victory at any price as the important factor.
Mrs. Kilgallon said that this would be the last occasion on which they would enter a team.
"Sportsmanship has gone out the window. I took over as Secretary of the Community Games in Attymass when the previous Secretary, Sean Reynolds, who was Principal of the local National School, left the area. I allowed myself into the situation only because, simply, there was nobody else.
"We have no experience here of entering teams or any of that pathetic bureaucracy. This is a terrible situation and the whole community is in tatters."
