No single post on social media summed up the GAA’s position in Irish life than that posted by Fermanagh PRO Pauric McGurn at last week’s county final.
As the county’s public relations officer, McGurn is in charge of Fermanagh’s social media output and one of the main parts of the role is keeping fans who can’t make matches updated with the latest score.
The Division 1 League final between Devenish and Ederney was a pretty big game in local terms so there would have been plenty of interest in what was going on.
The popular and normally reliable @FermanaghGAA Twitter account was silent though.
Apologies, cow calved and just into game now. 23 mins played, SFL Div 1 Final - Devenish 0-6 v Ederney 1-4 pic.twitter.com/5H7gAXzqoh
— Fermanagh GAA (@FermanaghGAA) October 14, 2017
McGurn works full-time selling cars for Donnelly Group in Enniskillen, but he also does his bit on the family farm.
"There was a cow calving, so there wasn’t anything I could do," explained the Derrygonnelly man.
"When that was over I was back into the house to get washed up and then into Brewster Park.
"I missed the first 20-odd minutes and I was honest about it on Twitter and you start to see retweet after retweet."
So far that post has been liked over 1,600 times, shared by more than 500 people and has helped attract 2,000 new followers to the Fermanagh GAA account.
Facebook and Twitter are now two major communications tools used by clubs and counties to get their message, results, fixtures and news out to the public.
"We have more than 55,000 followers on Facebook and nearly the same on Twitter so that’s over 100,000 people," said Mayo GAA’s PRO and tweeter, Paul Cunnane. "That means social media is the most important tool that we have."
There are no hard and fast guidelines about who takes the keys to the Twitter and Facebook accounts at county level, but it’s generally the PRO’s job.
"It’s hard going at times, even in a county like Mayo which wouldn't have a high profile hurling team and even if they are going well they are finished up early enough in the year," said Cunnane.
"I have someone who helps me out on the hurling side of things because between club games, minor, Under-21 and senior county teams, that’s a lot to look after."
On being elected to their position, PROs are issued with a set of guidelines from Croke Park about what they should and shouldn’t post - steer clear of mentioning alcohol and gambling and remain neutral when posting.
"Our Twitter says ‘100 per cent biased towards Fermanagh GAA’," laughed McGurn.
"Earlier this year one of our lads got sent off the League and I said a few things about the referee that a few people shared with the @officialgaa account.
"Nothing happened after that, but the county board did get on to me telling me to be more careful. But it’s hard to stay neutral - I’m easy enough to pick out at all the Fermanagh matches!"
Humour plays a major part in Irish life and in the GAA so unsurprisingly this is often reflected on Twitter, with Wexford’s Gusserane O’Rahillys gaining national notoriety last year when they got hammered by Rhode in the Leinster Senior Football Championship.
Leinster SFC
— Gusserane O'Rahillys (@GORahillys) October 30, 2016
Full time
Gusserane : 0-4(4)
Rhode: 5-22(37) All over. All I can say is we were well and truly Rhode.
"I try to play a straight bat 90 per cent of the time because it’s easier to avoid controversy that way," said Cunnane.
"All of the PROs meet up once a year at a day in Croke Park so I’d know a lot of them, particularly those from around Connacht, and there are plenty of times you’d want to respond to something they say with a smart remark on Twitter, but it’s best to keep that to personal accounts."
