The Leinster meeting was well attended according to those who have been going for many years - but is an attendance of 46 out of a registered membership of 1850 really good? Where were the rest of the members and why did they not have enough interest to attend this AGM?

That may appear to be a very negative start to our coverage of the AGM - but the people who did attend were those who are passionate about their sport and those who managed to find the Marriot Hotel in Enfield were grateful of the warmth on a cold December evening.

The disquiet amongst the rank and file members of showjumping in Ireland has been well documented by us and many other media outlets and 2005 will surely go down as yet another year where things went askew through what can only be described in many instances as schoolyard bickering putting Irish showjumping back many paces from the rest of the world.

Focus which should have been on the riders and their horses was turned to fighting about everything from lost gold medals to procedural discrepencies and everything in between which has led sponsors and owners to question why they would put their hard earned money into the sport and worse still has been the news that funding to showjumping is now in question.

After the Letters to the Editor concerning the running of the Ulster Region AGM (and the subsequent phone calls to our office) I realised that the Leinster meeting could also be a minefield of discontent and this created a moral dilemma for myself and my Photographic Editor - not only are we part of the equestrian media but we are also members of the Showjumping Association of Ireland and owners of a team of showjumping horses which are now ridden by Irish riders. Our decision to go to the meeting was two fold - we were there to bring the news of the meeting to those 1800 odd members who did not attend and to also be there as concerned members who wanted to know what direction our Association and in particular our Region was taking.

Patricia Furlong chaired the meeting. There was no Agenda of Meeting handed to the members in attendance.

The meeting began at roughly 8.15pm and the usual procedure of adopting the minutes from the previous AGM followed.

There was a heated discussion regarding the allowance of substances such as bute for aged ponies and amateur horses with many expressing the feeling that this was not the correct approach for many reasons. One of the reasons cited was that it gave a wrong message to the pony riders which was that it is ok to compete on a pony which is on medication to relieve pain and this could only lead these young and impressionable riders to believe that if this was the case in ponies then it was surely all right when one reached senior ranks and horses.

The other reason cited was that it is wrong under any circumstances to compete a horse of any age or size on painkillers as this amounted to cruelty to the animal. Brian Gormley, interestingly pointed out that there was no rule against competing a lame pony or horse and questioned was it not better to have the animal on painkillers than to compete it lame?

There was a motion put forward that the use of bute be banned totally and Patricia Furlong suggested that this be referred to the incoming committee for their discussion. This discussion lasted some 35 minutes.

The second item to be discussed was the accounts and again this discussion produced some interesting concerns for those present. With a bank balance of €85,746.91 Edward Fagan commented that there was too much money in the bank which Brian Gormley quickly agreed with and asked the meeting whether anyone had suggestions as to what the money could be used for, opening up a big discussion.

Edward Fagan was adamant that this money could be used to help fund pony riders to go abroad to gain experience and naturally this then extended to the Juniors and Young Riders as these three groups relied heavily on parental funding and many riders simply could not gain the experience because their parents were not able to fund their trips abroad.

Patricia Furlong felt that the matter should be referred to the incoming committe and Brian Gormley then suggested that perhaps with the explosion of inter-schools competition that perhaps this group could be enticed to join the SJAI and perhaps the money in the bank could be used to entice them into the association.

Many disagreed with Mr Gormley as there was no reason this group would be enticed to join the SJAI considering they would gain no benefit from doing so.

Dermot Forde suggested that the money could be used to "buy up the plethora of long or weighted boots in the region - they are bad for the horse" and he then went on to explain that there have been many studies done regarding these boots which caused a greater risk of injury to the horse. Dermot then appealed to the sporting body to have the use of long or weighted back boots banned for the betterment of the sport.

The matter was then referred to the incoming committee by Chairperson Patricia Furlong........and it was then that the suspected eruption came as the next topic was Result of the Election.

Liam Buckley asked for the reason that there was an extension given of the voting date with no notification to the members or the candidates. Mrs Furlong stated that it was advertised in the media.

For the record, our office received no press release concerning this matter, nor did we read of it in any other publication.

There was no notification of the extension put, for example on the SJAI website under the Leinster Regions section, which would surely have been the first point of notification. It was also strange that the SJAI office which is now very adept at sending sms text messages to members via their mobile phones did not think to use this method of communication.

Mrs Furlong went on to explain that she had convened an emergency meeting of the emergency committe and she was then asked for the minutes of the meeting. It was at this point that it was disclosed that in fact the meeting had taken place by phone between five members of the committee. All five of these members were standing for re-election. Unfortunately Mrs Furlong was unable to remember what date this emergency meeting by phone had taken place.

Mr Buckley explained that under legal advice he was advising the meeting that the election was actually illegal and that there needed to be a new election called as soon as possible. Mrs Sheila Tracy then also read her legal advice to the meeting which confirmed what Liam Buckley's solicitor had advised.

The problem arose when the closing date of Tuesday the 22nd November was extended to the Friday to accomodate a postal strike, which many were unsure actually occurred during the voting period, without notification.

As Mr Buckley pointed out "it is about correct procedure - the whole Leinster Region has made a mistake and it has to be done again". Liam explained that in the interest of transparency the Leinster Region must rerun the election without blame being apportioned to anyone and that there were no accusations being made of foul play - a simple mistake had been made and it must be righted!

Kathryn Fitzgibbon then made an impassioned plea to Patricia Furlong, explaining that the committee could not simply do as they wanted to do - that they had to follow correct procedures and if a date is stated then it must remain and if it is to be changed then all members must be notified. "It has to be seen to be fair" stated Mrs Fitzgibbon who then asked Mrs Furlong the direct question "Did anyone make any attempt to contact any members?" Mrs Furlong answered "no" to which Mrs Fitzgibbon asked "why" to which Mrs Furlong replied "because we made a decision"!

Capt David O'Brien said to the meeting that "it appears to have been an oversight but it was obviously a mistake" and asked that perhaps a suggestion would be that all votes which came in after the 22nd November be cancelled.

Much discussion followed this suggestion with Dermot Forde saying that "what was done was done for whatever reasons but technically and legally it was wrong" and he then agreed with David O'Brien's suggesting of simply cancelling the late votes.

Frank Glynn tried to break through the anger which was rising in the room and calmly suggested that there were two options and they were to either go with David O'Brien's suggestion of cancelling late votes or to declare the election null and void and ask for a new vote "for the good of the Leinster Region" and this was received with a round of applause from the majority of the room.

Patricia Furlong stated that she would refer the matter to legal people and this was greeted with much disagreement - the correct procedure had not been followed and therefore the vote was null and void seemed to be the general consensus.

Frank Glynn then went out to point out that "anyone can go to the press and they can put a spin on this which will destroy the sport in two seconds".

Editors note: At this point I would like to point out that there were several members of the press at the meeting who are all members of the SJAI Leinster Region and none of us wish to see the sport destroyed - there is to be no "spin" put on the reporting of the meeting by this publication.

It was then suggested that a vote be taken on the two options although Mr Buckley continued to explain that there was no vote needed as the election was deemed illegal while Mrs Furlong continued to insist that the late votes be discounted and that would make it all ok.

Siobhan Dunn then stated that "enough is enough - showjumping has had enough bad press and we must have a new election called". Captain David O'Brien, after hearing all the arguements, retracted his suggestion of discounting late votes and Mrs Furlong wanted to then close the meeting to allow time to seek further legal advice. This suggestion was not accepted and Brian Gormley proposed a motion that "the election result stand" and this was seconded by Edward Fagan.

Frank Glynn then put forward a motion that the election be null and void and his motion was seconded by Kathryn Fitzgibbon. Christy Murphy asked "is there no sense of fair play in this association?" to which Patricia Furlong replied "and your point is?"

By now the meeting participants were getting hot under the collar and the mood was not a pleasant one - 19 year old Law student, Sarah Jayne Tracy stood and quietly stated "for the good of the sport we need transparency and that means we need to call the election null and void" and Brian Gormley's response was that "result as declared by the auditor stand".

It was at this point that the question was asked whether everyone in the room was a member - Dermot Forde brought welcome relief when he said "surely anyone masochistic enough to be here would be a member" which brought a laugh but the room collapsed with laughter when the quietly spoken Nick Fitzgibbon stated that he was not a member and was there as the "meetings masochist"!

It was decided that the meeting would vote on the issue despite Liam Buckley explaining that it was asking the meeting to vote on something which was illegal.

The vote was taken by a show of hands which were counted by Captain David O'Brien and Cmdt Gerry Flynn and it was 24 for and 18 against - the election was thus declared null and void by the meeting and it was agreed that a new election would be called.

It was also decided that the secretary Marion Murphy be given a €1,000 to cover time and costs involved in rerunning the election - a decision which was fully approved by all at the meeting.

Patricia Furlong was still not happy with the decision and wanted to close the meeting at this point but all present wanted the meeting to continue and it did.

This discussion concluded at 10.25pm and there was still a great deal of business to be got through.

Editors note: We will continue with coverage of the other items discussed but this stage I would like to say that the decision to rerun the election is a very positive move for the Leinster Region. Nobody is suggesting that the extension was done for any sinister reasons - it was quite obviously a mistake made which needed to be corrected in the interests of transparency within the sport - things must be seen to be done correctly for the membership and the general public to have any faith at all in the SJAI and the Leinster region have taken a huge step for the future good of the sport and they must be applauded for this decision.

The past year has seen acusations of underhanded behaviour and unsportsmanlike behaviour and this move is surely going to go a long way towards restoring some faith in the keepers of our sport.

Now it must be hoped that many members who perhaps have not voted first time around because they felt there was no point will vote this time and that they will turn up in huge numbers to the AGM which will be held to announce the new committee for the Leinster Region - please do not be apathetic about the sport or disheartened - the people's voice has been heard and now you must continue to speak!

Please check in regularly over the coming days for further reporting of the issues covered at the Leinster Region AGM.