The frequent sight of many's the portly Catholic cleric - Bishop or Archbishop - making a sprightly hop-step-and-jump in the middle of the field, to avoid a 'shkelp' of a hurley across his ample backside, is among the fonder memories of GAA followers everywhere, recalls An Fear Rua...

In these days of an aggressively post-ecumenical, secular Ireland, younger readers of these Chronicles will probably be astonished to learn that there was a time, for many years, when big hurling and football matches commenced with a throw-in of the ball by a member of the Catholic hierarchy. It is virtually impossible for younger people today to imagine the close, symbiotic ties that once existed between the Catholic Church, the Irish state and the GAA. This, despite the fact, that probably our most coveted trophy - the Sam Maguire - is named after a county Fermanagh Presbyterian!

At the time we are recalling, it was the practice for the relevant Bishop or Archbishop, gold pectoral cross hanging from his neck, to stride to the middle of the field, shake hands with the opposing captains, throw in the sliotar, and then scamper like Billy-O to the safety of the stand, while players pulled and tugged all around him. Some of the more cynical followers of the game will swear there were occasions when some of the rougher players (say, a couple of what the writer Brendan Behan called Daylight Atheists, from places like Dublin or Wexford) weren't too fussed about whether they hit the Bishop or the ball with the first few pucks of the hurley. Indeed, God help the man - Bishop or no Bishop - who got in Ring's way when he was going for the first touch from the throw-in.

The practice at the time was that the Provincial or Central Council officials would actually kiss the cleric's ring and, indeed, even devout players (usually the lads from Cork) would jostle each other to kiss his ring. (Nothing wrong in that, says you, so long as 'twas only his ring they were trying to kiss). Occasionally, you will see grainy, old newsreels showing shots of this arcane ceremony and there is even a shot of the lamented General Secretary, the late Padraig Ó Caoimh, kneeling in the centre of Croke Park kissing a Bishop's ring.

Amazingly, on All Ireland Sunday, it was the practice for many years in Croke Park for the Artane Boys Band to precede the National Anthem with a rendition of the old hymn 'Faith of Our Fathers' (Ah you know the words yourself .... 'Faith of our Fathers living still, in spite of dungeon, fire and sword ....'). This was lustily sung by the assembled multitudes under the mistaken impression that it was an Irish hymn about religious oppression under the hated Penal Laws. In fact, it was written in England in 1849 by a man who had served as an Anglican vicar and rector before converting to Catholicism, Father William Faber and refers to event in England rather than Ireland! But sure no matter. Any Association that bases its premier sports competitions on county boundaries drawn up by the geographers of Queen Elizabeth I of England would have no trouble handling an anomaly like that.

An Fear Rua has long felt that this blindness of the GAA towards Irishmen and Irishwomen of other religious persuasions - and of none - was one of the great weaknesses of 'd'Association', but the position has improved in recent years. A good example was the approach taken by the Association, led admirably by that decent Galwayman, Joe McDonagh, in mourning the victims of the Remembrance Sunday atrocity in Enniskillen and in trying to console the survivors and all the families involved.

Anyway, having moved away from the clerical throw-in and the playing of obscure hymns before hand, the GAA is now planning to go the whole hog and abolish the throw in hurling altogether! Experimentally, this year's National Hurling League will see the referee tossing a coin to decide which side will begin the game with a puck out. High level sources in Croke Park have said the change is being tried because of some 'unseemly incidents' at throw-ins in recent years.Croke Park officials may have to hide behind 'diplomatic' language such as that, but An Fear Rua is free to speak his mind. Decoded, what they are talking about is the fearful lashing across the legs and body given by Clare's Colin Lynch to Waterford's Tony Browne - even before the ball was thrown in - in the Munster Final of 1998. This incident occurred while the referee, Willie Barrett, was at the other end of the field fussing over some obscure problem that no one else in the ground could see. The subsequent public controversy, ably fuelled by the Great Ger Loughnane Himself (all present bow the knee and face Bodyke three times) led to heightened tension at the start of the replay, which spilled over into fighting for a short time. Colin Lynch paid the public price for his offence in a three months suspension, while Tony Browne recovered sufficiently well to go on to deservedly become 'Hurler of the Year' in 1998.

However, the Lynch/Browne incident is very much the exception in the modern game of hurling, especially since the number of players facing the sliotar was reduced to four. Yet, over a single incident - forgotten by almost everyone else - the Central Council is tinkering with the idea of abolishing one of the most distinctive and exciting features of the game. Anyone who has stood at the Killinan end of Semple Stadium on Munster Final day, in the seconds before the ball is thrown in, will have felt the racing of the heart and heard the rising crescendo of voices that signals the start of another memorable game. Instead, we are now sentenced to having a lifeless, flat start to the game - a puck out from one of the goals.

The throw-in, the sideline 'cut', the solo run, the doubling on the ball in the air ... these are all the distinctive individual features that make up the greatest field game in the world. Remove even one of them, and the whole edifice is put in danger. It is quite simply astonishing, nay unacceptable, that GAA legislators would tinker with one of these, even on an experimental basis. If this goes on, the very people charged with cherishing hurling will destroy it. It makes you wonder who they talk to or whether they are in touch at all with the feelings of ordinary fans. In passing, An Fear Rua notes that all of the celebrated 'foreign' games - rugby, soccer, hockey, Australian rules and American football - all are begun in the middle of the field, and surely they can't all be wrong? The simple reason for that approach, of course, is that this is the fairest way of starting a field game.

If people are worried about 'unseemly incidents' at GAA matches, there is a simple solution - better referees and better refereeing. That means more and better training for referees and for them to be more assertive and more vigilant before, during and after throw-ins. It can't be a coincidence that the most infamous 'unseemly incident' of modern times occurred when the referee's eye, literally, was off the ball.

So, while he is quite happy not to see the clerics making a re-appearance in the centre of the field, An Fear Rua is adamant that the hurling throw-in is a core skill of the game and must be preserved for posterity.

Otherwise, the GAA is in grave danger of throwing out the baby with the throw-in...