I hope that those lines do not resonate in any insidious or of"cious manner but I have felt a little uncomfortable in the position over the past few months and I feel that the time is right to step aside.

I have gleaned much satisfaction and pleasure from my tenure with everybody concerned. I think that it was Shakespeare who wrote, "Things won are done;

Joy's soul lies in the doing."

I had my mobile phone stolen last Saturday and although I have acquired a new one, I have lost all my numbers and will be in touch in due course.

With all good wishes, Sincerely, Colum HE didn't even have to put his surname to that letter, did Colum Flynn. Nearly everyone else in the soap is known by their second name;

Loughnane, Daly, McDonagh, Hartmann; only Father Harry, as in Bohan, is afforded such first-name status.

For all the esteem he would have been held in in Clare hurling though, the physio's last request fell on deaf ears.

He didn't want his "discrete" resignation to resonate in an insidious manner. Yet when in the history of hurling can you ever remember something quite as insidious as the events of the past week?

A lot of words could be used to describe the phones, cops and two smoking barrels of the past week but ultimately one shines out. Sad.

The whole thing is sad. Oncefriends are now enemies.

Father Harry Bohan and Ger Loughnane are both from the same parish of Feakle. Bohan, as team manager, and Flynn, as team trainer, formed the management team that helped Clare . . . and Loughnane . . . to their first national title in 63 years in 1977. Even up until two years ago, both Bohan and Flynn were considered very close friends.

Loughnane and Daly were to hurling in the late '90s what Ferguson and Keane were to English soccer; now it's virtually impossible to be both.

Three years ago Bohan invited Hartmann to speak at his celebrated Ceifin conference; not only did Hartmann oblige with an impressive speech on the prevalence of drink in society but Paula Radcliffe joined him on stage where she gave a speech that moved both her and members of the audience to tears. This past month Hartmann has refused to talk to the Clare management team without a lawyer present, claiming Bohan misrepresented some initial observations he had made . . .

in confidence . . . about the Clare set up. Every claim is met by a counter-claim; an allegation, by another. One thing can be stated as fact. To cite that famous line from Cool Hand Luke, "What we've got here is failure to communicate."

It's hard to know where to start on this whole saga.

Much of it bizarrely but probably stems from 1977 and 1978 when Bohan, as manager, delivered Clare's first two major titles in over 40 years but in Loughnane's eyes, failed to deliver the two major titles that really counted. But a phone conversation on Friday 9 December last year is as good a place as any to start.

According to Hartmann, who has provided a specialrate service to Clare hurlers at his elite clinic for over 10 years, he received a phone call that afternoon from Harry Bohan wondering could he give a motivational talk to the panel. Bohan was adamant that what they all needed was that extra bit more to win an All Ireland;

only a point had separated them and Cork last year.

Hartmann . . . according to his version of events . . . says he countered by arguing that there was truthfully more than a point between Clare and Cork. He pointed out that he had worked with 49 Olympic medallists, international rugby and tennis players, and in his view there was an awful lot of work to be done if Clare wanted to reach the top.

He then proceeded to offer some recommendations and observations of his, which, he'll stress, he offered in total confidence, based on conversations with Flynn and his own interpretation of comments of some senior Clare players on his table ("Cab drivers know everything's going on in a town; we know things that are going on in a team, " he told the Sunday Tribune last Friday. "What do you think we talk to players about? The weather?") He mentioned that he had just had two Clare players into his practice earlier that week; their core strength was "embarrassingly weak" compared to the Cork hurlers and Kerry footballers he routinely had into his clinic in Limerick. It was no wonder some of them were pulling their groins and hamstrings. Hartmann insists that Bohan suggested to him that he talk to team trainer Johnny Glynn and that he himself was very much on for them to draw up a consistent, more individualised approach, but only in late January after he had returned from his holidays and overseen a hectic twoweek work period upon his return.

Hartmann claims he made other observations in confidence, one being that it was inappropriate for Anthony Daly to indulge in . . . and then publicise in interviews . . . a two-day drinking spree after the defeat to Waterford in 2004. Both management and players claim that was an isolated incident and strongly reject any inference that Daly and the players have excessively socialised together the days after some championship games.

Management and players dispute the validity to which the team management and some key players now dispute. Ultimately though Hartmann felt all he was offering were some observations and tips "in the best interests of Clare hurling where there was an implied consent and a verbal request that it was confidential".

The following Tuesday, Hartmann met up in Ennis with Flynn, whom he sensed from his conversation with Bohan was now being perceived as a peripheral figure in the set up. Flynn told him that he had been for nearly a year and that he was sending a letter of resignation to county secretary Pat Fitzgerald.

Three days later Hartmann sent one to Fitzgerald himself, withdrawing his services to the Clare county board until Flynn's resignation was looked into.

In the two months that followed, Flynn, who first got involved with the Clare seniors as a physical trainer at 22 back in 1965, had only personal contact from a county board officer, Pat Fitzgerald, and one Clare player, Davy Fitzgerald, the father and godfather of his granddaughter; only last week did players find out that he and Hartmann were no longer part of the set up. That's not what irks him and Hartmann though. It's a letter sent to him signed by the team management on 25 January.

"It was, " the letter professed, "with regret that the management team learned of our resignation from the Clare senior hurling team in a letter addressed to the Clare county board. . . The only response we can make is based on a series of conversations that have taken place between Fr Harry Bohan and Gerard Hartmann. With this in mind, we are surprised and disappointed to hear from Gerard Hartmann that you felt that you were not appreciated and that you didn't think you were an integral part of the set up. When this matter was addressed with Ger Hartmann, he informed us the real reason why he resigned was that we were running a seriously unprofessional set up."

A number of points then were addressed, which Hartmann insists were misconstrued, and many of which didn't stem from Flynn but from his own observations and that of players. Neither of them, he says, had claimed as the letter did, that "Johnny Glynn, our physical trainer, is not up to the mark"; Hartmann just felt that some players needed some individualised attention, the kind of which he would offer to the coaches of Kenyan athletes and the likes of Colin Jackson and Kelly Holmes.

Comments that were Hartmann's . . . albeit offered in confidence . . . were been thrown back as being Flynn's. Forget Ger Loughnane, maintains Hartmann; the slight on Colum Flynn's character is the real story of this saga.

Colum Flynn, not Anthony Daly, is the victim in this whole episode.

The letter concluded: "We would like to point out that the players involved in the set up do not accept your observationsf In conclusion we would like to stress that we are shocked and deeply hurt at these allegations about our character and integrity. All three of us worked with you over a long number of years. In fact we're stunned and shocked and would like to meet you and Ger Hartmann to see if the situation could b dealt with as soon as possible."

Hartmann got the letter before Flynn . . . he had been on the cc list . . . and immediately phoned Bohan to lambaste him. He had no intention of going public with the story though. But then along came another sub-plot.

On Friday morning of last week, the Irish Independent ran a story outlining that Ger Loughnane had been omitted in a rather contrived award scheme honouring players of the last 25 years.

The following day Hartmann got a call from another reporter, The Irish Times' Ian O'Riordan, a friend from the athletics community, wondering what "is going down there in Clare?" Hartmann said he didn't know; he was no longer involved in the Clare set up. O'Riordan rightly smelled a story, and over the next 24 hours Colum Flynn and Ger Loughnane were told to be expecting calls from O'Riordan.

You've heard what happened next. That Loughnane hadn't been invited to that award scheme last Saturday night. That Father Bohan received the special merit award for hurling. That Loughnane called the county chairman, his outrageous remarks about the gun were overheard by Michael McDonagh. What you haven't heard is that Flynn received a call from McDonagh that night, wondering would he be talking to this reporter O'Riordan?

The story is surreal and one which it's hard to identify anyone who emerges with credit. Flynn was too closely identified by the new regime with Loughnane, and as Hartmann would admit, probably overstayed his welcome. Both Loughnane and Bohan have done a huge amount for Clare hurling individually but are not close in the way Bohan is to the present Clare team.

Some of Hartmann's observations to Bohan were well off-the-mark. Hartmann claims that in two years as county manager Daly has never once spoken to Hartmann by phone or in person.

In Loughnane and Cyril Lyons' tenures, Hartmann would hear from those managers two or three times last week, whereas in 2004, he left three messages with Daly before one crucial championship game to explain his reservations about a player Hartmann felt wasn't fit enough to play but whom ultimately played. The call, he claims, was not returned. The pair of them did engage in text tennis from half-eleven on Thursday night for an hour and a half but ultimately there was no resolution, to the point Hartmann maintains he will not talk to the management team again unless his solicitor and Bohan is present.

Meanwhile, Clare captain Seanie McMahon has 100 per cent support of the players.

So does Father Harry. Suffice to presume though, one other former Clare manager most certainly does not.

THE CLARE SOAP OPERA: WHERE AND WHEN IT ALL WENT WRONG

9 December Clare selector Fr Harry Bohan and worldrespected physical therapist Ger Hartmann have a conversation by phone, in which the latter outlines concerns and observations he and team physio Colum Flynn hold.

14 December Flynn informs county secretary Pat Fitzgerald by letter of his resignation.

16 December Hartmann informs Fitzgerald by post that his service to the Clare county board is temporarily suspended until Flynn's resignation is determined.

The same letter and Flynn's . . .Hartmann insists . . . are also sent by registered post to team manager Anthony Daly.

25 January The team management issue a strong letter to Flynn expressing their "hurt" from his "serious allegations".

11 February Ger Loughnane is snubbed on the double at an awards scheme at which Bohan is honoured.

12 February Loughnane lambasts county chairman Michael McDonagh by phone. He then receives a mobile phone call from Flynn which is inadvertently overheard by McDonagh.

McDonagh later calls Flynn, wondering about an imminent story by the Irish Times.

14 February Irish Times reveal Flynn and Hartmann are no longer involved with Clare.

15 February Loughnane does a strongly-opinionated followup in his Star column.

16 February McDonagh makes an of"cial complaint to the Gardai about Loughnane's 'hunting' comments.

17 February Loughnane gives an extraordinary 45-minute interview to Clare FM in which he describes old teammates as "big-game chokers" and implicitly criticises Fr Bohan.