A chairde,

Fearaim fáilte mhór roimh gach éinne chuig Óráid an Uachtaráin ag Comhdháil 2022. An bhliain seo caite, mar Uachtarán tofa, thug mé óráid neamhghnách, nuair a bhí mé ar mo chonlán féin ag labhairt libh ó chian. Is cúis mhór áthais dom go bhfuilimid le chéile inniu, gan a bheith ag féachaint ar a chéile ar Teams. Tá sé i bhfad nios fearr mar seo!

Ladies and gentlemen, let me open my remarks by paying tribute to you and thanking you for the way in which you managed CLG in the last twelve months. I am not talking about the wonderful community response to the pandemic which we saw from GAA clubs around the world, I am talking about our bread and butter, our games, and the way in which you managed them through the course of a very difficult year. You were absolutely magnificent. There is no other word for it. Every county championship was completed, every competition was run off effectively. While we lost a few games to the pandemic, in the overall scheme of the number of games that were played the numbers lost were few and far between. We were always going to be able to run off the inter-county championships, that, in comparison to the club championships, are relatively easy to manage, but you really showed how effective you are as administrators when all of the county competitions were run off in an appropriate time frame. Congratulations, well done, and our gratitude to each and every one of you.

Let me also pay tribute to my predecessor, John Horan. Unlike 2021 when there was light at the end of the tunnel in terms of games coming back, and spectators coming back to grounds, for the last year of his Presidency John was faced with a grim scenario of cancelling games. It was totally unknown territory for a President. Even at Congress last year, which as you know was conducted remotely, he did not get, what might be termed an appropriate send off. Yes, he got a remote round of applause but that was inadequate given the brave leadership he showed through a very difficult 2020 in particular. Ladies and Gentlemen, I would ask you to give Iar-Uachtarán John Horan a standing ovation for his leadership as Uachtatrán of CLG. Go raibh míle maith agat, John.

Not withstanding the return of games and spectators, 2021 was a very difficult year for the Association. Yes, we managed it prudently and did well on a number of fronts, but it is not a year, that as an institution or as a society, we want to experience again. The two best days of the year were the two days that our children were allowed back into our clubs in the North and in the South. This brought a vibrancy back to the clubs, it brought life back to our organisation and was such a joy for the children. It was equally as important for parents because it was such a relief that their children were out playing and enjoying themselves again. I travelled to a number of local clubs and the huge number of children in each was a testament not only to the relief of having children out and about, but to the importance of Gaelic games in the community and the joy that they bring.

Let me pay tribute to the work of Shay Bannon, Feargal McGill and the members of the Covid Advisory Group for the immense work that they did in guiding us through the harrowing pandemic. Part and parcel of that guidance was the creation of a return to play app which processed over 25 million return to play submissions. On one Saturday morning last September we were processing 8 forms every second. That is a phenomenal piece of work, and all credit to Shay, Feargal and the committee, but also to the Tomás Meehan and the people who developed Foireann.

Last year when I addressed Congress I spoke of recalibration and restart. That recalibration started with the onset of a club season and a county season. Last year it was somewhat truncated due to various restrictions, but I am delighted to see that we will have our first real club season and county season this year. The reduction of the length of the inter-county season from 37 weeks in 2017 to 26 weeks in 2022 is to be welcomed because it gives clubs the time and the space in the calendar which they deserve. It also gives inter-county players the opportunity to play in a very meaningful way with their clubs. There is a lot of work involved in realigning competitions, but I don’t doubt that once the club season becomes established it will be a more enjoyable season for all. It is the responsibility of our CCCC’s, our Fixture Analysts, and our County Committees to ensure that our club players at all ages are well served by a progressive games programme. If that means reaching outside your own county or creating new and unique competitions, I encourage you to do so. One might look at the South Ulster Junior Development Hurling League as a model which ticks a lot of boxes in terms of being creative and non-traditional and gives hurlers from several counties the opportunity to play at an appropriate level.

I am delighted that we have passed a new structure for our intercounty competitions beginning next year. The structure will give more games to more counties at an appropriate level and at an appropriate time of the year. While there may be some teething problems, as there is with any new venture, we will work through those problems and adjust accordingly. The format is an exciting one and I look forward to great games and the opportunity for counties who may not have been successful for a while to develop and evolve and compete consistently.

Those changes will come onto effect next year, 2023, but this year we will have a very exciting season as well. The initiation of the Tailteann Cup will be a tremendous addition to the calendar and the an? opportunity for developing counties to compete and progress at an appropriate level is something very much to savour.

The inter-county season will be followed then by a club season, and one hopes that it will be as exciting as last year’s was. Consider that the six All-Ireland Club Championships in 2022, were won by clubs from six different counties, Down, Waterford, Derry, Kildare, Kilkenny and Mayo. Each was a phenomenal achievement, and forgive me if I point to the success of the Steelstown Footballers and Nass Hurlers, in particular, as they are clubs from areas of the country that would not traditionally be associated with success in football and hurling. The spread of clubs is impressive, and hopefully it is a forerunner of having a very diverse range of counties and clubs achieve success this year.

While the championship restructuring is important, and indeed may be the headline from this Congress, I firmly believe that the adoption of a new coaching and games funding model is a more significant development for the association. The Talent Academy Group submitted their report a number of years ago and they indicated a need to address coaching and games funding. When John Tobin and I sat down last year to discuss his involvement as Chair of Games Development that was one of the first items he mentioned. Along with Shane Flanagan he set out to develop a model which was transparent and coherent and took into account various factors which would be of assistance to counties. Drawing on expertise from across the Association they assembled a creative and experienced group, including Aoife Lane, Caoimhe Ní Néill and Páraic McGourty, to develop the model. Consultation with counties, which has resulted in very good debate and some refinements to the model, has taken place over the last few weeks and the model has been endorsed by Ard Chomhairle. Not only does it bring transparency to funding but because it is set in a four-year time frame it allows counties to plan their growth and development strategically.

When allied to the work that Colm Cummins and the Rural and Urban Committee completed a few years, and allied with the data available through Foireann, it means that counties will be able to allocate their coaching and games resources in an extremely effective manner. The rise of data analysis can be seen in this development, which means that the Association will be allocating resources to counties to grow and expand on the basis of data. While data will be at the heart of the model, data is not the only consideration, as there will be a place for local expertise, creativity and experience when allocating resources.

The past year for the most part was one of continuous highlights in terms of games and the return of sport. One of the most depressing days was the day that Kilcormac/Killoughey camogie player Aisling Murphy was murdered. The outpouring of grief, sorrow, and anger which her murder generated was staggering. Tributes were rightfully paid to a wonderful young woman, to her talents as a teacher, as a musician and as a camogie player. How her family handled the tragedy is a great credit to them. How the Kilcormac/Killoughey club responded was exceptional.

As time passes we should not let the memory of Aisling slip from our minds. And we should not allow what happened to her to occur again. As a society we need to learn lessons from the tragedy and one of those is that we need to improve the circumstances of our daughters, our sisters, and our mothers. We need to show respect for all girls and women, and we need to call out people who do not. In the wake of the tragedy, I received a note from a mother whose son is on an U17 county hurling panel. At the end of training the coach gathered the squad together, mentioned the death of Aisling and asked them to have respect for women and girls. As the mother rightly pointed out, the 37 lads heard the message, but it was passed on to 37 other people who would have been picking the lads up after training. And it was a simple, uncomplicated message, have respect for girls and women. As we approach International Women’s Day on March 8th, I am asking coaches, in every GAA club, to “Take one minute to mention to your team about respecting your female friends. Take a minute to call your buddy out if you don’t think what they are doing is right”.

It is a very simple idea. It is a simple gesture in memory of a wonderful young woman which hopefully will have an impact in creating a more respectful society. As Cathy Hannigan, the mother who wrote to me, suggested, it must start somewhere.

We are facing a deficit of referees and it is an issue that has been building for a couple of years. While the circumstances of referees have improved significantly, they do not get the gratitude that they deserve. It is self-evident that without referees we do not have games. But I suggest that we do not accord them the respect that we should. Much of the lack of respect that is displayed comes from ourselves. How many times have we seen back-room teams ignore the appeals of a fourth official to stay in the seating area? How many times have we seen managers burn the ears of linesmen for a decision, or non-decision, on the field? How many times have we addressed a ref, politely? How many times have we heard an expletive included in a query to a ref? These are all very small items in and of themselves, but they are elements of respect that are important and that set a tone for our games.

We have a very successful respect initiative that you are very familiar with, and it has been rightly lauded for its ambition. But respect is very much in the realm of the individual. We ourselves need to show leadership in respecting our referees, particularly at club and juvenile level. And if we have members of clubs who do not show the appropriate respect then we need to call it out. If we don’t, our problem will be exacerbated, and we will face an ever-diminishing pool of referees, young referees, in particular. If we display respect and tolerance for referees, that will permeate the organisation, and contribute to a better atmosphere around our games for players and officials alike.

Respect begins at an individual level, but it is also applicable at an organisational level. As an institution we need to ensure that decisions made by referees are supported by CCCC’s, and that their actions are well supported if appealed. In that regard the CCCC, the Central Hearings Committee, and the Tyrone County Committee, are to be commended for the way that the cases of the players who were dismissed in a recent league game were handled. The decision of the referee, the work of the CCCC, and that of the Hearings Committee, were ultimately accepted by Tyrone . There were a number of other steps that they might have pursued, but they had respect for the disciplinary process in terms of acceptance and adherence. Many more of us could follow that example, and rather than trying to absolve a player, perhaps on a minor technicality, accept the mantra, as elucidated in GAA terms by the great John Mullane, “if you do the crime, you do the time”. Another small aspect of respect.

In my remarks last year, I referenced Bob Costas and his comments about a corrosive assault on civility. I mentioned that in relation to social media, but it is equally relevant in terms of respect for referees, officials, and the disciplinary process, lack of respect for which can be seen as a small, but corrosive assault on civility.

Let me reiterate a point that I made last year, and again after the All-Ireland football final; stop abusing our players, referees, and officials on social media. Stop the cowardly attacks on people who are volunteering their time and talent for the betterment of society. Stop the unwarranted assaults on people’s characters. Stop the nefarious condemnations of amateur sports people. The abuse that Mayo players were subject to last summer was unacceptable, not only as sportspeople, but as human beings.

The question becomes what can we as an Association do about it? Given that we are at heart a sport organisation, I believe that the protection of amateur athletes and officials, in particular GAA, LGFA and Camogie players, through legislation should be investigated. The legislation would penalise severe, personal, and excessive criticism of amateur athletes and volunteers. A Protection of Volunteers in Amateur Sport Act might be considered by the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media. This could entail the design and implementation of a means to initially identify, and then penalise, people who abuse amateur athletes and volunteer sport officials. One might ask ‘why only amateurs?’ Amateur athletes and officials return to their communities after their games, they are back at work shortly after their games, and, unlike professional athletes, are not the beneficiaries of practiced support when they are the focus of such criticism. The very nature of amateur sport suggests that they are the most vulnerable.

I acknowledge the difficulty in dealing with multinational conglomerates in the identification process, and that there may be a fundamental peril in the danger of restricting speech in a democratic society. But is Irish society at a point where a formal, legislated, deterrent of social media abuse is warranted? Is the amateur player and official, and by extension the amateur ethos of the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association, worth protecting, not completely at the expense of freedom of speech, but in a form that will prevent the continuation of abuse? Could abuse in online forums be treated in the same way that misinformation about political events was? Without knowing the technicalities of the process, it would appear that it is at least worth consideration at a formal level.

In the next few weeks, we will publish our strategic plan for the next five years. It has been an exhaustive process of consultation and debate and I am extremely indebted to the group of people who worked on it over the last 11 months or so. Over 16k people participated and we are grateful to each and every one for their contribution. The plan is based on the vision of the GAA as a “sustainable community-based and volunteer led association where as many as possible, participate in Gaelic Games and Culture for as long as possible”. Within the plan there are a number of priorities one of which is six codes, one association. That is our ambition, and the work towards it is well underway. This work is building on the cooperation that takes place on a day-to-day basis through MOU’s and projects, such as the recently published Coaching and Coach Education in Gaelic Games Report. The assistance provided to the Camogie Association in the area of commercial activity is an example. Conversations have also begun with those involved in amalgamating Irish sport organisations with similar structures to the Camogie Association, the LGFA, and the GAA in particular. Understanding how best to amalgamate the middle tiers of each association will be critical to the process. This process will not be easy; indeed it will be quite difficult in many ways, but we are ambitious to see it happen.

Access to playing facilities in a larger organisation will be a challenge, arguably access to facilities is currently a challenge. Given that we are in this magnificent dome, would it be appropriate that we investigate the possibility of investing in and locating a number of these structures strategically around the country? Think of the benefits to each association. While the cost of new stadiums is considerable, structures such as this are more affordable, and quite affordable if we work in cooperation with public bodies, such as the Department of Sport. Coiste Bainistíochta will consider this possibility in the near future.

Ladies and Gentlemen next week will be a sad occasion on one level, but a joyous occasion on another level, in the GAA, because Kathy Slattery is retiring. Sad for the many thousands of people she has dealt with over the years, sad for those of us who have worked with her, but joyous for Kathy as she moves on to the next phase of her life. To say that she has an encyclopedic knowledge of clubs, club structures, club personalities, and particularly their finances is an understatement. A line from Goldsmith’s Deserted Village comes to mind,

“And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,

That one small head could carry all she (edited) knew”.

She was very much the go to person for club and county funding, and was a great believer and advocate for the National Club Draw which has benefitted so many clubs over the years.

Kathy has a wonderful capacity for getting straight to the point, but it was clear that she was, and is, a very passionate GAA person who always had the good of clubs and the broader GAA at heart.

A chairde, please stand and acknowledge Kathy Slattery for 40 years of dedicated service to the GAA.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very conscious that I am standing between you and lunch, so I’ll finish my remarks by thanking the AS, and the wonderful staff of CLG, for their continued support. I thank the many hundreds of people who made me welcome wherever I represented the Association, and finally I thank you for all that you do for CLG in so many parts of the world. I’ll see you at a match somewhere.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.