The GAA’s National Congress was held in Mullingar last weekend. Judging from the reports that that were on the papers, it seems to have been a good congress.

The only complaint I have is that it is difficult to find out what happened to all 49 motions on the agenda. Monday’s papers only gave information on 14 of the motions.

There were 49 motions on the agenda. The final one was submitted by Youghal, the home club of the president of the GAA, Christy Cooney. It was a technical motion aimed at giving guidance on role of a club’s cultural officer, “…we propose the following change: “Officer for Irish Language and Culture with a proficiency in Irish, as far as possible. Eochaill.”) Its fate was never reported.

Christy Cooney President of the GAA

Apart from this communication glitch, the congress seems to have been progressive. The election Liam O’Neill as the President-elect of the GAA is interesting. The last three presidents have come from Kerry, Kilkenny and Cork. These three counties are arguably the three strongest in the organisation. It is going to be intriguing to see what perspective a president from ‘middle tier’ county like Laois will bring to the role.

The only worry for the GAA about Liam O’Neill’s election is that he is the first man to be elected unopposed to the position of president since Maurice Davin in Thurles in 1884. The fact that he was unopposed could be interpreted as a universal nod of approval. It also suggests however, that nobody considered it worth their while to oppose him and that nobody is interested in taking over from him in 2015.

Liam O’Neill stood for election in 2008 and although he lost out to Christy Cooney, he did enough to ensure he would be elected in 2011. Why are there no prospective candidates for the 2014 election at this point? Does this apparent lack of enthusiasm to be the president in 2015 tell us anything of what the inner sanctum know about the medium term future of the GAA?

The keynote addresses of President Christy Cooney and Director General, Páraic Duffy, were noteworthy too.  Their contributions hinted of Robert Kennedy’s “Some people see things as they are and ask, why? I dream of things that never were and ask, why not?”

Christy Cooney’s idea for the reconstitution of the provinces (presumably with the intention of ending up with four provinces of eight counties) is both a novel and progressive idea. In football at least, it would make for a standard format for all the provincial and All-Ireland competitions. Trying to make the format work in hurling however would prove more difficult.

If you take a look at a map of the counties of Ireland, you will see that it is not too difficult from a geography point of view to align some counties with other provinces. Clare could be moved into Connaught, which would give the western province six teams. To bring Connaught to a total of eight counties the moving of Longford and Fermanagh look out of place either. Of course that’s on the map, telling a Fermanagh supporter that after 125 years of trying to win an Ulster senior football title, they are to be moved to Connaught, might smack of a famous Cromwellian quote.

Equally, if Clare were to be moved into Connaught, then Munster would be reduced to five counties. The geographic answer to this would be to add Wexford, Kilkenny and Carlow to Munster. Again, this won’t be a problem in football, but it would destroy any hope of a provincial balance in hurling.

But just because it is going to be tough doesn’t mean that new boundaries shouldn’t be examined and talked about. The concept surely has as much, if not more merit than the current cry for a 12-team division 1 of the national hurling league.

It is too early to say that any changes will emerge from this talk of “things that never were”. It will probably be well into the presidency of Liam O’Neill before any concrete proposals will emerge – if they emerge at all. Nevertheless, the congress of 2011 may in time be known as the first congress for several decades when talk of planning for the future moved from the concept of bricks and mortar for fields and clubhouses, to the development of playing structures and participation.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the removal of Rule 27, or “the Ban” which prohibited members from playing soccer, rugby and other foreign games. It was feared back in 1971 that this would be the end of the GAA. We know now that it strengthened the organisation, not weakened it. Perhaps re-shaping the provinces would have the same effect.

Whatever the future holds, one thing is certain, and that is things cannot, and will not, stay the same for the GAA. Moving with the times is part of the organisation’s history. As Robert Kennedy’s brother President John F Kennedy once said, “History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.” Both the Kennedy brothers unfortunately found out to their cost, that facilitating this process can be a thankless job.

It is unlikely that a president of the GAA will ever suffer the same fate as the Kennedys. At the same time, when you thing about the decisions the GAA have to make, it becomes a little easier to understand why there are not obvious candidates for President of the GAA in 2015.

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