A day short of detail where the end was announced but not the means.
GAA director general Tom Ryan had warned in his annual report earlier this month that there wouldn’t be much detail about the pathway for integration of the GAA, Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie Association and so it transpired.
At least we know the name won’t be changing: it will be the GAA. And there is a date. Whether achieving amalgamation by 2027 is a pipedream remains to be seen and there is an understanding that it is a most complex process especially for the GAA whose facility occupancy is full as it is. The other Fs, finance and fixtures, glare too.
Nevertheless, if the goodwill expressed by steering committee chairperson Mary McAleese and the three presidents is anything to go by, it might just be possible to make the mandate they have been given a reality.
Camogie Association president Hilda Breslin was absolutely certain there will be one uachtarán covering the three organisations in three years’ time – “I wouldn’t say 2027 is the target. 2027 is when it’s going to happen.”
It is envisaged there will be one Congress encompassing the three strands with a convention for each of the sports (football and hurling together), deputy presidents and possibly one director general.
GAA president Larry McCarthy is due to finish his term at Congress in Newry on Saturday while Breslin steps down in April. There will also be a general election in the next 13 months and support for integration from the Government has to keep that in mind.
While acknowledging costs will make integration difficult, the process will take time and there will be “resistance in pockets” to it, McCarthy maintained: “No, it’s not built on sand. It’s built on the basis that we
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