The 24th and 25th of February sees the GAA’s 2017 Congress takes place in Croke Park this year.
A number of motions will be put forward on the night but the big announcement will be finding out who will be the associations new President.
Longford’s Martin Skelly is one of the men that has put his name forward for the position and he spoke to John Lynch about what he has done leading up to the election.
The Newtowncashel man has been visiting a number of clubs around the country to give his ideas and plans to improving the association for his time in charge if elected.
“It’s quite eye opening and it’s a very good experience to go and put my view across to tell them who I am and what I’m about”
Martin is a Cashel club man where he started off playing with his local club before turning to coaching and administrative and eventually being elected Coaching and Games Development Officer at County Board Level.
In 2002 Martin was elected County Chairperson and then six years later in 2008 he moved to position of Chairperson of Leinster Council GAA.
He has plenty of experience under his belt but he isn’t the only man going for the position with a number of other candidates with similar experience also in the hat, Robert Frost (Clare), Frank Burke (Galway), Sean Walsh (Kerry) and John Horan (Dublin).
A lot of issues are being put to congress this year and no doubt a lot more issues will be put for over the next coming years. Wheatear it’s rural or urban the President will receive a number of mixed messages and Martin knows that will be a brought of the challenge that will face the next President but he feels the GAA does not have a lot of major problems with it compared to what some people may suggest.
“It’s a tweaking exercise rather than a major over hall”
“The association has been around for over 125 years and has been growing and improving and I think it’s just a wonderful part of Irish life”
Martin shows us how much the GAA means to him and the appreciation he has for the fellow thirty eight presidents that have been there including current Cumann Luthchleas Gael Aogan O’Fearghail by stating it is just adjustments that need to be made rather than massive changes.
With a number of stadiums being redeveloped throughout the country Martin spoke of the importance a stadium plays in the attraction of young kids wanting to play for their county and he spoke about the example regarding the development of Casement Park in Antrim and the stadiums in the rural towns around the country.
“It’s so important that rural provincial towns have these iconic stadia’s in their heart”
