Ulster emphasis for GAA conference

TODAY SEES the start of a major GAA history conference in Armagh. Running until tomorrow “For Community, Club, County and Country” will be launched this afternoon by President Mary McAleese. Although part of the association’s 125th anniversary celebrations, the conference is largely the brainchild of the Cardinal Ó Fiaich Library and Archive in Armagh where the two days of talks take place.

“Actually the idea arose organically from the library,” according to historian Donal McAnallen, who is the library’s assistant education officer and the brother of the late Tyrone captain Cormac. “This has been in planning for about 18 months and the idea of tying it in with the 125th anniversary came about when the Ulster Council weighed in behind it and we’re grateful to Danny Murphy (Ulster secretary) who has a particular interest in the history of the association as well as the Heritage Lottery Fund, which supported the conference.”

McAnallen is well acquainted with many of the speakers from meeting them at other conferences down the years. “The idea was to provide a mix of the academic and the popular. Some would have a specifically academic interest in the topics they address whereas others are more recognisable GAA names. It was also seen as a national conference but with Ulster emphasis.”

This is noticeable in the closing sessions, tomorrow afternoon when well-known GAA figures from the province, such as former president Peter Quinn, former Derry player Jim McKeever (the first person to provide live television commentary on Gaelic games) and former Senator and Down county secretary Maurice Hayes will all speak to the general theme of “Reflections on the Ulster GAA Revolution”.

Mickey Harte, the manager of the All-Ireland champions Tyrone, will deliver the closing address.

“We wanted to involve people with obvious GAA credentials,” says McAnallen, “but more than that we tried to get people who also had a wide experience outside the association and who had played a multiplicity of roles and could analyse general trends, not just provide personal accounts.”

The opening address on each of the days will be provided by President McAleese this afternoon and tomorrow by Cardinal Seán Brady, speaking on “Catholicism and the GAA – a personal perspective”.

The conference will also feature six sessions of papers by a range of academics on subjects as diverse as the origins of Gaelic games and the GAA, the GAA and national political questions and the role of the media in popularising Gaelic games. Prof Alan Bairner of Loughborough University will round off these sessions with a paper about the GAA in modern global sporting context.

The event will also mark the opening of the first part (1884-1959) of an Ulster GAA history exhibition in the Ó Fiaich Library.

- There may be some tickets available for tomorrow’s programme. Further information can be obtained up until lunchtime today from the offices of the Ulster Council (telephone from the North 028 3752 1900 or the Republic 048 3752 1900).