Seán Moran reports from the Burlington Hotel in Dublin

Seán Kelly swept to victory in Saturday's presidential election to become the first Kerryman - he is from Kilcummin, near Killarney - to hold the office. Although he had been a clear favourite, few foresaw the scale of his success. He received 195 votes out of a total valid poll of 324, outstripping the quota of 163 and leaving his nearest challenger, Kildare's Seamus Aldridge, trailing behind on 52.

To receive 127 per cent of a quota from a small electorate in a four-horse race is a staggering achievement.

The final figures were: Kelly 195, Aldridge 52, Albert Fallon (Longford) 44 and PJ McGrath (Mayo) 33.

Kelly's acceptance speech was mainly a low-key, humorous performance, but it contained three elements of note. In thanking the Ulster delegates (whose support he clearly received almost unanimously), he declared himself a nationalist and looked forward "to the day when Ireland would be a 32-county republic, a nation again united and free. Let the green field be part of one."

Such rhetoric hasn't been heard from a GAA president for some time. And there is reason to believe that it won't be heard again for a while. It was certainly unusual for a former Fine Gael local election candidate, as Kelly was in 1991, although he is no longer active in party politics. But sources close to the president-elect indicated that the remarks wouldn't set a tone for the presidency.

Questioned about the matter at a press conference afterwards, Kelly said that he wished to acknowledge "people in the north who had made sacrifices for the GAA".

He went on to strike a note somewhat at odds with the strident drift of his speech. "I'm saying that sport can be a healing bond, particularly at local level."

Elsewhere in his speech he made reference to the current difficulties besetting the Roman Catholic church.

"I want to recognise the role of religious in our association since (Archbishop) Croke. A few bad apples shouldn't diminish the good works of the many. In this hour of need for the church, the association should distinguish between the few bad and the many good."

The most significant part of the speech from a GAA perspective was his statement of political neutrality. At a time when the GAA is perceived as being particularly close to the current Government, Kelly said: "My time in office will be non-political. I have no political affiliation or agenda other than to do the best job I can for the association."

At the press conference that followed his election he was asked about the Strategic Review Committee's (SRC) controversial proposal to divide Dublin into two, north and south - a row that has threatened plans even to discuss the SRC report.

"I wouldn't get into that," said Kelly. "The main focus of the report is to broaden the base in Dublin and get more people playing. The important thing is that Dublin should be a vibrant unit of the association."

He concluded on a humorous note. "A lot has been written in relation to Dublin and the situation being a 'High Noon' or 'OK Corral'. Instead I'd paraphrase 'The Rhinestone Cowboy': 'There'll be a load of compromising on the road to Dublin's horizon'."

The compromising had actually started the previous evening when Dublin County Board chairman John Bailey had outlined the grounds on which he would be willing to withdraw the county's opposition to the SRC report being discussed. Primary among these was the withdrawal of Mayo's motion on Saturday. This was to have adopted the "ideas and concepts" of the report and agreed to the holding of a special congress within two months.

Dublin also sought to have parked the SRC proposals concerning the county in order to facilitate discussion of the many other recommendations contained in the report.

Late on Friday night, the Dublin delegation were confident that they would get their way, as director general Liam Mulvihill had indicated approval for Bailey's proposals in his closing remarks to the opening session of congress.

They were also of the belief that there had been procedural flaws in the Mayo motion. In the event this didn't matter, as Paddy Muldoon withdrew the motion, citing "the spirit of reconciliation spoken about by myself and John Bailey".

The special congress will now be held on the last weekend in October, the 25th-26th. This was proposed by president Seán McCague and unanimously accepted by Saturday evening's Central Council meeting.

Availability of venues has yet to be ascertained, but the congress will be attended by full delegations, as opposed to the smaller representations that sometimes are convened for special congresses.

The Central Council also heard the president issue a stern warning to clubs and units in the US who are advertising to entice players across the Atlantic - to the detriment of club and county teams in Ireland. "We can stop this if we want," said McCague, "by simply refusing to issue sanctions to players who want to play in America." He said that this would happen if the New York and North American boards didn't address the problem.