Amidst all the excitement of another white knuckle, edge of the seat GAA Annual Congress in Dublin last weekend, you may have missed some of the resolutions passed late on Saturday afternoon. Many are of particular interest to Ulster counties and Northern delegates are particularly pleased to have sneaked some of them through. Some have the backing of the association's top brass. Others have not. For ease of reference, all the motions have been collated in an Out of the North cut-out-and-keep Congress appendix.

1. A sub-committee will be set up immediately to look at the issue of securing a national title, by fair means or foul, for the footballers of Armagh. Over the years, the levels of excitement within the county when the senior side gets within sniffing distance of a National League or All-Ireland have given rise to much concern in wider GAA circles. For anyone who has spent any time among their success-starved supporters, the health risks are all too obvious. None of this has been good for the game or the county. Only silverware can relieve the stress. Dublin take note next Sunday.

2. If that project is successful, a sub-committee of that sub-committee should be established to examine the possibility of gifting a win in an Ulster football championship game to Antrim. It seems unlikely that they will be able to manage it all on their own and the time has come for some radical thinking. Twenty years without a victory is simply too long to wait.

3. To counter mounting suspicions that life is being made too easy for dual-players within the GAA like Derry's Geoffrey McGonigle, Congress has ruled that if they want to represent their county in both codes they should be forced to play one game right after the other. The dual players have been on a cushy number for too long and it is time to call a halt. If it was good enough for Jack Lynch, it should be good enough for them. That should eliminate the "enjoyment" factor these players say they derive from playing football and hurling.

4. There was alarm in Congress at the internal rows that are dividing the Down hurling side. There have now been so many defections from Frank Dawson's team that the county has been given special dispensation to field the 12 players still on the panel in any forthcoming game. Normal service will probably be resumed when they get Antrim in their sights later in the summer.

5. Congress has also noted the recent demise of the Railway Cups and the decline in interest by administrators, players and media alike. The unanimous solution was that the provinces should play each other every weekend on a home and away basis for a full calendar year. That would end all this talk about the competition not being given a high enough priority by the GAA and would be better test of players' commitment than having them drive all the way from Omagh to Killarney and vice versa.

6. Discipline, and in particular the difficulty in defining the tackle in football, are problems that continue to dog the GAA. To alleviate these, a motion was passed to make certain players exempt from tackles of any kind over the duration of a Championship season. This would improve their enjoyment immeasurably and have a positive effect on the aggressive tendencies of some of football's more "boisterous" corner backs. The first three lucky recipients of the beneficence of Congress will be Maurice Fitzgerald, Peter Canavan and Jason Sherlock. We wish them well.

7. It is accepted that video evidence has a part to play in the meting out of GAA justice. But it is not the be-all and end-all and its use should not be uncontrolled. The GAA remains resolutely unconvinced by the age-old premise that the camera never lies. Therefore, in certain controversial situations players will now have the opportunity to stage a real-time reconstruction of the incident in which they were allegedly involved. This will take place not more than three days after the receipt of the referee's report in front of the Games Administration Committee at Croke Park. This will enable officials to get a more life-like view of the matters on which they are deliberating. For logistical reasons, props such as tunnels, car boots and shower rooms will not be allowed.

8. The decision that no suspension should be served during December and January is universally applauded. But there is a feeling that the GAA should go further and add half-day closing in the town in which the player resides and holy days of obligation to the list of days during which suspensions cannot be served. The GAA has been too soft for too long on violence.

9. All weekend Congress was awash with rumours about wages being paid to managers up and down the country, with one report that an Ulster manager had been offered £400 per week by a club particularly badly received. The GAA refuses to accept that payment is happening anywhere. But to allay any lingering doubts, it is sanctioning a National Day of Atonement, on which any manager who has received any payment whatsoever can surrender it anonymously. The proceeds of this amnesty - which the GAA confidently expects to be zero - will be donated to the Croke Park redevelopment fund.

10. The throwaway comments by former president Peter Quinn that the GAA could be in a position to buy-out the developers of a proposed new stadium in west Dublin for a knock-down price of £5 million are not without merit. But why bother to pay for it? Why not put the lessons learnt during the Crossmaglen experience to good effect and simply occupy the ground for our own purposes without forking out a penny of rent or offering any compensation? The GAA has to show it can learn hard lessons from its past and then move forward into the future.

11. The blandness of the food on offer at GAA social occasions has been a festering sore eating away at the association's body politic for many years now. This year, Congress has decided to act. From now on steak and chips, chicken and chips or, in fact, any variation on the chips theme will no longer be acceptable at dinner dances or award ceremonies organised under the auspices of the association. More cosmopolitan dishes - possibly with a New World or American influence to reflect the growing international dimension of the GAA - would be appropriate substitutes.

12. A corollary to the food issue is the unhappiness voiced by those hard-working office bearers who clock up thousands of miles every year travelling to functions over the country. Put starkly, they are dissatisfied with the presentations that are made to them on such occasions. When at all possible, crystal - regardless of its county origin - and bone china should be avoided. But where there is no viable alternative available to the club or county board in question, care should be taken not to have the offending items of china or crystal engraved. This means they can then be passed on as wedding presents.