Congress comes but once a year and when it does, it brings good cheer. Really? Perhaps in days gone by, this was the case. Nowadays, it is perhaps less colourful and more serious, but it has evolved and changed for the better.

The three strands of Darren Hughes’ life come together to sustain the Monaghan midfielder; football, family, and farming as he shares a day in a way of life that is rapidly diminishing in rural Ireland.

This is the principal’s office but not as you know it or him.

Aogán Ó Fearghail last night became the first Cavan man to be voted in as GAA president, highlighting fixtures, finance, facilities and families will be the focus when he takes office in 12 months’ time.

Aogan Farrell has been appointed as the 38th President of the GAA at Croke Park this evening.

The contest for the GAA Presidency will be a three-cornered affair between former provincial chairmen, Sean Walsh (Kerry), Aogán Ó Feargáil (Cavan) and Sheamus Howlin (Wexford).

Heaven. He’s in heaven.

NIALL McNAMEE has not been named in the Offaly squad for next month’s Bord na Móna O’Byrne Cup but is expected to return to county colours during the Allianz Football League.

Decisions made this weekend could help define Christy Cooney’s term as GAA President. John Fogarty reports

The GAA will today formalise Liam O’Neill’s election as GAA president after all other candidates pulled out for the first time in the modern era, Jim O’Sullivan looks into how it happened.

NICKEY BRENNAN can still remember the feeling of walking into the unknown that accompanied the GAA’s first faltering steps into the digital age when they launched the association’s official website back in April of 1999.

GAA chiefs may attempt to control payments to club and county managers within the Association’s rules if they cannot eradicate the practice outright.

CHRISTY COONEY may gain some reassurance from the knowledge that only once in the last ten elections has the runner-up the previous time not been chosen President of the GAA and he remains favourite to edge out Liam O’Neill and Sean Fogarty in this afternoon’s vote at Congress in Sligo.

ONE OF the stock claims each passing summer is that the provincial championships don’t matter as much any more.

NICKEY BRENNAN has made it clear to the GPA that the Central Council has not endorsed the concept of Government grants for players and that he personally believes that ‘pay-for-play’ is the ultimate aim of the GPA.

DUBLIN will discover today if one of their football selectors is mentioned in the referee’s match report on their ill-tempered O’Byrne Cup game with Wexford.

THE rule governing the use of video evidence, under which Tyrone defender Ryan McMenamin won an 11th-hour reprieve to play in tomorrow’s All-Ireland football quarter-final, needs to be amended, said GAA president Sean Kelly yesterday.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN’S Sports Council grant has been reinstated but the International Carding Scheme Appeals Committee have virtually retired a whole generation of Irish athletics by refusing their appeals, according to a leading athletics figure.

GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell is hopeful his organisation can soon achieve formal recognition from the GAA.

CHRISTY COONEY is set to become the next president of the GAA, and the campaign to alter Rule 42 looks likely to be successful.

THE meeting of the GAA’s Motions Committee in Dublin tonight to adjudicate on re-submitted motions will determine whether the issue of opening up Croke Park to rugby and soccer is dead in the water — or will be a live issue at Congress in April.

GPA Chief Executive Dessie Farrell is confident that his organisation will gain representation on the Central Council despite their continued poor relationship with the GAA.

TWO years after the Government reneged on part of its promised grant aid for the Croke Park redevelopment, the GAA have obtained a cast-iron guarantee that they will receive €40 million over the next two years.

GAELIC football is in danger of becoming a bastardised version of basketball and needs an urgent and radical overhaul, according to former Kerry great Donie O’Sullivan.

RELATIONS between the GAA and GPA continue to worsen following a new sponsorship drinks deal.

LIMITING county panels to 24 (from next year) will only provide the GPA with “a stick to beat the GAA with,” warned Kilkenny Chairman Ned Quinn at the GAA Congress in the Great Southern Hotel.

FORMER Munster Council chairman Noel Walsh last night directed a stinging criticism at the vetting committee which ruled all eight motions relating to Croke Park out of order.

MICK O’DWYER will have a little longer to find out if he will realise his ambition of managing the Irish team in the next International Rules Series against Australia.

The GAA’s season of Sundays turned into a closed season of sackings and resignations. How comethe manager giving seven days a week for nothing ends up with the same amount of thanks, asks Mark Gallagher.

WHEN Kerry and Tyrone last met in a championship game, the world was a different place.

KILKENNY’S dominance of the Guinness Leinster SHC championship should not be used as a reason to question the existing provincial format according to GAA President Sean Kelly.

GAA PRESIDENT Seán Kelly believes the high-powered Games Administration Committee should be split into two separate entities, separating responsibility for discipline and fixtures.

GAA PRESIDENT Seán Kelly has yet to finalise the matter of player representation at official level at Croke Park, pointing out yesterday that he hoped to be in a position to do so shortly. Mr Kelly was speaking after the publication of the membership of the various national committees he has established following intensive research over the winter months.

SEÁN KELLY remains to be convinced that GPA members will refuse to have an involvement in the Players Committee he plans to establish through a ballot of inter-county panelists.

THE simmering row between Dublin GAA and the Leinster Council has escalated on the eve of today’s Congress in Belfast.

THE qualifier series in both the football and hurling championships may not be quite the money-spinner for the GAA that the figure of €2.6m in gate receipts last year would indicate.

THE GAA is often touted as a most democratic organisation.

THE GAA will not present the Amateur Status recommendations for approval at this afternoon’s Central Council meeting. The meeting will be held in-camera.

GOVERNMENT funding, which accounted for almost a third of the overall expenditure was crucial in expediting the €225m redevelopment of Croke Park, outgoing President Sean McCague admitted yesterday.