College honours GAA leader

A FORMER GAA president who spoke at the British houses of parliament at the height of the Troubles has become just the eighth person to be conferred with an honorary fellowship by Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).

Pádraig Ó Fainín, 89, was president of the GAA for three years from 1970 and is Life President of the Waterford County Board and Mount Sion GAA Club.

His presidency coincided with one of the most violent periods of the Northern Troubles, when many GAA members were interned and the British military established bases at places like the Crossmaglen club.

At the WIT conferral ceremony, institute director Professor Kieran Byrne recalled Mr Ó Fáinín’s visits to both Stormont and Westminster. “I know the story is told of how this great Waterford man addressed the assembled media at Westminster with great articulacy. When he concluded, there was a flurry among the press pack as they sought copies of the Ó Fainin script — only to be told there were none as this was a speaker who did not rely on scripted words but spoke from the heart and mind.”

Prof Byrne also spoke of the loyalty shown by Mr Ó Fainin throughout his life. “Pádraig rightly placed primacy on his loyalty to his late wife Maura, their daughter Eileen and sons Phil, Mairtin and Pat. He was also tremendously loyal to Ireland; to the Christian Brothers, who were founded at his beloved Mount Sion, and to the Gaelic Athletic Association which he served with such energy and strength.”

Conferring the honorary fellowship on Mr Ó Fainín, WIT governing body chairman Redmond O’Donoghue said he had “served his club, county, province and country with distinction throughout his sporting life”.

The GAA would not exist as we know it, Mr O’Donoghue said “without the tireless sacrifices of the unsung heroes like Pádraig Ó Fainin who commit untold mental energies, time, intelligence, passion and personal resources” to the association’s well-being.

Mr Ó Fáinín chaired the Waterford County Board during the county’s most successful period on the field of play — the late 1950s and early 1960s — when Waterford’s hurlers won the most recent of their two senior hurling All-Irelands, in 1959.

Accepting the honorary fellowship, Mr Ó Fainín said he was overwhelmed. “I know that this is a singular honour and I recognise it as such. I know that it is an honour given to me because of my association with and work for the GAA.

“So I feel like I am the secondary element in this award.”

He said that WIT enjoyed “a wonderful place” in the field of academia. “In its relatively short experience, it has carved a reputation second to none, and is now on course for recognition as a university.”