Fogarty Forum: Benny Hurl challenges GAA to face rural depopulation crisis head-on

Benny Hurl warns the GAA must act on demographic imbalances, calling for bold changes to protect rural clubs

Speaking at GAA Congress, Chairperson of the Higher Education GAA Council Benny Hurl. Pic ©INPHO/Leah Scholes

Anybody expecting the second day of Congress to start with a round of backslaps was sorely disappointed when Benny Hurl took to the rostrum.

Hurl is an independent thinker, a man not afraid to say what others chose only to think. At the previous year’s Congress in Newry, he told the GAA that they have done nothing to curb excessive inter-county spending – “We keep shovelling coal into the burners to feed it.”