Ulster GAA chief: ‘League as All-Ireland proposal the worst motion I ever saw on a Congress Clár’

Of the alternative four provincial conferences of eight motion, Brian McAvoy says: “It smacks of Oliver Cromwell and ‘to hell or to Connacht’ and that’s nothing against Connacht.”

The Anglo Celt Cup. Picture: INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Nine years ago, the late Ulster secretary Danny Murphy boiled down the beauty of the provincial championships to one sentence. “At the end of the day, what you need is competitive games that are relatively close to the people who are going to them.”

The final composition of the provinces may be constructs of British rule in the 16th and 17th century — Cavan moved from Connacht to Ulster in 1584 and Louth went the other way to Leinster 11 years later — but for over 100 years the GAA’s subversion of them were an unmitigated success story.