Change aplenty in Clare GAA as Kieran Keating voted new chairman

Keating won the race by 115 to 74 votes and immediately pointed to the implementation of Clare GAA’s five-year strategic plan as his chief objective for 2022

Cusack Park in Ennis, Clare. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

The winds of change whistled through Tuesday night’s Clare GAA Convention in Ennis, with a clean sweep of chairman, vice-chairman, and treasurer.

On the back of the recent ratification of Clare GAA’s five-year strategic plan, Saffron & Blue, there were significant alterations to the top table, with three of the four elections throwing up new officers.

Outgoing vice-chairman and member of the Strategic Plan Group Kieran Keating (Naomh Eoin) was elected to the chair, edging out the incumbent, Jack Chaplin (Cratloe) who only served for 12 months. The Naomh Eoin clubman won the race by 115 to 74 votes and immediately pointed to the implementation of the strategic plan as his chief objective for 2022.

“The strategic plan is the priority, it has 241 action points, more than half of which are indicated to be implemented in 2022 so my would be to see how many of those can we tick off as soon as possible. That’s going to require clubs and volunteers to step up and get involved because we’re all happy to be involved when Clare are in Croke Park but if we want that to happen in the years ahead, we’ve got to get involved in the groundwork required in 2022 to achieve that.”

The vacant vice-chairman position was assumed by outgoing PRO Michael O’Connor (Crusheen) who held off Paddy Smyth (Éire Óg) by 94 to 82 while the contest for Vice-Treasurer was retained by Tony Brohan (Éire Óg) at the expense of challengers Niamh Madigan (Kilrush Shamrocks) by a two-thirds majority.

A fourth officer election was avoided however when outgoing treasurer Michael Gallagher stepped down from the role as a point of principle after recent online criticism surrounding the alleged refusal of Clare Football Supporters Club from selling car raffle tickets at Cusack Park in Ennis in early November.

Doonbeg clubman Gallagher explained that the decision was a collective one amongst five people and their reasoning was that supporters did not have to put their hands in their pockets four times entering Cusack Park (entrance fee, program and a flag day for the Banner GAA Club being the other three).

Despite reporting a €700,000 positive financial turnaround in the past 12 months, Gallagher refused to stand for a fifth year as treasurer but instead offered full support and assistance to the remaining candidate, Kilmurry Ibrickane’s Rebecca Sexton, who automatically became Clare GAA’s first female treasurer.

Online abuse of officers along with allegations of board delegate silencing were other discussion points on a night when the clubs of Clare voted clearly for a new departure. That starts next Tuesday with chairman Keating proposing the first county board meeting of the new administration to appoint remaining county managements and deal with the unresolved County Senior Hurling Championship relegation issue.