Behind new GAA president is a gale of goodwill. In front of him, some stiff headwinds

Jarlath Burns has been a regular presence in and around GAA HQ these past few months, determined to hit the ground running.

UACHTARAN TOFA: Newly elected GAA president Jarlath Burns congratulated on his election by sons Jarlath Og Burns and Conall. Pic: Morgan Treacy, Inpho

A REGULAR at Congress since the early 2000s soon after his retirement from inter-county football, it may seem strange to suggest Jarlath Burns is scarcely a conventional GAA president-elect.

He has served on a selection of national committees from playing rules to match presentation to leading the 125th anniversary celebrations to the GAA’s own players’ union.

And yet in becoming the 41st president of the GAA in Newry on Saturday, the 56-year-old has gone about it a different way. As the first from the north to wear the uachtarán’s badge since Peter Quinn 30 years ago, perhaps he had to but while he served as Armagh’s Central and Ulster Council delegate he was never chairman of his county nor his province.

That is unusual, dare say unprecedented. Coming from a board outside the country, Larry McCarthy’s selection in 2020 was unique but he had served as New York chairman. Both John Horan and Aogán Farrell never led Dublin or Cavan but did chair their provinces.

It’s not that Burns doesn’t know the inner workings of GAA administration or earned his spurs. He most certainly has and does. But it’s that element of freshness that has contributed to the considerable expectation surrounding him as he takes up office.

No president-elect has enjoyed a media profile like the Silverbridge man. The first former inter-county player to take up the office since Nickey Brennan (2006-09), he has remained in the spotlight as a polished pundit with TG4 and previous to that with the BBC.

Burns will undoubtedly call on the wisdom of former GAA director general Páraic Duffy, a close friend. Carrying on where Duffy left off in readdressing the amateur status is a stated aim of his. On one hand, he has said he is looking to enshrine it. On the other, he has spoken about paying managers in a structured way. That nettle was one Duffy wanted the GAA to grasp 12 years ago but they declined.

The father of Armagh footballer Jarly Óg and father-in-law of Wexford hurler Diarmuid O’Keeffe, Burns will have an acute appreciation of just what’s expected of and from the modern inter-county player. Nevertheless, the mounting costs of team expenditure is one he will be keen to tackle and the relationship with the Gaelic Players Association could be testing.

His expected appointment of Jim Gavin as chairman of a new football review committee is a welcome one and illustrates just how important Burns is taking the need to improve a game that is ailing despite some protestations.

Not being from a hurling stronghold, he will be mindful of putting strong people in that area particularly development. Giving a new director of hurling “teeth” as Sambo McNaughton called for will be essential, although reviving the “Team Ulster” idea would be an insult to Antrim and should be parked.

The end of Tom Ryan’s current contract as director general is also set to fall during Burns’ presidency and he will have a say in that as former presidents Farrell and Horan had in Ryan’s appointment.

Integration and infrastructure will occupy a lot of Burns’ thinking too seeing as how a deadline has now been set for the former and there are several counties itching to get going on redeveloping stadiums and establishing centres of excellence.

As it is in his own constituency, the long-awaited redevelopment of Casement Park will be of acute interest to him as much as it is certain to be his successor that will open it. A poll on a United Ireland, which he too supports, is also unlikely to happen in the lifetime of his presidency but politics will never be far away from him largely because of his origin.

Speaking to journalists casually at the integration launch earlier this week, Burns revealed he is commuting to Croke Park by train and bike. Getting on at Newry, stopping at Connolly Station and then cycling a rental the five minutes to Jones Road. He joked that he has to remind himself to bypass St Paul’s High School in Bessbrook where he has been principal since 2013.

He has been a regular presence in and around GAA HQ these past few months, determined to hit the ground running. Behind him is a gale of goodwill, in front of him some stuff headwinds.