GAA 125 Years History Conference
Details were announced recently of a major conference celebrating 125 years of GAA history, to be held at the Cardinal Ó Fiaich Library & Archive, Armagh, on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 March.
President Mary McAleese and Cardinal Seán Brady will be the keynote speakers at the conference, entitled, ‘For Community, Club, County and Country’, which is organised by the Ó Fiaich Library in partnership with the Ulster Council of the GAA, and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
21 speakers in all will take part in the conference over the two days. The addresses of President McAleese and Cardinal Brady, which open the Friday and Saturday programmes respectively, comprise reflections on their personal involvement with the GAA and perspectives on the association’s position and influence in Irish life, as observed from their offices of leadership.
In a similar vein, the conference will close on Saturday afternoon with talks by four Ulster GAA figures who have done much to shape Gaelic games in the northern province and nationally.
Jim McKeever will recall the progress of northern teams after the Second World War, the introduction of PE teaching into Gaelic games, and their acceptance by bodies such as the BBC and the Youth and Sports Council for NI. Maurice Hayes will reminisce on events such as the famous 1947 decision to hold the All-Ireland final in New York, meeting Michael Cusack’s son at the GAA’s 75th anniversary celebration dinner, and the national breakthroughs by Down teams while he was county secretary in the 1960s.
Peter Quinn will reflect on his periods as Ulster and national GAA president, and the role of Ulster in the recent advance of the GAA. Mickey Harte will bring the chronological narrative up to the present day with an analysis of his lifetime in the GAA in Ulster, and the renewed success of northern teams in the new millennium.
The conference will also feature six sessions of papers by a range of academics on subjects as diverse as the origins of Gaelic games and the GAA, the GAA and national political questions, the Catholic Church’s relationship with the GAA and the role of the media in popularising Gaelic games. Prof. Alan Bairner of Loughborough University will round off these sessions with a paper about the GAA in modern global sporting context.
Places at the conference are limited. Tickets cost £10 for either day, or £15 for the two days combined. To book, patrons should contact Bernie McGlinchey at the Ulster Council, (028) 37521900 or bmcglinchey@ulster.gaa.ie. Further information on the conference speakers and papers can be found at www.ofiaich.ie or www.ulster.gaa.ie.
The event will also mark the opening of the first part (1884-1959) of an Ulster GAA history exhibition in the Ó Fiaich Library. Any queries or offers of donation for the exhibition should be made to Roddy or Dónal at the library at (028) 37522981.
