Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
President as happy as Larry..
NEW YORK’S Larry Mccarthy has sprung a surprise by being elected the 40th GAA president.
The Cork native held off clear favourite for the role, former Armagh footballer Jarlath Burns, on the fourth count at GAA Congress at Croke Park and will succeed current president John Horan in 12 months’ time.
A lecturer at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, Mccarthy will move back to Ireland for the duration of his presidency having been resident in the US since 1985. He becomes the first overseas candidate to be elected to the office, seeing off Burns, Jerry O’sullivan (Cork), Mick Rock (Roscommon) and Jim Bolger (Carlow).
Paying tribute to his four fellow candidates,
Mccarthy commented: “We crossed paths with each other up and down the country and around the world. It was a hard-fought contest, as it should be for uachtarain Cumann Luthchleas Gael.”
Burns said: “It’s a momentous day that we have finally acknowledged and recognised a very vibrant association outside of our country.”
The result will be difficult to swallow all the same for the ex-orchard skipper, who was bidding to become the first president from the Six Counties since Fermanagh’s Peter Quinn held office from 1991-94, and was fancied from a long way out.
Meanwhile, six of this year’s 63 Congress motions were debated, with a significant change in the offing for Gaelic football after a proposal not to allow players to pass the ball back to a goalkeeper after a kickout was narrowly passed.
It will come into effect in this year’s Championship, though a motion to dispense with the maor foirne, or team runner, failed by 1% to reach the 60% required.
Elsewhere, the sideline official has been given the power to draw foul play to the referee’s attention.