THE GAA is booming in Ulster these days and new provincial president Michael Geoghegan intends to spend his three-year term building on that success.
The GAA’s big three - the Sam Maguire, Tailteann Cup and National League Division One trophies - all spent the winter in Ulster while, Armagh won the LGFA Division title and Derry (minor) and Tyrone (U20) also won All-Ireland crowns.
“There’s a lot of great work going on within our coaching and games and that has been seen at all levels over the last year at all grades,” said Geoghegan, who also highlighted the vibrancy of the Scor movement (chaired by Down’s Bronagh Lennon) in Ulster.
“My objective is to build on the success. I want to grow our sporting and cultural heritage, to have good governance and inclusive engagement with all of our clubs.
“We reinvest 85p out of every pound that we earn back into our clubs and communities and I want to help the people who are doing all the work to ensure that we push on – I want to make sure that those people are helped along the way.”
Born in Cavan where his father was a committee member of the Drumlee club, Geoghegan was reared from his early teens in Castleblaney, county Monaghan and is now part of the furniture in his wife’s native Middletown.
His working life began in the Civil Service but he then moved to work for Clare native Pat O’Donnell, a “very GAA-orientated man” who is the long-term sponsor of the Banner County. Originally based in Dublin, Geoghegan then transferred to the company’s base in Portadown and married and settled in Armagh.
“I’ve been there for over 40 years now,” he explains.
He had played underage and minor football with Castleblayney Faughs and resumed his career with Middletown when he settled there but an ankle injury brought his playing days to a premature end.
“The operation didn’t go according to plan and that cut the playing career short,” explained Geoghegan, whose son Niall has played for Armagh at senior level.
“I joined the club committee and got involved in fundraising and I went from the club eventually to county in other fundraising efforts. When Paul Duggan came in as chairperson I got involved in the Armagh County Board as vice-chairman and I was delighted to be part of the process that got Armagh TV up-and-running.
“We started out as ‘Linwoods Armagh TV’. Linwoods is a local company owned by John Woods. John wasn’t that struck on the idea of streaming GAA games at first but then he went to Canada for a food fair and his son Patrick was playing for their club (Madden Raparees) in the intermediate county final.
“John got the lady in the hotel to stream the match on her computer and was able to see his son picking up the cup so, when he came home, he came on board as sponsor and Armagh TV never looked back.
“When I went on to the Ulster Council as PRO, my ambition was to roll out the streaming process to all nine counties because I could see it was a massive opportunity. I guarded that fiercely for the counties because there were outside interests who wanted to come in. I wanted the counties to keep it because it was their product and if there was any financial gain it should go back into the GAA.
“It was rolled out all over Ulster.”
He says he gets “immense pride” from being involved in the GAA and that will come as no surprise to anyone who has dealt with him a club, county, provincial or national level.
“The GAA is one big family,” he says.
“I want to make sure there is a place for everybody and everybody has the opportunity to be a part of what we are.
“One of the biggest joys I’ve had is the Games for All initiative. Brian Armitage was chair of that committee when I joined in 2016 and seeing the participation of young people with disabilities in our games has been great and so important. Ciaran McLaughlin helped that to grow during his time as Ulster President and it’s something that is very important to me going forward.”
