​By John Harrrington

Newly appointed GAA President, John Horan, sat down with GAA.ie to discuss his hopes and objectives for his three-year Presidency, and the challenges he's likely to face along the way.

Over the course of a wide-ranging interview, he spoke about his plans for putting GAA clubs at the heart of his Presidency by forming a National Club Committee, his intention to tackle creeping elitism in Gaelic Games, the challenge Ireland's urbanisation represents for the GAA, and his desire for more support for Gaelic Games at a Governmental level.

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Q: John, What do you think will be the main challenges you'll face as GAA President?

**A: **I think the GAA, because of the complex nature of the organisation, faces challenges on a number of fronts. People talk about the amateur status, and I think that's key to the continued success of our organisation.

I think we need to look at trying to address that and hold back the tide there that might erode the value that the amateur status is to us as an organisation.

I think we've got to look at our development programmes of young players and see are we getting it right or are we creating elite young lads at far to early a stage in their life. We need to review that and address it.

But I think critical to the whole organisation is the club. I'm putting a committee in place called the National Club Committee and the idea and background to that committee is to engage with the clubs and see how can we make the operation of our clubs easier and how can we make sure there's a strong connect to the club all the way up through the organisation and that we can bring volunteers into the actual clubs to perform their roles without making their tasks onerous.

I think society has changed in the last few years, even in my own profession of teaching. I talked to a principal the other night and he referenced the amount of legislative paperwork landing on their desk. A lot of that is creeping into club as well and making the tasks of being a club officer more difficult.

So we've got to see how can we make that position easier for those people on the ground because they're key. They're the bottom of the pyramid of the this organisation and without that bottom part of the pyramid being strong and secure, then the rest of the pyramid becomes very fragile.

Clubs to me are key to the future.

Q: Are you concerned about creeping elitism and an erosion of the volunteer ethos in the GAA?

A: Yeah, there is an old saying 'don't close the door after the horse is bolted' and I think we have to be conscious about all those issues. I'd have a grave concern about where our development squads and academies are going.

Are we making some of our younger players too elite too early? Are we really servicing them well? Are we losing them? The pyramid gets narrower, it is only 15 lads playing minor and only a small number go on to play senior. We have got to be careful, the ideals in education at the moment are mixed ability, it is giving everybody a chance to maximise their ability and potential.

Then people channel into different areas and I think that is one key area. We have elitism at inter-county senior level and we certainly have a concern, in my mind, that we don't allow elitism to creep in at juvenile and youth level.

The other aspect is our amateur status has always been under threat. I don't think ruling from Central Council or Ard Comhairle is going to necessarily address that matter. I think this has to be tackled by a groundswell of opinion on the ground, that everybody in their club and the County Board resist payment to their managers.

It may sound like cheap talk on my part and that I'm passing the buck to somebody else. If we start passing rules at Central Council level I'm quite certain people will start finding ways to circumvent them. Really people in clubs have to decide it, that 'we shouldn't be paying a manager'.

I think we should look at succession stakes within clubs and County Boards. People should be identifying people to manage teams and to look at a pathway through for managers, not alone just for players. County Boards should be the same.

Your U-16 or minor manager at inter-county level should have the potential to become an U-21 manager and then give you a pool that you can hopefully have your own manager coming from within your own county. It is something that has gathered pace, but we have to try to pull it back. The pulling back comes from the membership themselves, rules will be circumvented.

Q: What sort of remit will the National Club Committee have?

**A: **The National Club Committee are there to engage with clubs and hopefully they will have an Annual Forum. The idea of it is to gather the information, to create a link between clubs on the ground and National Committees to see what can be put in place to make the operation of the clubs easier on the ground.

There are big challenges getting people to step forward to become officers in clubs and at County Board level. It is becoming more and more difficult. For that reason I think we need to focus in on that area, to see can we help put in place and put training in place.

All the people in the GAA are all ultimately linked back to their club. To get a direct line from the people in their clubs up to national level to see how can we send back an extra support. If that means we put a club support desk in place to get a direct line into people to get advice.

You would find in a lot of clubs people are re-inventing the wheel here and here and here when, in actual fact, with a sharing of information or guidance or advice the re-inventions don't have to happen. They can just take the information from other people where it has worked successfully.

I was working on the Strategic Plan and one of the members of the Strategic Plan, who would have good business experience said that when they sat down to look at a fundraising pathway for themselves they said they were starting from scratch. I'm sure a lot of fundraising operations have gone on in different places, even in that sense, if we were to provide that information to people. Here are the ideas.

Q: So you'd like to see clubs sharing knowledge?

A: Shared knowledge to me would make life an awful lot easier. If the National Club Committee can pull in all of that knowledge and then dissipate it out to the membership I would think we could make life easier for everybody.

Q: When would you hope to have that in place?

A: That Committee has been appointed and will be up and running. Hopefully they will have a forum. We have a Youth forum, we have Congress, I think a club forum wouldn't be any harm in terms of getting people in from around the country, giving them an opportunity. You never know from that club forum we could probably create new leaders within clubs, County Board, and at national level.

Q: Have you have sensed that some ordinary club members feel slightly disenfranchised?

A: There is an element of that. Fixtures are one critical part of the problem, but we will have a National Fixtures Planning Committee in place and as I said to them when I spoke to them on taking the role up, they face challenges on that committee.

If nothing else they could be a great conduit of information from county to county as to what has worked in the new environment in the new Championships in hurling and football. What has worked in a particular county and could it be transferred to another county for their benefit.

We have all different types of counties. We have counties where football and hurling are equally strong. We have counties where football or hurling is strong. It is to get the balance between all of them, but I'm quite sure all County Boards have been working at it. Some solutions that are good have come up.

That committee will be tasked with that job to share that information to smooth out the difficulties that are probably ahead of us in terms of the new proposals in hurling and football when they come into effect.

Q: When you were Leinster Council Chairman the Leinster Council did a lot of good work in analysing the urbanisation of Ireland and people leaving rural areas. How big a challenge is that for the GAA?

**A: **Again, I have a group of people in place to deal with that and I have picked them from varying backgrounds to deal with the issues that are there.

The issues are equally different on both parts. In rural Ireland the GAA can try to influence things, but a lot of the factors and difficulties in rural Ireland are economic more than anything else. The GAA are not the economic driver in the country, but I think the GAA as a club is a huge part in keeping a lot of those communities.

We may need to look at creating a flexibility into the survival of rural clubs. I was in London last weekend and they had created an Under 17 competition and they had reduced the number in the competition down to 11 and the reason was everybody would be able to field their own club team with their own club identity. If they had all been pushed to field 15 they probably would have had to have amalgamations.

Something like that flexibility. Rural clubs will have a problem raising funds, but they won't have a problem in the context of getting green grass to have pitches and things like that. The urban build up is large numbers coming into city areas and towns with no green facilities to allow pitches to have matches.

You look at Abbottstown, that wasn't there a couple of years ago, now it is absolutely maxed out in its use. It isn't just being used by Dublin, it is Kildare and Meath and other clubs from outside of Dublin and inter-county squads are actually using the facilities in Abbottstown.

There are difficulties in both areas, but I have a committee in place and hopefully they will look at both angles to it and we will see if they can offer solutions to it. I think it was recently highlighted out in South County Dublin that there is a maximum of eight areas where pitches could actually be placed.

If we get an increase in population there and an increase in membership and an increase in demand; I know of one club who are paying out a six figure sum just renting out facilities because they are in an urban area. They can't buy or purchase the green field sites for themselves so they have to go to purchase from other bodies.

Q: The simplistic solution to cater for growing populations in urban areas would be to establish new clubs, but that's obviously a difficult thing to do for a variety of reasons?

**A: **In theory it is good to say create a second club in a particular area. You have got to be realistic on the ground. If you gave people the option take the leadership role in a brand new entity or join a club that already exists most people want to play the game and they don't want to be the champions of a foundation of a new club.

They will stay with the club and that is how we have evolved into the superclub in some areas, particularly in Dublin and in some areas outside of Dublin where you only have one club in an area. People look at it and think there could be two clubs here.

When you are faced with that option, do you want to get five or six people around you to get a brand new club or do you want to attach to what is already there? Most people will attach to what is already there. If you look into the histories of GAA clubs it is often because of a split that a club evolves rather than anyone wishing to create a new club in that context.

Q: Is it time for the GAA to undertake a comprehensive strategic review?

**A: **We have lots of challenges in this organisation on lots of fronts. We have a group together at the moment looking at a strategic plan that will work for the next three years within the organisation. That will cover certain areas, it won't cover all.

We have done research work on that and we now have a workshop coming up to put that actual final meat on the bones of that plan. In recent times Aogán (Ó Fearghaíl) appointed two committees, one was to look to 2034, they came in with a report which was also looked at by the strategic committee. He also formed another committee to look at all policy reports back to 2002.

There has been a lot of work done on that. I would find as being President and I know I had said that I would look at starting a strategic review, but in light of the work that has gone on we could waste a lot of time sitting back now and spending the next two or two and a half years of my term putting a very detailed strategic review together and then I would leave office and would someone else take it onboard?

I think the road we have gone in terms of gathering the information from Aogán's two committees, putting our own strategic committee together and some of the committees I'm putting in place and the guidelines they will work under I think will address a lot of the challenges for us going forward.

Q: It's easy to criticise, but is it also important to acknowledge how progressive the Association has been on a number of fronts, particularly in terms of coaching?

**A: **I think the organisation plays a massive role in Irish society and I think we do an awful lot of things very well. Are we trying to do some things better? Most definitely. Unfortunately there is criticism going on out there and I'm not going to engage with that whole area.

I'm more interested in focusing on pushing forward. Negativity catches people's minds and gets conversations going. Positivity doesn't get the same traction. I'd like to see us be a bit more positive, to drive things on. Not necessarily clap ourselves on the back, but quietly look in the mirror as an organisation and know we do a good and make a huge contribution to Irish society.

Often I feel we don't the credit be it from government or local authorities, I think if you took the actual social impact role GAA plays in society, local authorities and governments would have a huge difficulty on their hands in terms of how society would function without us.

Q: Should there be more help from a governmental level considering the GAA's contribution?

A: Absolutely, I think they could give us more recognition. They do give us recognition, but I feel they could give us more recognition for the actual role and the benefit we give to society from every aspect: health - physical health and mental health.

Occupation of time, if you think about it, if a lot of the teenagers weren't engaged in GAA clubs and tied up in training and the conscientiousness of being fit and abstaining from alcohol, where would they be? Would they be all on street corners creating social difficulties and social problems?

I think they would. The government and local authorities should never underestimate the importance that this organisation plays in keeping Ireland as a stable and healthy country.

Q: This country's health crisis is well publicised. If you put significant funding into sport then surely you would save money in the sphere of health further down the line?

A: Absolutely, coming from my background in teaching the young lads involved in sport they were always the healthier looking young lads coming to school. It doesn't have to be hurling or it doesn't have to be football, it could be running. It doesn't have to be a contact sport some of them don't like contact sport.

Sport gives kids an opportunity to keep themselves in good shape and it also puts discipline in their life. I think it is very important the Government sees that and instead of having to build a whole load of hospitals and put money into health programmes they could in actual fact solve the problem before it comes around.

Q: When you were elected Uachtarán Tofa last year you referenced the Na Fianna club motto - 'Purity in your heart, strength in your limbs and action according to your words.' Will those same values define your Presidency?

**A: **Yeah, look that is what we were brought up with, it was always written on your membership card. It always sat in on your sub conscious. That was something on the night I was elected, it just came out. It does make me emotional even thinking about it.

The people that had been in Na Fianna that put that in front of us. If you lived your life with those qualities, purity in your heart, strength in your limbs and action according to your words, if they were your mottos for life, I think you deliver a fairly good contribution to society and you'd reflect back and say you did well.

Q: How much does being President of the GAA mean to you?

A: It does mean a lot. I'm looking forward to it and I think I'm bringing plenty of GAA experience to the table.

I've been on management for the last four years, I have been a Director of the Stadium, I was Chairman in Leinster, I did six years in Coaching and Games, I did the schools, did the club, both from a playing and an administrative point of view.

I think I have a reasonable knowledge of where the organisation is. It is not about a revolution, it is about the continued evolution. I view it that I'm getting the baton from Aogan and hopefully that I will give that baton on to my successor in a stronger condition than I have received it and hopefully he will pass it on in a similar vein to someone else in a stronger condition.

That is the way I look on it, that is the way clubs actually work on the basis that a certain group of people operate it for a period of time and help to improve it. Then another group comes along; it is a succession stakes within a club. I suppose when you join a club you add something to your DNA because your name is your name and it will always be your name.

Your first GAA club will always be your first GAA club no matter where you go in the world. If you do change by just changing location to another club you will always still refer back to your original club. I've found when you go to different parts, whether here in Ireland or overseas, people will always say to you what is your club. That is the first question and people look to identify you from that as to who you are.

That never changes, it does become part of your DNA, it is nearly like you are getting an inheritance when you are walking in that gate. Suddenly you are somebody different because you are a member of that club.

Q: The club is the heart of the GAA and so hopefully will also be at the heart of your Presidency?

A: Hopefully, it won't be from the want of trying. I'm not going to be naive enough to think that we will solve everything, but hopefully we will leave it in a better place after three years.