H-Block days worst for Mulvihill

Gaelic Games News:The outgoing director general of the GAA, Liam Mulvihill, has said the period of the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland were the most difficult time of his 28 years in office. He was replying to questions at yesterday's formal announcement of his decision to step down at the beginning of next year.

"I would say the political crisis in Northern Ireland during the H-Block crisis was a very difficult period for the association. It impacted on everybody, the chairmen in the northern counties, the people involved at club level. Some of our members were being murdered or having their property damaged, quite a number of people involved with the association lost their businesses as a result.

"Then when the H-Block hunger strikes started you had people dying for their convictions and people in their despair were calling on organisations such as ourselves. The president, Paddy McFlynn, and myself had some very tough meetings with representatives of the families of hunger strikers, who were calling on anyone, including the cardinal at the time (Ó Fiaich) - everyone was put under pressure.

"It was emotionally a very, very difficult time in particular because it didn't relate to the core business of the association, the games, but the whole cultural and political scene - I wouldn't like to give the impression that that isn't core business but it wasn't part of my normal experience to have to deal with that sort of scenario and I found it quite difficult and as I said, both myself and the president were new to the position."

Mulvihill revealed that his experience in taking office in the same year as an incoming president, McFlynn, had guided his decision to step down halfway through the term of office of Nickey Brennan, the 10th president with whom he has worked as general secretary and later director general.

Given that December and January are the quietest months of the year he felt that the beginning of next year would be an appropriate time to leave the association in the hands of a successor.

Having thanked his wife Máire and family for their support as well as the staff at Croke Park he said having made up his mind to go, he felt "a sense of relief" rather than emotion about the decision.

When Mulvihill took up office in 1979, he reminded the conference, the GAA's income was "just in excess of £200,000". Central Council income for the last financial year was just under €44,000,000.

He said the most influential event during his term of office had been the 1984 Centenary Year, which he compared to a change of gear for the GAA.

"The Centenary Year was a huge driver for the association. It's only when history comes to be written that people will realise how important the year 1984 was. It really galvanised the whole association and it never looked back. There was an incredible growth in activity at every level and that has continued."

Speaking about the redevelopment of Croke Park, the association's most significant project in modern times if not ever, Mulvihill said that the impetus had come from Centenary Year and that what had been, in his view, the most striking aspect of the achievement was rarely mentioned.

"Croke Park was an expression of confidence that was inevitable after 1984.

"The big thing about the redevelopment rather than the achievement itself was that we managed to avoid any postponements of games, a fair achievement with the schedule of games we had. We did have very much reduced attendances for a few years but the biggest achievement of the association was getting through the redevelopment without losing months or years, as happened with some other projects that we could mention."

Asked what he would describe as the biggest change in the GAA since 1979, he nominated the evolution of the inter-county championships into far more expansive events and the exponential increase in media coverage.

"The way in which the whole championship has changed," he replied.

"Just the fact of revolutionising the amount of games which the counties have during the summer months has brought a huge change to the association, first of all in terms of the activity - coupled with that the televising of so many of the games and the way in which RTÉ came on board so willingly with regard to that.

"I don't know if there's any other association which gives such a wide variety of its games on free-to-air television to the market in its own country. As far as I'm aware, quite a share of them are on pay-per-view. That went hand-in-hand.

"Then there's the growth in the number of journalists and the number of newspapers and the growth in the local radio stations. The whole hype that there is about it (the championship) now and the amount of column inches just bears no relationship to what it was in 1979. I would say that is the biggest and most significant change because that has led to the financial strength of the organisation as well - let's be honest about it."

Paying tribute to the director general, GAA president Nickey Brennan said he was "extremely grateful" that Mulvihill had agreed to stay on for an extra year or two at the start of his presidency despite his retirement being due in 2006.

"The single dynamic (of the past 10 presidencies) was Liam Mulvihill's leadership, stewardship and careful advice," said the president.

"He's not a man to bang tables at meetings. He lets people say what they have to say, evaluates what they're saying and then comes in and we all wonder 'well, why didn't we think of that a long time ago instead of wasting everyone's time?' "

Brennan also praised the "hugely dignified manner" in which the retiring director general had faced the difficulty of his personal illness and that of his daughter Daráine.

He added that there would be no details of the process to select a successor until the matter had been discussed with the GAA's management committee.

Mulvihill said he would not be remaining on in a consultative capacity and that he hoped to pursue new but less demanding projects in the future.

Both emphasised that it would be "business as usual" for the next six months until a successor takes over.

The best of times ... the worst of times

SIGNIFICANT EVENT: "It's only when history comes to be written that people will realise how important Centenary Year 1984 was. It really galvanised the whole association and it never looked back."

IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENT: "The biggest achievement of the association was getting through the Croke Park redevelopment without losing months or years, as happened with some other projects that we could mention."

GREATEST CHANGE: "The way in which the whole championship has changed. Just the fact of revolutionising the amount of games which the counties have during the summer months has brought a huge change to the association,"

TIME OF CRISIS: "The political crisis in Northern Ireland during the H-Block crisis was a very difficult period for the association. It impacted on everybody, the chairmen in the northern counties, the people involved at club level."