Ger Mckenna the Kerry delegate whose gravitas, rigorous common-sense and colourful humour have enlivened many an otherwise dull occasion rose to his feet at the end of Joe McDonagh's presidential address before Congress adjourned.

"I saw facets of you today," McKenna said to the President, "that I thought may have been under the surface but they certainly came over the surface today. Your address was inspirational as your address earlier was to Central Council.

"You also provided today a standard of leadership, and again that standard of inspiration, to the association which I have never seen before. You are a worthy holder of the office if you never did anything again in your lifetime: the leadership and inspiration you have shown this day plus your ability to listen - and all the words you get at times are not wise ones."

It was appropriate recognition of a landmark address by McDonagh on the subject of Rule 21. On an issue which has generated more caution than charisma on the part of GAA presidents, McDonagh was explicit in his call for the controversial provision to be dropped, citing the peace process, the section on policing in the Good Friday agreement and the need for the GAA to play a role in the wider community. He then announced a special congress to consider deletion on May 30th.

The impact was all the greater given that the move on Rule 21 was so unexpected. Momentum for change appeared to have died on Friday when no word emerged of McDonagh's likely approach to the issue.

In fact there had been considerable activity, but in relation to the Crossmaglen issue which had a bearing on Rule 21 in that the occupation of the Crossmaglen Rangers' grounds has been frequently raised in arguments about deletion of the rule.

It was during the longer-than-planned lunch break that word of a move against the rule began to filter out in various terms. That the rule was gone, that it was going to go and finally that a special congress was to be held. That everyone was agreed, that the northern counties were against, that there were walk-outs and splits in the offing.

Eventually, when McDonagh entered to commence his address, after much consultation in the corridors and redrafting of scripts, the section on Northern Ireland was still being printed up and arrived as an addendum to the copies already distributed.

There was a standing ovation for the speech and McDonagh's predecessor, Jack Boothman was the first to congratulate the President on the sentiments expressed. Diplomatic moves in relation to Crossmaglen are obviously ongoing and consequently the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was unable to live up to some of the wilder expectations of imminent withdrawal from the Rangers' pitch when he addressed the evening banquet.

Nonetheless, the occasion rounded off a significant day's work for the GAA at the end of which the sense of moving on was palpable.

In relation to Crossmaglen, McDonagh not only liaised with the government but also revamped the GAA's own rather cobwebbed structures by adding himself and Director General Liam Mulvihill to the committee concerned with the issue.

Crossmaglen people had good reason to feel that their difficulty was possibly not receiving maximum attention when deceased members of the committee were not replaced.

Other elements of McDonagh's speech included words of encouragement for the hurling championship experiment, "very encouraged so far", words of concern for football "in essence a great and exciting game" but "too many games spoilt by the pushing, pulling and dragging malaise" and words of apology to the GAA's beleaguered referees "too often in the past we have not served you, our organisation's most loyal servants well".

He also referred to the question of child abuse and the procedures initiated by the GAA to counter such outbreaks as might arise within the association. The association's guidelines on the issue have been requested by other sports organisations and have earned the commendation of the Oireachtas joint committee on tourism and recreation at which the GAA made a presentation.

McDonagh was anxious to place the problem of child abuse in its GAA context: "In the period since last year's Congress there have been eight cases where allegations of abuse were made . . . in two of these cases the allegations were found to be false and spurious. The six other cases are still ongoing and in all but one the allegations are unrelated to the Association and relate to the individual's employment or private capacities. But as I have stated before one case is one too many."