Stepping up to the challenge

Seán Moran asks GAA president-elect, Seán Kelly, what direction he plans on steering the association

Last year at his first media conference after being elected president, Seán Kelly offered a characteristic judgement on the simmering controversy between the GAA's Strategic Review Committee and Dublin.

"A lot has been written in relation to Dublin and the situation being a 'High Noon' or 'OK Corral'. Instead I'd paraphrase 'The Rhinestone Cowboy': "There'll be a load of compromising on the road to Dublin's horizon".

He is a little exasperated by the perception, but Kelly's perceived instinct is to compromise, just as his predecessor Seán McCague's instinct was disciplinarian and before him Joe McDonagh's was rhetorical.

The 34th president of the GAA is the first - strangely given that 13 other counties have held the post - from Kerry, one of the association's power bases.

Kelly has the standard, high-profile cv of a incoming president. Chairman of his county board and the Munster council he also played and coached enthusiastically, both in Dublin and Kerry, without climbing the peaks of his predecessors in either field.

Born 51 years ago and reared in Kilcummin, just outside Killarney, in a family of seven children of Padraig and Hannah Kelly, he is a teacher in the famous St Brendan's in Killarney (he is to take a three-year sabbatical during his presidency).

His mother attended only one match, the 1973 East Kerry final and after "a bit of a row behind the goalposts said never again".

Hannah Kelly's son has similar feelings about his venture into national politics.

At the 1991 local elections he ran for Fine Gael. The mention of it - although not unexpected - makes him sigh.

"That was an aberration. It was thrust on me, but I realised it wasn't for me."

One local observer says that Kelly wasn't part of the back-slapping, pub circuit and realistically stood no chance.

"Absolutely correct," Kelly concurs. "My wife told me 'you're not cut out for that grá mo chroí stuff'. She was right. I remember going to a match in Rathmore when it was all over. I hadn't been able to get around much during the election and I was so glad to be back where I belonged."

His next big election would be on his own terms.

If his background is proudly rural and Kerry, he also spent most of the 1970s in Dublin and greatly enjoyed it.

"I loved it. In fact, I was going to do a masters in education in Trinity, but then I had an offer of the job in St Brendan's. Back in the 1970s you never knew if the job would come around again. And, had I stayed, I might have met someone and never got back to Kerry."

Seán Kelly's presidency came in with a bang 12 months ago. Although it was his first challenge - his five immediate predecessors had all contested a previous election - he was hot favourite. Nonetheless, few foresaw the staggering extent of his success. With a large field of four candidates chasing a small electorate of 324, he took 60 per cent of the first preference vote - 195.

Cynics would tell you that such a result could well be the high-point of the term of office that begins at next weekend's congress. Kelly had forged (or if that's a bit vigorous, established) the reputation of someone whose emollient approach would better suit getting elected than getting things done once in office.

He can combine the affable and the thoughtful to impressive effect, but he's also ready for anything that strays outside the happy zone.

"First of all, people in the association are very perceptive and can look at an individual and see where he stands. I got the highest vote ever with four in the field and I think that says something of what people think. In interviews that I gave over the years I expressed many opinions. Some of those opinions were the same as the mainstream GAA, but others were not."

This is undeniable. His views have always been at the liberal end of the GAA spectrum, but temperamentally he is a consensus seeker. For instance, as a long-time advocate of change in relation to Rule 21, the now defunct ban on the Northern security forces, he was expected to support then president Joe McDonagh's push for abolition at the special congress of five years ago.

Amongst McDonagh supporters there was fury when Kelly took a palliative line during the in-camera debate. He doesn't see this decision as being a retreat from principle, but rather a necessarily realistic response to a volatile situation.

"I think I took a very strong stance on that. I didn't feel that it was the time to do it. There hadn't been enough notice given, it needed more consultation. It could be done with more work and abolished without any great damage to the association.

"Seán McCague did the groundwork when investigating the matter thoroughly. The rule went with no fallout and no repercussions - the way I had envisaged it going."

He slightly undermines his belief in this reformist gradualism when asked would it have been possible to delete the rule without McDonagh's initiative.

"Airing it in 1998 and bringing the matter to a head obviously focused people's minds on the subject and got them to discuss 'what's the point in having this?' and look at it again. That was obviously a major contribution."

His analysis of this past controversy obviously informs his view of one approaching in the near future. Again on the subject of Rule 42 and the prohibition on other sports being played at Croke Park and other GAA grounds, Kelly favours change.

The rule has become a perennial controversy for the association. Two years ago a motion from Roscommon proposing that Central Council be given authority to decide on the use of Croke Park failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority by just a vote.

For a president-elect, Seán Kelly has been quite outspoken about his belief that the renting of Croke Park is now a commercial priority for the GAA.

Nonetheless, he is not waving a fiery manifesto on the subject of change, rather a characteristic, cautious inventory.

"Well, that's something that has to be handled very sensitively. I felt that the Roscommon motion was the perfect way to proceed. If passed, Central Council would have the authority and without that authority we're hamstrung. With it, we can look at the situation.

"We need to find out whether the IRFU and FAI want to use Croke Park and on what basis and how often. Remember they haven't asked for it so far. I respect that they feel they would be interfering in our affairs and if you look at the Euro 2008 bid, the FAI made the application but it was the Government who made the running.

"We have to look at the financial situation to see what it can generate. Then perhaps look at the condition of the field and consult experts on that to see how extra games can impact and when they should be played.

"Obviously, consult the local residents and when we have that information, go back to Central Council, say 'Yes or no? Let's make a decision."

Decisions will be needed in a few key areas in the three years ahead. Relations with players are approaching a critical stage. The Gaelic Players Association has staked its territory in recent years and, at its a.g.m., called on its members not to accept a place on the official Croke Park Players' Committee.

Kelly has adopted a conciliatory approach to the GPA and attended the organisation's awards function last November.

"If there is a growing militancy among players it reflects the increasing demands being placed on them by managers. The GPA is a fledgeling body and I can see where they're coming from, but, as far as I was aware, the major point was that the Players' Committee was selected rather than elected and I hope to put a system in place to address this."

But isn't the GPA refusing to co-operate?

"That was last January. I'm taking over in April. There's a committee reviewing amateur status at the moment and its recommendations will be published soon (this weekend). I hope the players will look at things in that light."

The report is expected to stretch further the elasticity of the GAA's amateur ethos.

"Amateurism must hold. If you open the door, the whole situation can spiral out of control. Other organisations that have revenue from international activity and television are in trouble so we have to be very careful.

"If we accepted semi-professionalism, the link between club and county would disappear and it would lead to less counties realistically involved and less support. Loyalty would be replaced by career advancement."

His priorities are general, but heartfelt. He wants to protect the club against the pressures of rapidly growing inter-county activity and believes that too few counties are getting any benefit from that activity.

"I'm concerned that weak counties are never going to narrow the gap. Hurling in particular is a matter of major concern and I'm always listening to talk that it's not as strong as it was in traditional areas and not expanding anywhere else despite the investment in coaching that was supposed to be a panacea."

There is a sense that Seán Kelly is as much at the crossroads as the organisation. His intelligence and self-awareness about the extent of the expertise he must acquire in areas as disparate as high finance and broadcasting policy undoubtedly equip him intellectually for the task.

His consensual approach will also help. To media, he has always been friendly and positive without being patronising.

But to turn these assets to his advantage he will need to crack the whip now and then and bear the pressures of unpopularity.

"I hope to be open, fair and honest with everybody, but at the same time to be tough enough when required - as distinct from acting the thug (laughs) and being tough all the time.

"When hard decisions are called for I hope to stand up and be counted without at the same time deliberately setting out to impress people or offend them."

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.