GAA Handball’s national Congress took place last Saturday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Monaghan and saw Monaghan’s Conor McDonnell take over as Uachtarán from the outgoing President, Dessie Keegan from Mayo.
“I believe handball is the greatest sport not only in Ireland, but indeed the World,” stated the new President.
“We have the best players in the world and the best volunteers. While handball may currently be considered a minority sport in terms of its popularity and playing numbers in Ireland, I believe we have the greatest, most accessible game in the world that has yet to reach its full growth potential as a sport.
“We have a brilliant club network right across the island – incredibly dedicated handball clubs in almost every county, with players, coaches and committees that helps our game thrive, makes our players stronger, our facilities better and our clubs more inviting.
“Our new state of the art National Handball Centre at Croke Park is spectacular, and I believe players and spectators will enjoy seeing it being used for all events in the future in each of our Codes. We got a small taste of this last December when the European Wallball elite event was hosted there. I cannot wait to see our softball and 4-wall show courts on a packed Saturday night for our blue riband events.”
Conor paid tribute to the staff who have moved on, namely John Kelly, Austin McKenna, Darragh Daly, Brigid Doheny and Pauric Dowdall. He referenced the recent review by Tom Maloney, assisted by Uachtarain Dessie Keegan, Shane Flanagan, GAA Games and Development, and Tom Ryan, Ard Stiurthoir, which has led to the recruitment of three further Development Officers, joining the national team to help promote and develop the game across Ireland, complimenting the ongoing work being done by Fiona Shannon in her Ulster GAA Handball Development role.
“I would like to formally wish our new Head of Handball David Britton the very best as he has recently commenced his new role leading the organisation, and I look forward to working closely with him, Padraig Gaffney and Eoghan Morgan over the next few years.”
The new Uachtaráin referenced volunteer burn-out as a “major challenge”.
“Several surveys have been conducted within our organisation and with the wider GAA community and time and again the issue of volunteer burn-out and the same volunteers doing the same work over and over is a major risk for our association.
“With our new regional development officers, there should be even more opportunities to host more coaching and volunteer education courses and recruit as many new volunteers as possible, to spread out the work load and see new people come on board to our committees at all levels.
“In addition to this I hope to set up Referee training courses and panels of referees, who can be called upon to ease the burden on local clubs at bigger events.”
McDonnell stated that live streams are “a critical component to spreading our games not only amongst the handball community but amongst the wider general public”.
He stressed the importance of accessing funding and improving facilities, concluding that “the ultimate privilege for me, is looking forward to being on the ground meeting players, volunteers and officials and making sure that we all work closely together, with openness and transparency for the betterment of our sport.”
Warm welcome
Outgoing President Dessie Keegan warmly welcomed Conor into the role and wished him well for the next three years.
“Within a month of starting the role in February 2020, the Irish Government put Ireland in lockdown. I feel it’s important to acknowledge at this point that Covid had a devastating impact on all manners of life. It would take the guts of two years to get back to where we were in terms of activity pre-covid. The world is still
trying to recover from this devastation. However, when we were legally allowed, Handball was one of the first indoor sports to return to play. I wish to thank all of volunteer members, and our professional staff, for the work that they all done to get courts up and down the country open for players and officials during the
easing of restrictions. This was no easy task due to the safety requirements placed on everyone,” Keegan said.
Some of the areas he highlighted in which a lot of positive work had been completed were the launch of the Strategic Plan, the integration of handball under GAA Coaching and Games, the development of a more modern Clár, the introduction of a ladies committee that designed a new trial She’s Ace championship and the recommendation of Constitutional changes.
Funding has also been secured for more regional development officers which will bring staffing levels to six from five pre-Covid.
Dessie was also proud of the fact that funding was secured to send a team to the USHA Junior Nationals and the FIPV World Frontball Championships as well as hosting a European Elite Wallball event, bringing in 1500 new juveniles via a recruitment programme and securing grant support to help clubs bounce back after the pandemic.
He paid tribute to the full-time staff in the office who have moved on and wished the new staff the best of luck. Keegan also thanked Tom Maloney and Shane Flanagan for their hard work.
“Yes, the past 12 months has been a difficult time, however, I’m fully convinced with the plan that’s in place, our sport will recover and thrive over the coming years. Our period of transition is coming to an end,” he said.
Head of Handball David Britton also welcomed Conor into office.
"On behalf of GAA Handball, I would like to welcome Conor McDonnell to the role of Uachtarán and to wish him every success in the position," he said.
"I am really looking forward to working closely with Conor over the next three years to help to grow and develop our sport, and our organisation. I would also like to thank outgoing Uachtarán Dessie Keegan for service to GAA Handball."
Motions
One of the main items on the agenda on the day was a suite of 13 motions in relation to GAA Handball’s constitution, all of which were carried. The new rules will become operative four weeks from the date of Congress (March 11, 2023).
The motions can be viewed at the link below.
MOTIONS CARRIED AT HANDBALL CONGRESS 2023 – 11.02.23.pdf