GAA President Larry McCarthy may be in office for 100 days but yesterday must have felt like his first. The Cork man, who took the presidential reins in February, recorded a couple firsts last weekend.
He attended his first game – Louth hurlers versus Fermanagh in Darver. The only reason the new President was allowed to attend was because they needed somebody to present a cup.
“And I’m going to a Division Four final next weekend in Portlaoise to present a cup. I fit the bill,” he smiled.
“That’s the only reason I can get into matches!”
He made his first official club visit in Galway too and was at St Malachy’s Primary School in Armagh yesterday to take in a coaching session put on by Pearse Og coach Shea Freeman.
With the clubs in the south returning to action, McCarthy is hoping to see an increase of supporters attending games across the country.
In the six counties, 500 people can attend a game, while they’re under stricter conditions in the south – 100 people for all games and 200 for venues with over 5,000-capacity.
The new President didn’t want to speculate on what size of crowds could attend this year’s All-Ireland senior hurling and football finals, scheduled for August 22 and 29, respectively – but reflected the cautious optimism expressed by the south’s Minister for Sport Jack Chambers who anticipates further increases as time passes.
“I was listening to Jack Chambers and he said we’ll be starting off low and grow the numbers. I’d like to see 82,000 at Croke Park. Realistically, is that going to happen? Probably not. But, look, the more the merrier. But he was talking about growing the numbers, which is encouraging.”
McCarthy added: “It’s important to get us back on the field and get the clubs up and running. The inter-county game is kind of taking care of itself, there’s enough people worrying about that but in the south games started for the clubs earlier this week, and that’s great. We can have attendances back. Here, in the north, there have been crowds back for the last number of weeks so it’s gradually building, everybody is back up and functioning.”
Since moving home from New York earlier this year, McCarthy has been working in Croke Park and commended all the support staff for helping him get his ‘feet under the table’.
“The staff have been a huge help even though there’s nobody in Croke Park,” he said.
“I was lucky, I got vaccinated and I’ve been able to move about a little bit but it’s a lonely building when there’s no GAA staff in there.
“But they've been absolutely fabulous. I mean, the amount of work they do is incredible. I had heard some of them were involved in clubs but, my God, every one of them is involved. They’re involved in clubs in Dublin and Clondalkin. I was trying to get hold of Feargal McGill [GAA Director of player, club and games administration] during the week but I couldn’t get him because he was taking the u13s in his club in Leitrim.”
Local GAA coach Shea Freeman of Pearse Ogs was in attendance at yesterday’s special workshop and praised the new President for selecting St Malachy’s Primary School as his first official visit north.
“It’s fantastic to see the President here,” said Freeman, who has been working with P1, P2 and P3s for the last two years.
“There was a lot of effort that went into this to make sure things went right today. It’s just nice to be acknowledged for the work that we’ve been doing.
“St Malachy’s is a small school, there are 201 great kids here, they have great teachers, it’s intimate, everybody knows everybody – everything runs smoothly here. It’s a very nice school, I recommend it and it’s a pleasure to come in here and get the kids enjoying Gaelic Games.”
