Aogan Ó Fearghail became the 38th President of the Gaelic Athletic Association at the recent G.A.A. Congress, held in Cavan. He was elected to the position at the 2014 GAA congress in Dublin. He is 55 years of age.
From County Cavan, he is the first Cavan president in the 130-year history of the GAA. He is the seventh man from Ulster to have acquired the role. He has worked his way from his native Drumgoon Éire Óg club of the GAA, situated between Cootehill and Baileborough, to the top position having served at club, county, province and National levels of the Association.
Extremely popular with the grassroots of the association he is a passionate supporter of the GAA`s Gaelic and Volunteer ethos with a firm commitment to community values. Fluent in both English and Irish he is one the GAA`s great orators and widely admired for his sincerity and plain touch. Like most Ulster GAA officials he is a strong Nationalist with a reputation for respect for differing traditions. He is also noted for his appeal for fairness towards the club players with regard to fixture making in the Association. He is a polished media performer with notable debating skills yet seldom seen as confrontational. He is however known to be stubbornly supportive of the GAA rulebook and is not known as a compromiser.
Aogán Ó Fearghail is a primary school principal in Dernaskesh N.S., who has also run many businesses along with his wife Frances. Together they managed the family shop and Post Office in Maudabawn and jointly built and ran a highly successful Cultural Centre in the village . He is a well regarded historian who has published local histories and is a regular historical contributor to historical seminars and heritage events. He was also for many years principal of a Gaeltacht summer college in Gortahork, Co Donegal where he spends much free time.
As a GAA coach, he coached his club’s under-12s for 25 years and successfully built the club from humble junior also-rans to one of Cavan’s strongest club units. He played hurling with Erins Hope at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra and has also played handball at the highest levels.
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President Aogán Ó Fearghail’s address to the 2015 Congress.
In the course of his address to Congress, following his takeover of the office, President Aogán Ó Fearghail
spoke of the importance of the G.A.A. in maintaining local pride and a sense of place:
‘But the G.A.A. is built on our attachment to our own place and that has been said repeatedly this weekend.
The pride we have in our parish and that sense of place in hugely significant and important.
As you drive throughout Ireland you’ll see in all kinds of little villages and little country areas,
that have been ravaged by emigration or economic downturn but the flags fly and that love of their own
patch is very important.
‘We should always value it – ‘the hedges of our first imagining’ is how Seamus Heaney described it. I believe that Cumann Luthchleas Gael builds community and builds character and our games reveal it and it is very important that we constantly keep that love of and attachment to our own place.
‘It doesn’t really matter if your pitch is on an island off the west coast of Ireland or if it’s in Kuala Lumpur or the desert sands of Arabia or it’s in Croke Park, it is all the same community of G.A.A.
and love of place for all of us.’
