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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Oisin Doherty

Jarlath Burns elected new GAA President at annual congress

Former Armagh midfielder Jarlath Burns has been elected the new President of the GAA at the 2023 Congress at Croke Park.

The 55-year-old needed 139 votes to win the Presidency race, a number he easily beat as he ended up with a total tally of 158 votes.

He finished well clear of his two opponents Offaly's Pat Teehan and GAA World Chair Niall Erskine, who received 70 and 49 votes respectively.

READ MORE: Shane Dowling Column: Worrying times for Clare after Limerick wipeout

In a short acceptance speech, the secondary school principal expressed his pride in being elected and spoke about how he intends to 'defend' six of the key values of the GAA.

"It's an enormous privilege but it carries with it an immense responsibility," the President-elect said.

"Particularly if you're from the six counties. I will exercise that as responsibly as I possibly can in everything I say and everything I do.

"We have six very important values in our Association. Community, amateur status, respect, player welfare, inclusion, and keeping all our volunteers. It will be my job to defend those values. I will do so to the best of my ability.

"Leadership is exhilarating and it can be very frustrating. Particularly when the organisation you're leading is called the Gaelic Athletic Association.

"I will need your help to do it, I will need your support to do it, because you all know what my very clear agenda is and I will do my best to pursue it in the three years I have in this incredible organisation, the GAA, where we all belong."

Burns also spoke to the BBC Sport after his win and paid tribute to his local club Silverbridge:

"I know it is a great moment for myself, my family and my club, Silverbridge.

"That is the place that reared me into becoming the man that I am. This is Silverbridge's night tonight.

"It's just an incredible moment. We had two hours to wait between the count and the announcement.

"There was all sorts of speculation, but you almost enter a surreal world in those two hours.

"It's certainly not something I would want to go through again but when you see how emphatic the victory was then you realise it was worth waiting for."

The Cregan native, whose son is current Armagh star Jarlath Óg Burns, began his career in Armagh in 1987 and represented The Orchard County for over a decade at intercounty level.

While this was a relatively fallow period for the Ulster side, Burns did lead the team to glory in the 1999 Ulster Championship, with Armagh beating Down by 3-12 to 0-10 to end a 17-year wait for the Anglo-Celt Cup.

Since retiring, Burns has been heavily involved in the administrative side of the GAA. He was appointed to the Croke Park Player's committee by then President Sean McCague, and was in charge of the committee that organised events celebrating the 125th anniversary of the GAA in 2009.

Burns had run for the Presidency in 2020, but was bested by incumbent President Larry McCarthy.

McCarthy will continue in the role until 2024. The Presidency will then be handed over to Burns at the next Croke Park Annual congress in 12 months time.

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