Ulster AGM Round Up
- Jan 21,2022
On Friday night Ulster Ladies held their meeting via TEAMS and by 9-30pm a New president and two new Executive Officers had been elected. Gerry Doherty from Armagh was elected President for the next three years and Down’s Paul Kelly and Tyrone’s Antoinette Mc Cusker take over from John Joe Brady and Paddy Donnelly respectively.
The first item on the agenda was the adoption of the 2020 minutes. After that Colm Murray delivered a comprehensive secretaries report. He mentioned a number of highlights and concluded with “May this be the last year we have to deal with COVID and the impact it has had in all our lives”.
The highlight of Paul Swift’s PRO report was the mention of the 23% increase in facebook followers and the addition of live steaming of many of our games. The CODA report outlined details of two disciplinary matters and four appeals. Cultural and Language Officer Caroline Brady deliver her report as Gaelige.
Ciaran Murtagh took us through a very detailed Development report. While there may not have been much happening on the pitch, himself and Aidan Mc Laughlin certainly had a busy year and managed to achieve plenty. The lads embraced technology and made the most of social media to help them in their work delivery.
Registration figures were excellent despite the pandemic. Registrar Paddy Donnelly reported that we now have 262 clubs and 29,520 members which is almost double the 15, 403 we had in 2013. All counties increased their membership and credit is due to Tyrone, Down and Armagh whose number rose by 1389, 916 and 849 respectively.
Once again John Joe Brady with the help of Annette Boyle did an excellent job taking care of our finances. The bank balance is healthy going into 2022. This was john Joe’s last meeting as Treasurer however the good news is that he is staying with fixtures.
Paddy Donnelly delivered a very detailed and comprehensive fixtures report. 81 games were played between the 18th June and the 19th December. This was Paddy’s last report as he is stepping down after numerous years involved. His experience will not be lost however as he will remain on the Fixtures Committee as the Tyrone Representative.
Four motions were on the Clar – all were discussed and are to be sent forward to the National Congress in March.
Eileen Jones then delivered her President’s Address. Describing herself as the ‘Covid President’ she went on to outline the difficulties that Covid had brought but praised the counties and Ulster Council for making the fixtures work and for completing a full schedule. Eileen went on to congratulate all the various competition winners. She also acknowledged that all was not rosie and raised concerns about a culture were managers were having too much power. She also raised the point that on All Ireland final day we only had one team in Croke Park and everything should be done to help our counties. Eileen finished with a long list of Thank You’s and wished Paddy Donnelly and John Joe Brady all the best as they retired from the Executive.
A number of delegates then took the opportunity to thank Eileen, Paddy and John Joe for their commitment to ladies football and to wish all well in the future.
The election of Officers then took place and the following executive was elected.
President – Gerry Doherty
Vice president – Hugh Devanney
Secretary – Colm Murray
Assistant Secretary – Martina Dillon
Treasurer – Paul Kelly
Assistant Treasurer – Annette Boyle
Registrar – Antoinette Mc Cusker
PRO – Paul Swift
Development Officer – Philip O Hare
Culture and Language Officer – Caroline Brady
The various Ulster sub committees and Ulster delegates to National committees were ratified.
The meeting concluded with the various draws for the 2022 competitions.
