Leitrim Clubs need to step up as County Board faces officer exodus - Stenson

Leitrim clubs have got to step up to the mark and make nominations for positions on County Board executive believes outgoing chairman Enda Stenson as the Leitrim GAA official warns of the impending loss of key officers at this year's Convention in December.

Stenson, who comes to the end of his five year term as chairman, made his remarks as he also revealed that Secretary Declan Bohan, PRO Barbara Byrne and Assistant Secretary and Hurling Board Secretary Attracta O'Reilly were also coming to the end of their five years stints in their posts.

“There's huge change coming down the line,” Enda told the Observer ahead of his final Convention as chairman, “It's alright to have the County Board, but it's the responsibility of clubs to put forward people who will do those positions. Those positions have got to be filled - we can't go and hand-pick people. They have to be nominated by their club or a club, and that's how it has to be.”

Reflecting on the exodus of County Board officers, who have all completed their maximum five year terms, Enda said “I have my five years done, I’m out the door, Declan Bohan has his five years done. Barbara, the PRO, is five years up, she's out the door. Attracta Reilly, Assistant Secretary of the County Board and Secretary of the Hurling Board is five years up. She's gone.

“Somebody has got to step up to the mark, these positions have to be filled - while they're all different positions, and the position of chair is a very different position to the position of secretary, of which I can absolutely say that we were very lucky to have a secretary like we had in Declan Bohan. 

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“Nowadays, the position of PRO is more important than ever due to the whole social media thing and everything like that. You've got to get your word out, you've got to get your face out. It's extremely important for the GAA because every sporting organisation, and rightly so, have got to keep their name in the front of the paper or wherever they want it to be. It's all about publicity, isn't it?

“Other than that, there are a lot of positions like CCC, there's a lot of other positions that we've got. We've got to get a demographics officer, we didn't even have a child officer.”

Enda appealed to clubs to put names forward to the Convention and stressed the link between the clubs and the county board: “Every club in the county is the county board - I know the county board are the big bad boys if anything goes wrong, but there isn't one decision that was made that wasn't put before the County Board meeting and passed, let that be fixtures, let that be venues, let that be whatever we had to deal with. 

“It's up to GAA clubs to get people in positions in the County Board that's going to keep things going. We had a tough enough five years with Covid - we had a year and a half there without Pairc Sean. Everything that was normal within Leitrim GAA kind of went against us. But I think we worked, we did our best.”

Reflecting on his time as chairman, Enda admitted that the role can be challenging and warned that the GAA faces more challenges in finding people to commit to roles within the organisation: “After doing five years, it can be time consuming but I did find it rewarding because I come from a totally dyed in the wood GAA background. 

“I don't know whether young people come from that very strong GAA background that the likes of me was brought up in, or others of my vintage. It was all about the GAA, we had nothing else, we had the GAA. We were born with a love of the GAA, and a lot of other things Irish at that time. 

“We're in a different society now, and it's going to take work to bring everybody along with you. In the bigger towns, it's going to be harder and harder to keep everybody involved. There was a time, and still is in small or rural clubs, everybody kicked the ball but that won't be the way, that won't be the way going forward. It won't.”

In other news, Enda also said that Leitrim would be supportive of a move by Cavan GAA County Board to reinstate gaelic football's pre-season competitions for 2025 at least in light of the introduction of new playing rules. Cavan GAA has tabled a motion for this Saturday's Central Council meeting requesting to reverse an earlier decision to eliminate all pre-season tournaments from the schedule in January. This would involve the FBD Insurance Connacht League as well as the  Dr McKenna Cup in Ulster, the O'Byrne and McGrath Cups in Leinster and Munster respectively.