Seán Dunnion outlines agenda as GAA Annual Congress returns to Donegal this weekend

For only the third time in the association’s history, the GAA’s Annual Congress will be held in Donegal when it comes to the Abbey Hotel in Donegal Town this weekend.  

The Congress was last held in the county in the county in 1975 and 1988 respectively, when it came to Bundoran.  

On Saturday, delegates will discuss and vote on 40 proposed motions put forward by County Committees, Provincial Councils, Ard Chomhairle, sub-committees, and Convention representatives.  

Among the motions is a potential revamp of the All-Ireland football championship, which would replace the current round-robin system with a qualifier-style format, guaranteeing each county at least three championship games.

The GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) has put forward an alternative championship format, featuring a knockout provincial championship structure.

Under this proposal, the eight provincial finalists would advance, joined by the next seven highest-ranked teams from the league and the Tailteann Cup winners. These 16 teams would then be drawn into first-round fixtures for the Sam Maguire Cup.

The provincial finalists would host their first-round matches against one of the other eight teams, with the winners progressing to round 2A. There, they would face off again, with four teams advancing directly to the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, the eight first-round losers would compete in round 2B, with four winners emerging. Those four would then take on the round 2A losers in round 3, with the four victorious sides completing the quarter-final lineup.

Where possible, the draw would ensure that provincial final rematches and repeat pairings from earlier rounds are avoided.

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If passed, another proposal will be put forward that will see the removal of penalties if a first match ends in a draw, allowing for a replay. If the replay is also drawn, the winner would then be decided by spot kicks.  

Delegates will also vote on whether to allow GAA club facilities to be used by other sports and community groups.  

One of the more debated motions comes from Clontarf GAA, suggesting that a player must have featured in at least four club league fixtures to compete in the inter-county championship within the same calendar year.  

Donegal have not put any motion to the table this weekend and has yet to state publicly what position they tend to take on certain motions, with Donegal’s outgoing Central Council representative Seán Dunnion, who is also Chairman of the Organising Committee for the weekend, saying that decisions will be more than likely decided on the day when both arguments to a certain motion are heard.  

“We’ll listen to the arguments, and take it from there,” he said. “You talk about the inter-county player playing club league games, it’s only my personal view, but that would result in a total revamp of the whole calendar.   

“It will only work if you have the same template for all counties at the start of the league and all counties play their championship in the same format, otherwise something like this will not work. I agree with the sentiment but it would be pulling back everything that has been achieved with the split season.”  

As organiser, Dunnion highlights the significance of the event, which will see 380 attendees, including media, gather at the Abbey Hotel for the biggest political event in the GAA calendar.  

“On Thursday, we have World GAA here, with units from Europe, Australia, Asia, Canada, the USA, the Middle East, and New York. They’ll spend the day in meetings before meeting their twinned provincial councils in the evening,” he said.  

“Then, five different groups want to meet before Congress begins, and there are four central workshops covering finance, sustainability, demographics, and volunteering, all taking place in the Abbey and Central Hotels.”  

Dunnion says one of the key moments of Congress will be the speech by GAA president Jarlath Burns.  

“This marks the end of his first year, and people will be very interested in what he has to say,” he said.  

“This is a massive event, and it wouldn’t have happened without the Abbey and Central Hotels. We’ve also worked closely with Donegal County Council’s Economic Development & Tourism Board, Fáilte Ireland, and the Donegal Chamber of Commerce. They have made this possible, and we are so grateful.  

“We want to give everyone the best experience possible so they will come back and visit Donegal again in the future.”