GAA top-dog Burns clears up any confusion over Irish presidency hopes
GAA president Jarlath Burns has reiterated his stance on whether he will run for Áras an Uachtaráin.
With the reign of Michael D. Higgins coming to an end, Burns has been mentioned as a possible successor, given his success in his current role, and was even 33/1 at the bookies to become the President of Ireland.
However, he confirmed that he will not be in the running.
He said: “I most certainly am not. I can confidently say that today [and] confirm it for you. I have another year of the GAA presidency to do and I would certainly not be in the mood to give that up to go for anything else.
Earlier in the year he revealed his desire to go back to his old job.
The Armagh man said: “My plan is when I finish this job to go back to St Paul’s, Bessbrook to be principal [the job he left to take over the three-year role as GAA president],” he said.
“[It’s] the place I love, the place I miss, even though this is the best job you could possibly have, that’s where I belong anyway. So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to rule that out very clearly.”
"That's the essence of the GAA" ☘️❤️
GAA president Jarlath Burns speaking at a special screening of our upcoming series #HellForLeather about Kingfishr's hit song Killeagh.
Hell for Leather – The Story of Gaelic Football | Starts June 9th pic.twitter.com/AJvffSAMcW
Burns also spoke about the new GAA rules and his pleasure at their success so far.
He added: “Very, very pleased with it. Jim Gavin deserves so much credit, along with his committee, for what they have done.
“It was very rad ical. It was disruptive. But I think that if you look at the games, it has opened the game out incredibly.
“The one big fear that we had was how it would translate to club level. And now that the club leagues around the country are in full swing, I think it has gone really, really well at club level.
“I’m talking to club referees all the time. They love the fact that the discipline has improved.
“If you just look at a statistic from that. We played the U-20 All-Ireland final two weeks ago between Louth and Tyrone. No red cards. No black cards. No yellow cards. Not even a tick.
“So one of the big advantages from this has been the increase and the improvement in the discipline of the players. We are gradually changing our culture.
“Handing the ball over after you give a free, it doesn’t allow for anybody who is in the mood to be disruptive … there is no benefit in doing that any more.”
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