Treacy triumphs in retaining top GAA officer role
GALWAY GAA Chairman and former Fianna Fail heavyweight Noel Treacy produced a political masterclass when fending off the three other candidates who had challenged him for his top table position at Monday night’s County Convention in the Lough Rea Hotel.
One of the most keenly anticipated elections at a Convention in some time – and what, in effect, was the feature event of the night – the former TD and Minister relived his General Election glory days of old by securing 100 of the first round votes in holding onto the Chair for his fifth and final year.
The greatest threat to Treacy’s position was believed to be former Football Board Chairman John Joe Holleran but, ironically, it was the distribution of the Clonbur man’s votes after he was eliminated under the PR (Proportion Representation) system enabled Treacy to reach and surpass the quota (119) with 139 ticks.
Following the first count, it was ex-Hurling Board Secretary John Fahey who emerged as the strongest challenger, securing 64 votes, with Holleran and Michael Regan, attending his first Convention, receiving 52 and 20 votes respectively.
As the lowest candidate, Regan was subsequently eliminated and his votes – Treacy (+8), Holleran (+2) and Fahey (+10) – were duly distributed among the remaining candidates. By this stage, Treacy only required 11 more transfers.
With Holleran (54 votes) surprisingly the next to fall, Treacy was always likely to secure the votes needed to get him over the line. So, it proved, Treacy yielding 31 of Holleran’s transfers and Fahey receiving 19, taking his tally to 93.
Yet, for all that, it was Treacy who showed his challengers, to use a sporting parlance, ‘how you kill off a game’. All three candidates proved gracious in defeat afterwards, with Fahey, after his brave showing, acknowledging “democracy prevailed”.
After congratulating Treacy on his victory, Holleran, who would later be returned as Connacht Council delegate alongside Mullagh’s Stephen Cahalan, subsequently stood down as Vice Chairman which, in turn, prompted another candidate for Vice Chair, Bernie O’Connor, to withdraw also.
Full report in this week's Connacht Tribune.