Christy Cooney ( Irish: Críostóir Ó Cuana, born 1952 in

Youghal Youghal ( ; ) is a seaside resort town in County Cork, Ireland. Located on the estuary of the Munster Blackwater, River Blackwater, the town is a former military and economic centre. Located on the edge of a steep riverbank, the town has a long ...

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

, Ireland) is a

Gaelic games Gaelic games () are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the most popular of the s ...

administrator, who served as the 36th president of the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

. He was elected president at the annual GAA Congress on 12 April 2008 and succeeded Nickey Brennan in the post in 2009 - becoming the 36th president of the GAA. In the GAA Annual Congress in 2005, Nickey Brennan was voted as the new GAA president, only 17 votes ahead of Cooney. Brennan's election was seen as a surprise by some and Cooney thought he had gathered enough support among delegates to secure the position. Brennan said that he hoped Cooney would put his name forward again in the future. At the time Cooney was president of his local club Youghal. Cooney ran again for president three years later and was elected with over half the votes at the 2008 Congress, beating Liam O'Neill and Sean Fogarty. In 2011 O'Neill was nominated unopposed to succeed to the post, and did so as Cooney stepped down in April 2012. Earlier, in the mid-1990s, Cooney was one of the government-appointed members of the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC), which at the time licensed and regulated Independent broadcasting in Ireland.

Controversy

Cooney was widely criticised for his stance on

pitch invasion A pitch invasion (also known as field storming, rushing the field or rushing the court) occurs when a person or a crowd of people spectating a sporting event run onto the competition area, usually to celebrate or protest an incident, or somet ...

s at Croke Park. Due to an anti-pitch invasion stance held by Cooney and other GAA officials, the GAA installed a large fence encompassing perspex screening in front of the Hill 16 end in an effort to deter pitch invasions. In numerous interviews, Cooney gave the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...

as an example why this fence is needed, yet numerous columnists have pointed out the irony that this fence may actually lead to a Hillsborough type tragedy at Croke Park. A campaign to get

Dublin City Council Dublin City Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of the city of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the authority was k ...

to remove the barrier began.

FÁS controversy

Cooney faced the public accounts committee regarding €643,000 spent on foreign travel by FÁS executives as well as spending irregularities identified in FÁS's €9m annual advertising budget.

References

1952 births Living people Gaelic games club administrators Hurling managers Sportspeople from Youghal Presidents of the Gaelic Athletic Association {{GAA-bio-stub