Aogán Ó Fearghaíl elected as new GAA President

Cavan's Aogan Farrell has been elected GAA President

Aogán Ó Fearghaíl has been appointed as the 38th President of the GAA after being elected at Croke Park on Friday.

Ó Fearghaíl became the first Cavan native and seventh Ulster man to take on the role.

The Drumgoon Éire Óg clubman earned 170 votes, with Wexford's Sean Walsh second with 83 and Kerry's Sean Walsh third with 57 votes from the delegates.

Aogán Ó Fearghaíl has previously served in a variety of roles and was Ulster Council President.

He is the first Ulsterman to assume the role of president since Monaghan's Sean McCague occupied the post between 2000 and 2003.

Ó Fearghaíl has served in a variety of roles at club, county and provincial level and the Dernakesh national schoolteacher will take up his post following GAA Congress 2015.

In the interim period, he will serve as President-elect for one year, before taking over from Liam O'Neill.

School principal Ó Fearghaíl , who served as Ulster Council President from 2010 to 2013, has vowed to focus on 'the four F's' during his time in office.

"I would have at the core of everything I stand for the four F's of finance, fixtures, facilities and family, and they are interchangeable," he said prior to his election.

"We are a games organisation and we must always have games and lots of games.

"In anything you do in life you remain firmly focused on your core beliefs and what you're about, and we're about games.

"We're about football and hurling and camogie and handball and many many other things, but I would bring a firm focus about what we do as a games organisation."

Ó Fearghaíl has indicated he is not in favour of a 'Team Ulster' in hurling and would instead prefer to develop the game in the weaker counties.

"Personally I wouldn't be a strong advocate of it and I have no doubt that the people who have advocated it for ten years or more feel it would be a way of putting out a strong team.

"Anything that adds to the debate is welcome. I'm not sure about it myself, however. I think 'Team Ulster' would still be 'Team Antrim' with one or two players from other counties.

"We can never improve quality in hurling in Ulster until we improve quantity and we are doing that now.

"There are more children and more adults playing the game than ever before and with the numbers playing, I believe quality will follow."