Liam O'Neill: Mary McAleese's presence a golden opportunity for GAA, Camogie and LGFA integration

Former GAA president Liam O'Neill has said that the various Gaelic Games associations must not waste the golden opportunity of having Mary McAleese as chair of the integration process.

The former President of Ireland has agreed to be independent chairperson of the discussions between the Camogie Association, the GAA, and the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, and O’Neill said that she is the right person to tackle the thorny issue.

"I’d have great confidence that she will do it," O’Neill told the RTÉ GAA Podcast.

"She is an expert at bringing people together. I hope people embrace this opportunity openly and honestly and say 'yes, this is for our good, let’s see how we can do it.’

"I think it’s a wonderful compliment to the GAA family that a person of Mary McAleese’s status would do this for us.

"That’s the success of the GAA, that we can get people to do voluntarily for us what you couldn’t pay money for – to have someone of her status willing to do that."

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The integration issue has been a long-standing one and it was something O'Neill tried to solve, unsuccessfully, during his tenure between 2012 and 2015.

However, it took a significant step forward in 2022 with the GAA congress voting 89.8% in favour of a motion calling for the three associations to merge, with 83.8% supporting the motion at the LGFA congress and 97% doing likewise at the Camogie congress.

While it has taken a long time to get to this point, O'Neill said that it was vital that the actual process shouldn’t be