Christy Cooney

Christy Cooney (Irish: Críostóir Ó Cuana, born 1952 in Youghal, County Cork, Ireland)^[1] is a Gaelic games administrator, who served as the 36th president^[2] of the Gaelic Athletic Association. 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.^[3]

In the GAA Annual Congress in 2005, Nickey Brennan was voted as the new GAA president, only 17 votes ahead of Cooney.^[3] Brennan's election was seen as a surprise by some and Cooney thought he had gathered enough support among delegates to secure the position.^[3] Brennan said that he hoped Cooney would put his name forward again in the future.^[3] At the time Cooney was president of his local club Youghal.^[3]

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.^[4] In 2011 O'Neill was nominated unopposed to succeed to the post, and did so as Cooney stepped down in April 2012.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Controversy

Cooney was widely criticised for his stance on pitch invasions at Croke Park.^[5]^[6] 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.^[7] In numerous interviews, Cooney gave the Hillsborough disaster 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.^[8] A campaign to get Dublin City Council to remove the barrier began.^[9]

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.^[10]