Press Releases19 Apr 10

Participants at All Ireland GAA Congress attend service in St John's Church, Newcastle, Co Down

The Revd Marie Walshe (NSM Assistant), Jack Boothman (former GAA President), Seamus Walsh, Ann Cooney, Breia Walsh, Edel Cooney, Fergal MCormack, Christy Cooney (GAA President) and Canon Ian Ellis (Rector and Church of Ireland Gazette editor) (Photo: P. Killen)

On the Sunday morning following the 16th-17th April meeting of the All Ireland GAA Congress at the Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle, Co. Down, some 50 Congress participants came to the Parish Communion service in St John's Church of Ireland parish church, including the organisation's President, Christy Cooney, and Director-General, Páraic Duffy.

Pictured after the service are, from left, the Revd Marie Walshe (NSM Assistant), Jack Boothman (former GAA President), Seamus Walsh, Ann Cooney, Breia Walsh, Edel Cooney, Fergal MCormack, Christy Cooney (GAA President) and Canon Ian Ellis (Rector and Church of Ireland Gazette editor).

The Congress was meeting in Newcastle fifty years on from the first time the Sam Maguire Cup came north of the Border, when, in 1960, Down defeated Kerry.