Irish sport awakes this morning with new enthusiasm following a night of political theatre and counting of votes at the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Olympic Council of Ireland.
As the meeting broke up near midnight there was a new President for the first time in 28 years. Sarah Keane was barely a teenager when her predecessor Pat Hickey assumed power over the organisation.
In that time she went to secondary school, college, and qualified as a solicitor. She maintained a strong interest in sport and became CEO of Swim Ireland ten years ago at a time when that organisation was in a crisis far deeper than that of the OCI.
She has navigated the sometimes choppy waters of sports politics and came to the fore in Olympic circles when stepping up as part of the three person Crisis sub-committee that managed the tidal wave of publicity and governance issues that emerged on the arrest in Brazil of Pat Hickey last August.
Belief
When she looks back this morning over the events that have brought her here and the challenges she will face she can be forgiven a moment of belief that she can ‘do this.’
The night ended well for those on the reform side of the house but there was never a sense that this was a coronation.
It was an EGM so in technical terms it was simply to elect a new Council and Officers. Instead though it adopted the procedures of an AGM from the start with reports on the Rio Games, from the Honorary Secretary and the Honorary Treasurer.
With Chef de Mission Kevin Kilty having resigned it fell to CEO Stephen Martin to deliver the report on the Rio Games.
He covered areas of detail surrounding the preparation and performance of athletes, the difficulty of securing flights, the issuing of tickets to family members and athletes, kit, the disastrous performance of the Rio Organising Committee in preparing a fit for purpose Olympic Village and lots more.
Pat Hickey
His presentation ended without a single mention of imminently former President Pat Hickey though in a musical montage there was a clip from Calum Scott’s Dancing on my own which includes the line ‘I’m not the guy you’re taking home.’ Sometimes it’s the little details that illustrate the big picture.
Pat Hickey was certainly not to be forgotten though, oh no.
The potential reason for the inclusion of the reports became clearer as Dermot Henihan rose to deliver the Honorary Secretary’s Report. Henihan had a tough time in Rio, beyond what any voluntary administrator could ever imagine or expect. His passport was withheld as he faced questioning over ticketing but was released alongside Martin without any charge or shadow on his reputation.
He has always been a Hickey man in political terms and his tribute to his colleague over more than 20 years was fulsome. He hoped that when Hickey ‘resumes his positions within the International Olympic movement’ that he will look kindly on the OCI which he created. An OCI which went from ‘working off tables and meeting in people’s houses’ to having ‘lovely’ offices in Howth and a healthy bank balance.
It was not as healthy as it should be though in Henihan’s eyes as he resumed a character attack on Sarah Keane and the actions taken in the aftermath of the arrest.
Bills
This had started last year with a letter to all Federations condemning expenditure on advisers called in to restore trust. Bills of €394,000 to Arthur Cox, €214,000 to Grant Thornton and €69,000 to the Communications Clinic were metaphorically held up as what he clearly saw as the panicked outcome of unnecessary scrutiny in the months following on from Rio.
The mood of the room tangibly hardened and the attack continued when Treasurer Billy Kennedy pressed home the message that this was money which people needed to know might not needed to have been spent.
The value of reputation and trust is always hard to put in monetary terms and that is where the main divide existed between those who would cling to power and those who would usurp them.
Shakespeare would have loved this.
Cast
As the roll was called and the secret ballots cast there was a tension like just before the announcement of the Oscars. Would it be close? What deals had been done? How might different pairings end up working together?
As representatives of Byrne Wallace and Mazars opened the envelopes and painstakingly checked the marks on the ballots we came as close as laity ever might to what it is like in a Papal conclave.
And then the final result was passed to the top table. of the 43 votes cast 29 had the mark of Keane and all of a sudden 100 per cent of the Presidents of the Olympic Council of Ireland were women. All was changed.
The size of the mandate was such that there was an inevitability about the other elections.
Colm Barrington from Sailing won the vote to be first Vice President, decades after having the temerity to challenge Pat Hickey in what is now another era.
Robert Norwood followed into the second Vice President role and Sarah O’Shea administered the almost final coup de grace with a healthy majority over Henihan to become the Honorary Secretary for the next four years.
Billy Kennedy was elected unopposed to the treasurer role, a position which will be a little more uncomfortable today than it was yesterday but maybe a healthy tension can be a good thing, if that is to be the case.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee places were then voted for and saw Darren O’Neill retain his place and be joined by Lochlainn Walsh from Triathlon, Dennis Toomey from Paralympics Ireland, PJ Nolan from Cycling, Georgina Drumm from Athletics Ireland, Ciaran Gallagher from Gymnastics Ireland, and Rob Johnson from Hockey.
It’s a fresh new Olympic Council. Sarah Keane spoke last night of a conference call this morning to get the ball rolling on what needs to happen over their four year term.
The lot of a sports administrator is not one to be taken on lightly. Loved by few and blamed by many it is nonetheless essential to the ongoing wonder of sport. It’s rewards are known to those who take up the challenge.
The winners were graceful, the losers resigned to a changing of the guard.
The final word from the stage went to Dermot Henihan who exited with words from another era that he ‘hoped he had done some good.’
Today is a new day. The circus moves on to Rome and to the playing fields of the GAA, soccer and every other sport.
But something important changed last night. Something that is good for the overall perception of sport, of the role that Women can play in it’s leadership, and for those who see it as more important in so many ways than merely the clocking of a time or the winning of a medal.
God speed to those who have gone before, good luck to those who now adopt the mantle.
