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Anglo Celt Cup

The 2009 Ulster Football Championship with the backing of  Ulster Bank, Vodafone and Toyota gets underway this weekend  with the preliminary round game at Brewster Park, Enniskillen between Fermanagh and Down.

On the Gaelgames podcast, Padraig Coyle looks ahead to the forthcoming series and hears from  some of those involved including Down manager Ross Carr, Mickey Harte who is manager of All Ireland champions Tyrone and Peter McDonnell who is in charge of defending Ulster champions Armagh.

Gerry Doherty, president of the Ulster Ladies Football Association, expresses his delight at their dual participation in the series while Danny Murphy, the Ulster GAA secretary  talks about a special commemoration event which is being planned for Ulster Final day on July 20th.

The 2009 Ulster Hurling and Camogie Championships supported by Guinness and
Etihad Airways is getting under way this weekend.

On the Gael games podcast, Dominic McKinlay, the joint manager of the
Antrim hurling team says that the defending champions are just as keen as
ever to retain this provincial title even though the Saffrons will also
compete in the Leinster Championships.

Catherine O’Hara of the Ulster Camogie Association praised the Ulster
Council for its support in promoting women’s sport and giving them the
chance to be share the stage with the hurlers and footballers.

Ulster GAA president Tom Daly outlines some of the initiatives that are in
place to increase the profile of hurling and gives his view on fears that
Antrim’s participation in Leinster may be diluting the Ulster series.

On this edition of the Gael games podcast Padraig Coyle hears about ambitious plans by the Ulster Council of the GAA to develop the huge potential that lies within the greater Belfast area and make Ireland’s second city a sporting success.

Padraig is speaking to Ryan Feeney who is the Ulster Council’s Coummunity Development manager. Ryan explains how they hope to bring the games to new areas and get more young people involved in their local clubs.

There is more information at UlsterGAA.ie

Selina O'Regan

In the ten years since it opened its doors, the GAA’s museum situated beneath the Cusack Stand at Croke Park has received hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world.

In this edition of the Gael games podcast, Padraig Coyle has been hearing some of the history of the GAA from the museum’s Education and Events officer, Selina O’Regan.
Selina talks about the work of the museum and how the sports are being brought to life through many of its audio visual displays. She describes an original letter from Michael Cusack, the founder of the GAA as well as explaining the history of the museum’s two Holy Grails - the Sam Maguire Cup and the Liam McCarthy Cup.

Nicky Brennan

After three years at the helm of the Gaelic Athletic Association, Kilkenny’s Nicky Brennan steps aside as the organisation’s president at next week’s annual congress. He will be succeeded in the three year post by Christy Cooney of Cork.

On this edition of the Gael games podcast, Nicky Brennan speaks to Padraig Coyle about some of the highs and lows of his three year term in office.

Chris Curran and Padraig Coyle

The sport of handball in Ireland has recently been rebranded to become known as GAA Handball and on this edition of the Gael Games podcast, Padraig Coyle has been talking to Tyrone man Chris Curran who has recently taken over as the GAA’s full time handball manager.

In this podcast Chris talks to Padraig about his role in the sport’s administration and looks ahead to the forthcoming 2009 GAA Irish Handball Nationals, in association with Envirogreen.

Chris talks about the competition for places on the Ireland team going to the world championships later this year in Oregon. Defending World champions Paul Brady (Cavan) and Fiona Shannon ( Antrim) have to gain a place on that team if they are to retain their world singles titles.

Paul Kelly

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On this week’s Gael Games podcast, Padraig Coyle is talking to Paul Kelly, Chairman of the Armagh Hurling Board about his development plans for the sport in the Orchard county.
Paul, who previously was a football development officer, has worked with many of the up and coming football stars in Armagh.

Now as part of a development plan which he has created Paul’s applying the same principles to hurling.

At the end of a Allianz National League campaign in which Armagh collected 5 points to finish 4th in Division 3A, Paul talks about his dual role as manager of the team in the absence of Michael Johnson who is serving a 48 week ban from the sport.

If Paul has his way, the Orchard men will have a strong say in Ulster Hurling in the not too distant future.

The Peoples Forest

On this edition of the Gael games podcast, Padraig Coyle hears about a new
initiative prompted by the GAA in Ulster to get 10,000 ash trees planted at
the foot of Belfast’s Blackmountain and Cavehill.

President Mary McAleese

This weekend the Cardinal Ó Fiaich Memorial Library and Archive in Armagh has been hosting the two day “For Community, County and Country” conference as part of the Ulster Council’s celebrations of the 125th anniversary of the GAA.

The conference was opened with this address from President Mary McAleese.

Hear her speech in full.

Tom Daly

This edition of the Gael games podcast reports from the launch of the latest strategy plan of the Ulster Council of the GAA which will take the Association up to 2015.

Padraig Coyle has been talking to the Ulster Council president Tom Daly and Ryan Feeney, who co-ordinated the drawing up of this ambitious blueprint. And there are also words of praise from what some might think is an unlikely source – Michael Boyd, the Community Relations Officer of the Irish Football Association who points out the close ties than have developed between the two sporting organisations.