In an address discordantly scattered with repetitious invective, outgoing president Seán McCague took his leave of office at Saturday's session of Congress in Belfast. It was an uncomfortable conclusion to a highly regarded presidency.

Although at times he appeared ill-at-ease in the delivery, McCague was particularly trenchant on a couple of issues, most notably drinks sponsorship and the use of Croke Park by other sports.

The basis of the former argument was that the GAA was being unfairly criticised for the Guinness hurling sponsorship, whereas similar arrangements (e.g., rugby's Heineken Cup) attracted no public attention. This tended to ignore that the most telling criticisms on the issue came from within the association rather than without.

"However, we will not be bullied or dictated to by campaigns which don't appear to apply to other organisations, sporting or otherwise. If sponsorship by drinks companies is deemed a social evil, then it must apply right across the board, not just to the GAA," he said.

In relation to the Rule 42 controversy which ran throughout his term of office, McCague curiously railed against selective polling on the issue before citing the result of a Roscommon Youth Convention in support of his view that the membership at large wished to retain the rule.

"For those who seem to have conducted a selective plebiscite, let me remind them of the consultation conducted by me in advance of the Rule 21 Congress (at which he successfully piloted through repeal of the membership ban on Northern security forces). I can tell them that analogous consultation has taken place and I can tell them that contrary to their speculative and self-serving conclusions, the reality is that the majority of our members are against change to Rule 42 at this time. A fact borne out by a youth convention in Roscommon just a few weeks ago when a motion was defeated by a margin of four to one."

By contrast, there was only mild dismay expressed at the Government's refusal to honour funding promises worth €38million.

"It is disappointing that we have been left with such a burden on Croke Park. We proceeded at a pace with development based on the commitment of Government funding which was subsequently withdrawn. That was a considerable setback to us and forces us to service a much greater debt burden than we would have taken on otherwise."

Among the other matters addressed was the capital drain caused by a multiplicity of grounds developments without any integrated plan.

"I believe that we cannot continue investing huge amounts of money in grounds which may only have one or two capacity games in a year while there are alternative grounds within an acceptable and manageable distance."

There was also a strong passage on drug testing, mandatory suspensions for positive tests and the Irish Sports Council in general.

"We have rules in our Official Guide that deal with the issue and we also have penalties. We in the GAA will decide when penalties are to be imposed and what those penalties will be. It is our duty to our members to retain that control and we will not be dictated to by any outside party on the matter of penalties.

"I am sure that issue will be taken up with the Sports Council, whose relationship generally with our association is not what I would like it to be."