IT'S been a very special year in my life. The honour of being elected president in London was the highlight of the year but it was followed in recent times by my first county medal. For someone who started playing as a juvenile in 1965 and has played 26 years as an adult, that was also a special memory.

It was a historic Congress, the first held outside the country, and the passing of the restructured hurling championships showed the GAA is capable of embracing change.

The support I received was tremendous, especially the manner in which my own community, family and friends celebrated my election. I knew a few would be coming over, but in the end 80 turned up.

Another aspect that wasn't as well publicised was the homecoming. The welcome home was unimaginable. Five or six thousand people were in Ballindereen from all over south Galway and north Clare. It was the appreciation of the local community of the significance of the occasion, maybe because of Cusack's association with the area, which is where he came across hurling for the first time.

Otherwise, Wexford's voyage to the McCarthy Cup was very special - for Wexford people, particularly - but for the rest of the public as well. Liam Griffin also enunciated passionately the importance of hurling to the association. That's not to forget Limerick, who won a great Munster championship, and in the second year of live television coverage, those games were seen by a wide public.

There was disappointment in Galway, but we shouldn't forget it was another good year. The junior (All-Ireland) win was very significant as it was the last title that had not been won since the rise of Galway hurling in 1975. Winning the League, the under-21 and nearly the minor showed the tremendous conveyor belt of talent in the county.

If one thing was disappointing, it was the failure of Galway's footballers to build on the good work of the previous year. But then again, Mayo had their moment of glory. Central to the Connacht Council coaching programme was the preaching of a message of self-belief.

The revival of Connacht goes back to Leitrim's success in 1994 which gave the signal to other counties about overcoming difficulties of limited resources. There's now a tremendous air of confidence in the province. The doom and gloom of recent years has been dispelled and annexing of the Sam Maguire is very close, closer than many think.