Fermanagh GAA chairman Brian Armitage said he felt tremendous pride and appreciation in his first year in office as seeing the dedication shown by all clubs in the county to the ethos of the GAA - Where we all belong.

Armitage made the comment during his address at the County Convention held at the South West College, Erne Campus on Monday as he looked back on the last 12 months.

The Chairman touched on many topics during his address from youth football all the way to senior grade and all that is involved in the smooth running of Gaelic Games in the county.

He paid tribute to the support he received since becoming Chairman and the committees and sub-committees in place.

“I want to put on record my sincere thanks to each committee and thank the Chairpersons and Secretaries for their leadership and guidance during the year. As I said at the youth convention, a very wise man one told me: Get the right people in place, then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That’s what being a chairperson is all about.

“I can safely say, that without a doubt that in relation to all our sub committees I have the right people in place.”

Armitage congratulated all clubs to have picked up silverware during the year and to all the clubs who represented Fermanagh in Ulster competitions.

He also paid tribute to clubs who published their club plans this year and received Club Maith accreditation and also to Roslea and Aghadrumsee who picked up Ulster GAA Club Awards.

Peter Carty was also congratulated on receiving the Ulster President’s Award for Lifetime Service to the Association.

The work of Assistant Secretary, Phil Flanagan, vice-chair John McGovern at CCC, Anita Kehoe as Children’s Officer, Deirdre Felloni, PRO and the coaching staff under the guidance of Teresa McNabb were also singled out for praise.

Armitage also touched on incidents in GAA recently surrounding referees and said there is “absolutely no place in the GAA for this form of abuse either verbally, physically, or even from keyboard warriors who use social media platforms to hurl vile abuse at referees, remember like us all referees are volunteers they have families”.

“It’s as simple as this and you have heard it all before, if we have no referees, we will have no games.

“I appeal to all clubs please take responsibility for the actions of your team mentors and players and fully support the Give Respect Get Respect Initiative, made the recruitment of referees in your club a key objective.”

The Chairman said the work to upgrade the Fermanagh GAA Centre of Excellence at Lissan is continuing at pace and appealed to all clubs in the county to fully support this initiative.

Thanking sponsors and those involved in the smooth running at Brewster Park, Armitage concluded his address with: “Finally to my fellow officers I say thank you for all you help and support during my first year as Cathaóirleach, a special word of thanks to our extremely dedicated County Rúnaí Tom Boyle who kept me on the straight and narrow during the year, to our very hard-working and efficient County Treasurer Sean Burns, anytime I phoned Sean he was somewhere on the Sligo Rd either going to a match or coming from a meeting and our rúnaí cúnta Phil Flanagan who wears many hats, and possesses the ability to construct a master fixture plan that caters for the overall games program at all levels.

“In conclusion I thank you the clubs for your support throughout the year and I wish all present and your families a Happy Christmas and a successful 2023.”