My Year as RTAI President

It was a great honour and privilege to be National President of RTAI for 2022-2023 and my
year as President ended with our National Convention in Croke Park last March.
Little did I realise how busy a year it would be but it was a most enjoyable and satisfying
experience. There are 32 Branches of RTAI in the Republic and Branch meetings are
generally held twice a year. Our General Secretary would usually present the NEC report at
a Branch meeting, but, as there are always a number of Branch meetings that happen to
occur on the same day, it was my pleasant task to do the needful on Billy’s behalf on such
occasions. It was indeed a very pleasant and exhilarating experience to be invited to address
members at their meetings and I hope that they weren’t bored with my presentation.
You might ask what does a President do and some might say not a lot! The routine aspects
of the job are not too arduous – chairing the NEC meetings, liaising with the GS – and then
there are the more formal occasions, like addressing INTO Congress and presiding at our
own annual RTAI Convention.
In all, I visited 15 Branches with membership ranging from about 100 to over 1 200. Some
of those trips were during the Summer months of May/June while others were in the more
challenging months, weatherwise, of November/December. Some meeting venues were
relatively near in the neighbouring counties of Munster, others were a little further removed
e.g. Wexford, Kildare and Dublin, while yet some more were further afield – Galway, Sligo,
Longford, Cavan and Donegal, to name just a few.
It was great to see our members again re-engaging after Covid and there was a growing
sense of “we are back to normality”. It was also an opportunity to see the hard work of
Branch Officers coming to fruition and the diverse range and variety of activities being
undertaken in Branches is testament to the success of their endeavours. It was also
heartening to see such a healthy vibrant and participative cohort of retirees really enjoying
their retirement, with some very youthful mid 50s mingling with colleagues in their late 80s.
Gura fada buan iad uilig, and may they have many more happy years in retirement.
An additional task during my term, which I hadn’t anticipated, was the appointment of a new
General Secretary to replace our retiring GS, Billy Sheehan. Thankfully, and with the
support of Billy and my colleagues on the Executive, we had a successful outcome to the
appointment process. As you know, John O’Brien is the incoming GS on the first of July.
John is the third successive Corkman to lead the Organisation, following in the footsteps of
Billy Sheehan and previously Denis Desmond.
The year flew! But then it seems that each passing year goes quicker than the previous one.
Ní raibh Corcaíoch mar Uachtarán le beagnach fiche bliain anuas agus bhí an t-ádh liom gur
tháinig an deis im’ threo. Caithfidh mé a rá gur bhaineas an-thaitneamh agus sásamh as an
bhliain agus tá súil agam gur chomhlíon mé mo dhualgaisí go h-éifeachtach.