Kildare GAA's next chairman - meet the candidates, Mick Mullen

Kildare GAA delegates will elect a new chairman at convention next month with current incumbent Mick Gorman completing his five year tenure. Either Celbridge’s Mick Mullen or Clane’s Bryan Murphy will be next in the hotseat. Pat Costello spoke with both to get their views on a wide range of subjects, first up is Mick Mullen here and you read about Bryan Murphy here. 

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A native of Gormanstown in Co Meath where he played and was an administrator for the local St Pat’s club in Stamullen, Mick Mullen has lived in Celbridge with his Dublin born wife, Adrienne for the last 35 years. Son Eoghan played hurling and football while daughter Aoife played camogie and football for Celbridge GAA.

Mick Mullen served as Underage Coordinator with Celbridge GAA and was also been involved on the Executive there. “I never took up any of the major roles at the club but I would have been coaching the likes of Mick O’Grady and players like that. I then went on to coach Development Squads within Kildare until 2007,” he told us.

Mick Mullen was a member of the then North Board in Kildare before moving on to be Secretary of Bord na nÓg and was the Chairman of Feile when it came to Kildare in 2009.

At Co Board level Mick Mullen started off as the Celbridge representative. “Ten years ago, Ger Donnelly approached me when Mick Gorman became Vice Chairman and he invited me to become a member of the CCC and I have worked closely with Mick for those last ten years. I was Fixtures Secretary and on a major amount of sub committees within the CCC and five years ago Mick asked me to be Chairman of the CCC,” Mullen explained.

On the suggestion that there is a Top 4 of football teams within the county Mick Mullen says, “Like everything it is cyclical. It’s Naas’ turn now; it was Moorefield’s and Sarsfields’ turn for a long time as well. Let’s not doubt the work that Naas or any club has done in order to meet the standards. Celbridge is no different, they are always knocking on the door but there are good people in the clubs that develop these young lads.”

 “Certainly, we need to create the environment where we are more competitive at underage and minors. We need eight strong minor teams at least every year in Kildare. People talk about four top teams I think there are six, maybe seven all the time. The semi-finals went to a draw and Naas met Cuala and they were certainly a match for Cuala and Kilmacud Crokes. We always have to improve and developing our players is where we start,” Mick Mullen contends.

“In hurling it has taken Naas 20 years to be where they are now. It took Celbridge 20 years prior to that. Yes, Naas have moved ahead of the posse. When I got involved with the CCC we had to have meetings with clubs to try and get them to amalgamate so that we could have a competition but this year we had 14 minor hurling teams taking part in our competitions. There is great work being done on an individual club basis at Two Mile House, at Kill and at Milltown but as a county we need to coordinate that to bring it to a more structured format. We have Ros Glas in the south west of the county and they could be the Ėire Ógs or the Coill Dubhs of the future,” Mullen added.

On finance and facilities and teams within the county Mick Mullen had this to say. “The finance is in a healthy state at the moment. Our facilities are improving, our fixtures are one of the best in the country. We have had a couple of bad years with the county seniors but that’s not all our teams. Our hurling teams are still performing well, our underage teams are still doing well. Brian Flanagan has gone in there now. He was in with the Development Panel before he got the role as manager. I will be supporting Brian and Brian Dowling to achieve their goals. We have a Strategic Plan in place that has a year to run and there will be another Plan in place next year.” Integration within the GAA is another challenge that will face the county Mick Mullen believes.

 “Coming down the track is integration and we’re going to have to have facilities to match that. We have to grow and improve our training facilities in Hawkfield. We have a new stand but what’s to stop us developing behind the goals Within 18 months we will have paid off the project and that’s an absolute massive achievement. When the integration happens, we want young lads and girls to come and play in St Conleth’s Park. I think we are on a crest but we have to push on. We want our senior teams to do well and we all have the same goals and I would hope that my leadership would bring all that together. Everybody needs to be on board on this including the media. So much goes on in the background in Kildare GAA that people don’t know about. This is not an easy job for anybody. Communication is key in all of that.” 

While the clubs are the platform for all matters within Kildare GAA Mick Mullen sees a need to involve those supporters outside of the clubs. “We need to engage the public to give them a better match day package. We have a super facility now that we are looking to bring on commercially so if someone arrives into Cedral St Conleth’s Park they are going to get a comfy seat, maybe something to eat,” he tells us.

“It’s very early days but I would hope that we would see more and more Kildare people coming back to watch the senior team but we have to be patient with Brian (Flanagan). This is a short term, medium term and a long term goal and there are a lot of managers around the country that are in place for ten years or more. Brian has been given four years and that will evolve over time.”

Giving his reasons for contesting the Chairperson of Kildare GAA now Mick Mullen told us, “I have been No 2 for long enough. The qualities that I have are not last year or the year before, they’re last week. I bring people along with me. I’m a Level 1 Coach, I have been Underage Coordinator and Summer Camp Coordinator. I have been a Referee; I was Leinster Representative for Kildare for five years and I have been on the Leinster CCC and Leinster Hearings.” 

 “I have been Chairman of Kildare CCC and I have been involved in many sub committees so I think it’s time that I demonstrated my skills to bring everybody together on this journey. If I manage to get across the line, we are going to hit 100 years since Kildare last won an All-Ireland. I do have short term goals, mid term goals but I think it is my turn to step up to the mark at this stage. In my day-to-day role as a leader within the Civil Service I have responsibility for the pensions of 25,000 Civil Servants.” 

 “I will also be recommending another experienced GAA official, Larry Curtin to run alongside me for the role as Vice Chairman,” Mick Mullen concluded.