The new head of the GAA is the principal of one of Northern Ireland’s leading schools and a strong defender of Catholic education.

Jarlath Burns says he is “not against integrated education, but I am for Catholic education”.

“Catholic education is not education for Catholics; we have children who are avowed atheists, and we have Muslim and Protestant children here too. It is not the duty of Catholic education to indoctrinate and, if you have a child of Muslim faith, it is your duty to teach them their religion.”

He speaks from a deep experience of Northern Ireland’s education system. It is divided between selective grammar schools, which choose the children that perform best in exams at the end of primary school, and schools that are open to all.

Despite being non-selective, the Catholic school of 1700 pupils that Jarlath served as principal, St Paul’s in Newry, is one of the most heavily oversubscribed in Northern Ireland.