Today will see the most unusual coronation ever in the GAA.
arry McCarthy of Bishopstown, Co Cork will be glued to his device, plugged into a virtual GAA Congress while sitting in his apartment in Dublin. As he is officially handed the role of GAA president for the next three years, all sorts of traditions will melt away.
Will there even be a presidential pin stuck in his suit lapel? Will the delegates temporarily mute their Zoom call to give him a round of applause? And how is it that the highest office in the GAA goes to someone who has spent the last 40 years in the United States?
Only one other candidate from overseas ever pursued the role before.
The legendary John 'Kerry' O'Donnell, who was also the proprietor of Gaelic Park in the Bronx in its heyday of the 1980s when mass unemployment at home meant that New York GAA was never as awash with talent from the Old Country, went for the post in 1981.
The late O'Donnell and McCarthy are vastly different characters. O'Donnell ran Gaelic Park like a fiefdom. He made his money through the bulging pay packets of the emigrants, starry-eyed at living in the Big Apple and astounded at their own earnings.
At one stage Gaelic Park had the longest bar in New York state, running 250ft long, which says something for the demand inside, while war was waged on the threadbare playing surface outside every Sunday eight months of the year.
Everyone knew O'Donnell. There was an understandable dependency on him. He could make or break people in that town.
It's hardly a stretch to say that McCarthy's challenge was seen as not much more than a piece of curious trivia. At last year's Congress, he received 17 fewer first-preference votes than the favourite, Armagh's Jarlath Burns. He crept up the rails through vote transfers and got through by a whisker on the fourth - and final - count to produce a shock result.
McCarthy is an academic. For years he has been beavering away on GAA Committees, and served as a trustee of the GAA and as a regular delegate from New York. But essentially, he craved anonymity. That's all over for him now as he moves to Ireland to take up the role.
The 67-year-old began studying at Thomond College, Limerick as a physical education trainer and was part of the squad that won the All-Ireland Club Football Championship in 1978, beating Antrim's St John's in the final.
After a few years spent teaching in Dublin in the late 1970s and early '80s, he eventually moved to New York. In time, he would gain a position with Seton Hall University. Primarily, he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in sports marketing and undergraduate international sports management.
In GAA terms, New York may be off-Broadway but McCarthy's administrative career there speaks of foresight and planning, qualities that will be put to the test as he becomes the president to guide the GAA out of the Covid nightmare.
Already, he is credited as one of those that averted the slow death of GAA in New York by establishing strong links among the children of emigrants.
Former New York PRO, John Riordan, explained: "There was a little population boom among the Irish that came over here in the '80s and '90s and did well and moved to areas like Rockland, and would have set up clubs.
"All those kids that have come through are playing under-age GAA, they are enjoying it and keeping the culture alive. It's clichéd and a bit corny, but it is huge to see the likes of Rockland build a facility. You don't know how hard it is to build a facility over here, it is basically impossible.
"As much as emigration was high in the '80s, it slowed down in the 2000s for obvious reasons and keeping the game alive in New York City was no mean feat, keeping people coming to Gaelic Park on a Sunday. It will never be what it was, but it has kept going and that all creates the other good stuff like Rockland and whatnot."
Those assertions are backed up by the current New York chairperson, Joan Henchy.
"I approached the former chair Laurence McGrath with an idea I had and ran it by Larry, about the promotion of the young Americans," she said.
"We could see there was a fall-off in numbers, we had 2,600 kids registered under-age and we weren't seeing them coming through.
"We needed to take a look and identify why, and where was the problem? We put a lot of thought into that. Larry was an advocate of it, a huge supporter of it and getting our youth officers here.
"He single-handedly got our youth officer, Simon Gillespie, here 10 years ago and it was through his hard work. It was Larry 10 years ago that had the foresight to see this and it is coming to fruition throughout the entire organisation."
After coming over as a player, McCarthy soon found himself involved in every element of GAA affairs in New York. Based in New Jersey, he has spent years by now sitting in heavy traffic on the murderously tedious Cross Bronx Expressway inching towards the Bronx on Saturdays and Sundays for that day's programme of games.
Riordan added: "He has a very keen sense of what it means to be a GAA volunteer.
"He knows the book back to front, one of these top-level delegates that goes to Congress every year and knows every rule backwards and forwards.
"At the same time he will be at Gaelic Park on a Saturday morning doing the clean-up if necessary. That's the kind of guy he is. He is not aloof, not above getting the hands dirty.
"He hits a lot of nails on the head, from that top end of administrative work, to carrying the water bottles with his club Sligo, which is in its own way important, too.
"He is very popular with his Sligo players. I was there at county final day. Sligo lost to St Barnabas in the county final replay, but Sligo were one of the clubs out here that I admire. Most of their players are based here, a really good vibe and he is very well respected among them."
The New York scene that McCarthy joined is no more. It evolved. As the Celtic Tiger raged, young men and women returned home to make serious money.
When the ball was dropped, it was the new frontiers of the Emirates and Australia that lured them. Something of the shine went off America, but the change in philosophy has left things in mint condition.
Henchy stated with obvious pride: "We have six new teams this year!
"I could write a book about New York Gaelic football, I am buzzing about the health of New York at the moment.
"I think it goes back to last year when there was nothing there for people and young guys came to the games and older lads who would have played when they were in their 20s and disappeared when they were 30, they realised they could play a bit of junior football and not get wrecked.
"It's an outlet and a social life and they gravitate back to their club. There was nowhere for them to go, they couldn't travel anywhere, but Gaelic games and Gaelic Park offered them an outlet, the socialisation that they needed.
"I mean, we had so much fun down there last summer. It was stressful, but the players enjoyed it more than ever.
"We had people in Gaelic Park every night of the week, every night. It wouldn't have mattered if you had two cocks chasing each other round the field, they were coming to watch it!"
So, what can the GAA expect from a man who has the job plenty might have coveted, but just not right now?
"He's fair. Very fair. He listens, takes everything into account. I have always found him to be very straight and open," said Henchy.
"He's as hard as nails when it comes to making decisions and he will not waver on them, but in my time with Larry I have always found him to be an advocate for clubs, making sure they are listened to and heard."
Hard as nails. He'll need to be for the next three years.
