Louth Ladies are to host next year's annual Congress of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association.

Ladies GAA delegates from the 32 counties and from units in England, Scotland, Australia and New York will descend on the county on the first Friday evening of March 2018.

The Congress, which runs for three days, will be in a County Louth  Hotel which will be named shortly and will get underway at 8 pm on the Friday and will run all day Saturday with business finishing on Sunday morning.

It is a fitting tribute to Louth Ladies football, 25 years on from the founding of the game in the county.

It is the first time the Congress is being staged in the county.

It is a tribute to the standing of Louth Ladies football at national level that it fought off stiff opposition from four other Leinster counties, Dublin, Meath,  and Kildare, to host the Congress.

This was down, in many ways, to the persuasive powers of two men who are widely respected in the association the length and breadth of the country, Central Council delegate Pat Carr and current Louth chairman Dermot Woods.

"I spoke on the discussion about the hosting of the Congress at the weekend's Congress, in Donegal" said Dermot Woods.

"It was Leinster's turn and we felt that it was appropriate that we got to host it on our 25th anniversary.

"It is testament to the standing of Louth Gaa Ladies at national level that Congress backed our call.

"We are really looking forward to hosting what is a big event. When you take in all the delegates from all the counties and abroad and the executive there will be in the region of 170 delegates attending the Congress.

"We will be setting up a special committee to organise the event, now that it has been  awarded to us and I am confident that they will have everything in place for the successful running of Congress.

"The first (Louth) board was formed in early 1992, which is 25 years ago this year, and I got involved  two year's later," explained Dermot.

"My club Nh.Malachi set up a team in 1993 and that got me involved,

"After a while I started going to county board meetings and from that I got cajoled into taking on jobs.

"And 23 years later I'm serving my third term as county chairman and I have held many other positions down the years."

He held the chair position first in 1997 and he is into his first year of a third term.

Twenty five years on from Micheal Heaney and Peter Mulligan first getting the wheels in motion, Louth ladies football is in a good place.

The Adult team have won two of their last four League games and are sitting in a good position in the table after a dissapointing start. We have a very young team who will get better with time and will benefit from a strong management team led by ex Dublin hero John O'Leary said the Malachi's clubman

"The game took off from the word go with huge crowds attending our county final's and winning an All-Ireland title in 1998 in Croke Park under the guidance of Tony Melia, Dermot Agnew and Joey Kirk was a big help.

Louth  reached the Intermediate final twelve month's later with Alo McGrath in charge and  beat Cork and Kerry on the way to beating Wexford in the final.

Louth  lost the Junior All-Ireland final's of 2010 beaten by Limerick and again in  2012 to Antrim - before they finally claimed a third All-Ireland, the Junior final of 2015.

Under the guidance of Meath native Martin Connolly, they finally climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand,  for the second time after overcoming Scotland in the final.

An All-Ireland minor title in 2011 and number of under age provincial titles have been added to the trophy cabinet in the intervening years.

"We've had great players and some very good people working with teams down the years and it took a lot of hard work and commitment from a lot of people to take us where we are today,concluded the Louth chairman

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