A United Ireland. Opening up the discussion.

[Syferus]

I know a chap who describes himself as "of planter stock", lives in a large  town where few Nationalists live.
He would be mildly pro Union but not wound up about it, probably votes Alliance.
His children are in a localish Comhaltas branch and love traditional Irish music.
As well as soccer oriented west Belfast and Derry City youngsters shouldn't the GAA  be reaching out to my acquaintances kids and what would be wrong with so doing?

This man does exist (unlike Enda Kenny's or Eugene McGee's people).
How many more like him?

In the longer  term it's people like him who will decide the "Border poll"

Shinners do compromise about as well as the DUP do it. It's a pity both sides ended up empowering the loopy extremist parties rather than the moderate ones. Every time a Shinner throws stones at the unionists without acknowledging their own massive failings they drift further from the point of the peace process and eventual unification. Bang, right in the foot.

[johnnycool]

I know a chap who describes himself as "of planter stock", lives in a large  town where few Nationalists live.
He would be mildly pro Union but not wound up about it, probably votes Alliance.
His children are in a localish Comhaltas branch and love traditional Irish music.
As well as soccer oriented west Belfast and Derry City youngsters shouldn't the GAA  be reaching out to my acquaintances kids and what would be wrong with so doing?

This man does exist (unlike Enda Kenny's or Eugene McGee's people).
How many more like him?

In the longer  term it's people like him who will decide the "Border poll"

Shinners do compromise about as well as the DUP do it. It's a pity both sides ended up empowering the loopy extremist parties rather than the moderate ones. Every time a Shinner throws stones at the unionists without acknowledging their own massive failings they drift further from the point of the peace process and eventual unification. Bang, right in the foot.

That must be why Sinn Fein led councils share out the top jobs amongst the various parties, unionist and all and the DUP led councils don't...
That must be why Sinn Fein were prepared to accept a standalone Ulster Scots act but the DUP weren't prepared to accept an Irish Language act.
Lazy bullshit and I'm no shinnerbot as you would say.

[Orchard park]

nobody does compromise quite like Snarlene

[trueblue1234]

I know a chap who describes himself as "of planter stock", lives in a large  town where few Nationalists live.
He would be mildly pro Union but not wound up about it, probably votes Alliance.
His children are in a localish Comhaltas branch and love traditional Irish music.
As well as soccer oriented west Belfast and Derry City youngsters shouldn't the GAA  be reaching out to my acquaintances kids and what would be wrong with so doing?

This man does exist (unlike Enda Kenny's or Eugene McGee's people).
How many more like him?

In the longer  term it's people like him who will decide the "Border poll"

Shinners do compromise about as well as the DUP do it. It's a pity both sides ended up empowering the loopy extremist parties rather than the moderate ones. Every time a Shinner throws stones at the unionists without acknowledging their own massive failings they drift further from the point of the peace process and eventual unification. Bang, right in the foot.

That must be why Sinn Fein led councils share out the top jobs amongst the various parties, unionist and all and the DUP led councils don't...
That must be why Sinn Fein were prepared to accept a standalone Ulster Scots act but the DUP weren't prepared to accept an Irish Language act.
Lazy bullshit and I'm no shinnerbot as you would say.

I wouldn't even bother Johnny. His posts are designed to get a reaction. Even in the rape tread he is deliberately provocative and condescending to try and goad a reaction. Pathetic really.     

[Franko]

Wonder how many clubs are actively supporting the Irish language or traditional music, song etc?
Time for the basic aim to be the promotion of the Gaelic games of football, hurling....etc.
Leave politics to the politicians,  Traditional music to Comhaltas, The language to Conradh and so on.

Agreed. No need for the GAA to act like it's the sporting equivilent of the Wolfe Tones (not a bad auld group, but not exactly agents of cross-community understanding). The one positive of the new age corporate GAA bean counters is that they will likely shy away from the jingoism over the next few decades and try to appeal to other ethnic groups in the country. Money tends to be a powerful motivation.

The club I'm from promotes all of the above. I would imagine they will continue to do so. If this puts people from a different background from joining our club then I'm sorry about that but this is what we are. Take it or leave it.

Fine. Don't make any effort to make Protestants feel welcome. Don't try to grow your club by recruiting from an under-represented demographic. Stick to your little clique and shun all outsiders, newcomers, and everyone who doesn't look like you. But don't come crying to me when unionists keep attacking Irish culture because they think it's alien or threatening to them.

So you think our club should stop the Irish language evening classes?  We should stop teaching kids how to play Irish music so they can enter Scor?

Where did I say anything remotely close to that? If I had my way there'd be a lot more protestants attending said Irish language evening classes, learning Irish music, and participating in Scór. But it's not going to happen in your club if it's named after an INLA man.

I'm sorry but I don't see why the club should have to change its name to suit a handful of Protestants? Kevin Lynch means more to the people of Dungiven and the rest of the North than what it would mean to have a few Protestants join the club. Leave the clubs as they are. If anyone new wants to join, then come ahead. If not, then stay away. You take away names, take away the anthem, take away the flag. Jesus men, have some pride in yourselves.

Lynch was a renegade, a bully and a thug. He means very little to the majority of the people in NI

Did you know him?

[Eamonnca1]

A lot of people on here commenting who obviously have not the faintest idea what they are talking about and have obviously had very few dealings with unionists. To give an example of the type of people you are dealing with I will refer to last night's Nolan show. A unionist commentator, whose name I cannot remember but I think he was a former chairman of the Ulster Unionist party, (thats the reasonable unionist party for those of you not in the know 😉) in the course of a discussion on the Irish language, demanded that the Irish government set up a public enquiry to establish the extent of the ethnic cleansing of protestants in the 26 counties since 1921.

How can you deal reasonably with people such as these. Syferus opines that we all have much more in common than we have to divide us. I would contend that people such as this have commonality only with oddities such as Syferus and his ilk. There is no reasoning or bargaining or working together for the greater good with dyed in the wool unionists or loyalists.  These people are interested only in division and supremacy.

If this presumptuous comment is directed at me, I'd better explain where I'm coming from.

I grew up in a mixed area. Protestants and Catholics living on the same country road in a small hamlet. The wider rural area was also mixed. On our road there was an orange parade every year. The Protestant neighbours would go out and watch, the Catholics would sit in the house and pass no remarks about it for the couple of minutes it took to pass. We all got along as neighbours like in any normal country. The nearby town, Lurgan, was about 50/50 prod/taig but divided down the middle with a small Protestant enclave in the catholic end of the town (since turned Catholic). I went through the Catholic school system until age 16 when I went to the tech which was mixed. We had Protestants and Catholics in the same class, and for all of us it was our first experience of this. Some of our teachers were protestant, some were Catholic, and in a lot of cases we didn't know what they were and didn't particularly care anyway. I've also worked in numerous companies around the area with people from all backgrounds.

So I have considerable experience dealing with unionists and I can assure you that the kind of loudmouth who goes on the Nolan show, like the blowhards on Talkback, are not representative of what we're dealing with on the ground. It's a certain type of person who goes on that show and a certain "Tonbridge Wells" type who listens to it regularly. There's a lot more moderation in unionism than you'd think. There are plenty of people from the unionist tradition who may not be convertible to the politics of nationalism, but they would be interested in Irish culture if it were more accessible to them.

For those saying we have to "drop everything we stand for and become soccer clubs" in order to attract more unionists, this is missing the point. We don't have to drop our games or our Irishness. The only thing we need to drop is overt displays of political nationalism. Stick to promoting Irish culture. Depoliticise it, don't weaponise it. It's not just for nationalists. It's for everybody.

[Eamonnca1]

I never mentioned religions at all, you added that in.

my point is simple we have thousands upon thousands of nationalist kids in urban areas who arent yet active in GAA, Derry city being the biggest misnomer of all . They would be easier brought into the GAA than someone who is ideologically and multi generationally opposed to everything of an irish culture.
Its not sectarian, its merely common sense why should the GAA attempt the impossible for the sake of what maybe 10 kids joining when 1000s are available if Croke Park and HQ together with the respective county boards got their fingers out of their holes and invested in reclaiming the decay in urban nationalist areas

It's not sectarian to prioritize the recruitment of Catholics and to dismiss recruitment of Protestants as "impossible?"

[ONARAGGATIP]

our local club promotes the culture, there are Irish language classes, there is a trad night once a month. It is imo a welcoming club for unionists, we have a few young lads from the local rugby club who play for our underage teams and they are excellent players already, strong with great co-ordination skills, it is something I hope continues, some of these lads are from strong unionist tradition but their parents send them to keep them skilled during the summer months, the kids love the gaelic football so its a win win all round. At the same time at our presentation night one of the protestant parents was over talking to me and another parent came past and said I hope we skelp the huns next weekend, referring of course to an old firm game, I felt a bit scundered even though I am a Celtic fan also, the protestant lad never took it under his notice but I didn't feel comfortable with him having to even hear that. As for Syferus, I would sooner have 1000 unionists at the club than 1 of him.

[Therealdonald]

Wonder how many clubs are actively supporting the Irish language or traditional music, song etc?
Time for the basic aim to be the promotion of the Gaelic games of football, hurling....etc.
Leave politics to the politicians,  Traditional music to Comhaltas, The language to Conradh and so on.

Agreed. No need for the GAA to act like it's the sporting equivilent of the Wolfe Tones (not a bad auld group, but not exactly agents of cross-community understanding). The one positive of the new age corporate GAA bean counters is that they will likely shy away from the jingoism over the next few decades and try to appeal to other ethnic groups in the country. Money tends to be a powerful motivation.

The club I'm from promotes all of the above. I would imagine they will continue to do so. If this puts people from a different background from joining our club then I'm sorry about that but this is what we are. Take it or leave it.

Fine. Don't make any effort to make Protestants feel welcome. Don't try to grow your club by recruiting from an under-represented demographic. Stick to your little clique and shun all outsiders, newcomers, and everyone who doesn't look like you. But don't come crying to me when unionists keep attacking Irish culture because they think it's alien or threatening to them.

So you think our club should stop the Irish language evening classes?  We should stop teaching kids how to play Irish music so they can enter Scor?

Where did I say anything remotely close to that? If I had my way there'd be a lot more protestants attending said Irish language evening classes, learning Irish music, and participating in Scór. But it's not going to happen in your club if it's named after an INLA man.

I'm sorry but I don't see why the club should have to change its name to suit a handful of Protestants? Kevin Lynch means more to the people of Dungiven and the rest of the North than what it would mean to have a few Protestants join the club. Leave the clubs as they are. If anyone new wants to join, then come ahead. If not, then stay away. You take away names, take away the anthem, take away the flag. Jesus men, have some pride in yourselves.

Lynch was a renegade, a bully and a thug. He means very little to the majority of the people in NI

I think Smel, you'll find that that is not the case. You will find he means a great deal to the majority of people and those others who put down their lives.

[Eamonnca1]

The difficulty the GAA has in the north is that it is still very much parish based and that makes it hard in a segregated society to attract kids in, we have two clubs in our parish and kids will only play for the team at their end. So its difficult to reach out to kids from outside. In relation to Irishness why should the GAA as an Irish cultural organisation as well as sporting one not promote Irish language and culture. To many nationalists it is also still the only place our identity and ethnicity is officially recognised in a state dominated by the culture and symbolism of one side. It grates on me sometimes to hear SF use Irish badly (in many cases) but at least they are trying. If all of us my self included used a little day by day that would go some way towards keeping it a living language. I (in spite of my pledges) watched a little bit of Nolan last night...depressing and shocked at Chris McGimpsey. Had to laugh though at the boy from Shankill saying there'd be no Irish place names were he lived.

I don't know how many times I'm going to have to repeat this but I'm not suggesting that the GAA should stop promoting Irish language and culture. I've never met anyone who did suggest such a thing.

[Syferus]

The difficulty the GAA has in the north is that it is still very much parish based and that makes it hard in a segregated society to attract kids in, we have two clubs in our parish and kids will only play for the team at their end. So its difficult to reach out to kids from outside. In relation to Irishness why should the GAA as an Irish cultural organisation as well as sporting one not promote Irish language and culture. To many nationalists it is also still the only place our identity and ethnicity is officially recognised in a state dominated by the culture and symbolism of one side. It grates on me sometimes to hear SF use Irish badly (in many cases) but at least they are trying. If all of us my self included used a little day by day that would go some way towards keeping it a living language. I (in spite of my pledges) watched a little bit of Nolan last night...depressing and shocked at Chris McGimpsey. Had to laugh though at the boy from Shankill saying there'd be no Irish place names were he lived.

I don't know how many times I'm going to have to repeat this but I'm not suggesting that the GAA should stop promoting Irish language and culture. I've never met anyone who did suggest such a thing.

By the same token there's no reason they couldn't promote Ulster Scots too. The GAA currently promotes white Catholic Irish culture. There's much more to Irish culture than that alone.

[Rossfan]

Eh?

[Wildweasel74]

Kevin Lynch in Derry will not be changing their name to suit anyone. would more protestants join GAA teams if this changed, Big No!! Clubs have their own problems attracting  players who rather play soccer, rugby, drink in the pub, work, changing the name of a club will have no effect on this, why are we worried about attracting protestants when we cant attract  many polish or foreign nationals to the game, who would attend catholic schools.

At the end of the day, Kevin Lynch club has won Derry senior hurling titles under that name and thats the reason i would keep it alone. Would it be named Kevin Lynch in todays society, NO! but it was named back when  the troubles were at their peak.

Sure we all join a Orange marching band once they make a 101 changes too!!

[BennyCake]

Kevin Lynch in Derry will not be changing their name to suit anyone. would more protestants join GAA teams if this changed, Big No!! Clubs have their own problems attracting  players who rather play soccer, rugby, drink in the pub, work, changing the name of a club will have no effect on this, why are we worried about attracting protestants when we cant attract  many polish or foreign nationals to the game, who would attend catholic schools.

At the end of the day, Kevin Lynch club has won Derry senior hurling titles under that name and thats the reason i would keep it alone. Would it be named Kevin Lynch in todays society, NO! but it was named back when  the troubles were at their peak.

Sure we all join a Orange marching band once they make a 101 changes too!!

The OO is an anti-catholic organisation. The GAA is not anti-Protestant.

[OgraAnDun]

The difficulty the GAA has in the north is that it is still very much parish based and that makes it hard in a segregated society to attract kids in, we have two clubs in our parish and kids will only play for the team at their end. So its difficult to reach out to kids from outside. In relation to Irishness why should the GAA as an Irish cultural organisation as well as sporting one not promote Irish language and culture. To many nationalists it is also still the only place our identity and ethnicity is officially recognised in a state dominated by the culture and symbolism of one side. It grates on me sometimes to hear SF use Irish badly (in many cases) but at least they are trying. If all of us my self included used a little day by day that would go some way towards keeping it a living language. I (in spite of my pledges) watched a little bit of Nolan last night...depressing and shocked at Chris McGimpsey. Had to laugh though at the boy from Shankill saying there'd be no Irish place names were he lived.

I don't know how many times I'm going to have to repeat this but I'm not suggesting that the GAA should stop promoting Irish language and culture. I've never met anyone who did suggest such a thing.

By the same token there's no reason they couldn't promote Ulster Scots too. The GAA currently promotes white Catholic Irish culture. There's much more to Irish culture than that alone.

There's no need to promote it, everyone that lives in an area where Ulster Scots may be spoken is already fluent in it. Even in Roscommon you'd be hard pressed to find someone that doesn't understand it.