Still no place for gaelic games in NI state school sector

[SammyG]

Actually I don't like what goes on.  But what is going on is that individual GAA clubs are renting out their premises to events I don't like.

The GAA is not (and never has) "started raising funds for political/paramilitary groups".

Sorry Jim but that is the worst kind of double-speak. One minute the GAA own and run all the grounds (when it suits them) the next it's the local club and nothing the GAA can do about it. You can't have it both ways.

[his holiness nb]

Sammy do the GAA raise funds for political / paramilitary groups, yes or no?

I'm not talking about renting halls to other groups who do, I am talking about the GAA specifically raising these funds?

Please give a yes or no answer.

[SammyG]

Sammy do the GAA raise funds for political / paramilitary groups, yes or no?

I'm not talking about renting halls to other groups who do, I am talking about the GAA specifically raising these funds?

Please give a yes or no answer.

Yes

[Croí na hÉireann]

Can I just say that the unionist people have always been involved in the GAA, protestant persuasion as well, I know this for a fact because I am from a protestant family absolutely steeped in the GAA.  I have never suffered from political or sectarian overtones within the GAA.  Ill call it as I see it,  There are those who want the GAA to change to suit their thing, the GAA is uniquely Irish and is its own thing. 
Nothing is neutral any more - no more so than Windsor Park on a big match night, which I love and attend in equal; measure, and I know its not neutral.  England at Wembley is a bastion of nationalist  fervour,  Even football clubs like Man U and Liverpool would half kill each other for no obvious reason but their locality but they are not neutral.  So what are we the unionist community asking the GAA as a whole organisation to do - abandon the very principles that have made them great.  Im not part of Croke Park administratively but I know I dont want the GAA to change.   My view would be if you dont like their  thing then stay away, but dont try and change something that delivers much more positivity and uniqueness to Irish / N irish life than conceivably anything else.  Many of my unionist friends are curious and bewildered but many have seen my kids play the game, they know I sell fundraising items and they support that.  Its total passion, total sport, its not bland, definitely in no way religious or sectarian,  its not neutral either but what in life is in any domain, its the most inclusive and rewarding wonderful thing anybody on this island, Protestant, Catholic, polish, Lithuanian and English man could  be involved in.  Its time more of the protestant sons of Cuchulainn understood what their culture reallly is and formed their own clubs or got stuck right in the middle of others.  Some of us choose to sit outside but we are only marginalising ourselves and are the poorer for it.    We have become a people who watch and dont participate, take and dont contribute, soccor and rugby are sports which provide the telly and the glamour but feck  all else.  The GAA is controversial among other reasons because it stands still but by God it stands tall. You leave your house on a Sunday wrapped in your colours as opposed to the Englishman goes to the pub to shout their head off at the TV on a sunday, we actually stand on the sidelines, wave the flags, pick up the litter, kick the balls, referee and all.  Do we want to be associated with the shame of that supposed idealistic club in Manchester this week or do we want to improve our ciommunities.  I say there are a hell of a lot more unionists who wish to be or indeed are  part of the GAA than the unionist leaders would wish to acknowledge and it dilutes nothing of our ideals and certainly not least the craic amongst us all.    No more excuses. 

Outstanding post amongst the usual rabble, well said that man...

[his holiness nb]

Sammy do the GAA raise funds for political / paramilitary groups, yes or no?

I'm not talking about renting halls to other groups who do, I am talking about the GAA specifically raising these funds?

Please give a yes or no answer.

Yes

And there we have it folks.
Blinded by hatred enough to ignore the facts.

Sammy you are an utter f**king disgrace to civilised people.

[SammyG]

Sammy do the GAA raise funds for political / paramilitary groups, yes or no?

I'm not talking about renting halls to other groups who do, I am talking about the GAA specifically raising these funds?

Please give a yes or no answer.

Yes

And there we have it folks.
Blinded by hatred enough to ignore the facts.

Sammy you are an utter f**king disgrace to civilised people.

Not for the first time, I have to ask what the fcuk are you on about? What facts have I ignored?

[Main Street]

As a kid whenever we wanted a kickabout on the street or school yard or even all summer long it was soccer we played. It was easy to set up.
For the most part only played Gaelic on the school pitches and club pitches.
Club pitch wasn't accessable so it left to school where up to leaving cert some 95% of our Gaelic was played extra curricular and where we had a proper educated coach.

[Solomon Kane]

Would anyone have any idea how many RC schools in NI refuse to let kids play "soccer"? I'm not stirring, just curious. Or indeed, if any Rugby schools in the ROI don't play Gaelic games? I know for a fact that there are a depressing amount of state grammar schools in NI which cannot see past rugby or hockey, and will not heed calls from pupils for football. 

[dublinfella]

Would anyone have any idea how many RC schools in NI refuse to let kids play "soccer"? I'm not stirring, just curious. Or indeed, if any Rugby schools in the ROI don't play Gaelic games? I know for a fact that there are a depressing amount of state grammar schools in NI which cannot see past rugby or hockey, and will not heed calls from pupils for football. 

I think this is nail on head. Schools have a certain sporting ethos and are reluctant to change. That a rugby school does not allow soccer or a soccer school GAA or a GAA school soccer etc is not by defenition sectarian.

The exact same happens in the 26, and I have yet to hear Blacrock College or Terenure described as sectarian for not allowing Gaelic games in their schools.

[armaghniac]

Blacrock College or Terenure described as sectarian for not allowing Gaelic games in their schools.

They do allow Gaelic games. If you came on here and read the regular threads, rather than just stirring sh*t, then you would have seen the thread describing the game between those very two schools.

[magickingdom]

Political stuff has no place in the GAA and that needs to be changed.  Hands up, criticism taken.

However, those that don't want GAA sports in their schools are driven (for the most part) by the prejudices outlined on this topic.  Anyone who claims otherwise is blind or disingenuous.

/Jim.

I think that is a fair comment. From my observation, there are people within the GAA who are unbendingly attached to the political side of the organisation etc, when that should no longer have any place in a sporting organisation in this day and age (imo). Similarly, there are people within the non-GAA (effectively Unionist) community who will always distrust and dislike the GAA regardless. Each provides fuel for the other's prejudices.

However, I personally suspect that each faction is a minority within its community.

How to end this stand-off? I accept it can never be for outsiders such as myself to tell the GAA what they should or shouldn't do, including removing the politics. But by the same principle, unless or until the silent majority within the GAA decides for itself that it would be better off doing so, then the silent majority within the Unionist community, who sincerely believe that politics ought to have no place within sport, will have no effective answer to Unionist extremists who look for a stick - any stick - with which to beat the GAA.

In the end, if the GAA were to remove the politics, then I believe every Unionist should welcome the extension of Gaelic games to all schools. As it is, I have no great objection where it does happen, since anything that gets kids out running around in the fresh air has got to be a good thing. However, I could not campaign for it.

As I've said many times before, in the end the GAA must decide which it wants more: its Nationalist political ethos, or the willing support of one million non-Nationalist Irish people.

Over to you, Mr. Brennan.

why should the gaa change anything? the sport should be available in the schools if enough of the pupils want it, end of story. its not allowed because of bigots.
btw nice to see you great leader in his last major interview in todays irish times saying (in his opinion) "were not going to have a united ireland in the next 50 years or maybe 100 years but then i'll not be here anyway, so it doesn't matter"

what a f**king p***k, couldnt care about the rest of ye once he's gone! he's doing the very same job trimble was doing but its ok now because its him.

[pintsofguinness]

So when the GAA clubs hire out function rooms to legitimate political parties they are raising money for paramilitaries-what they are doing is no worse than making a few bob. I await Sammy and his mates to also include the Hastings Hotel Group (hiring of function rooms in Europa to SF)  and Belfast City council (hire of Ulster hall to SF) be be branded paramilitary fundraisers. What was the excuse you used when UVF/LVF kicked a man to death outside Tobermore FC-not the IFA's fault as they did no remit over what happened in the club. Away and wind your neck in you p***k-attitudes like yours led to the death of good men Sean Browne to be killed and Gavin Brett to be killed. 

Good point and it's not surprising it was ignored by our mates EG and sammyg.

So do either of you two lads want to answer the above point because I, for one, would be very interested in whether or not you class hotel owners as raising money for paramilitaries. 

[iluvni]

When the GAA take the bull by the horns and ensures clubs arent named after the likes of Kevin Lynch, perhaps then there will be much less reluctance to see gaelic footbal or hurling  in state schools.

[pintsofguinness]

When the GAA take the bull by the horns and ensures clubs arent named after the likes of Kevin Lynch, perhaps then there will be much less reluctance to see gaelic footbal or hurling  in state schools.

It's not up to the GAA to name clubs, it's up to the people who establish them. 

[Rossfan]

When the GAA take the bull by the horns and ensures clubs arent named after the likes of Kevin Lynch, perhaps then there will be much less reluctance to see gaelic footbal or hurling  in state schools.

I thought State schools would belong to all the people of the "statelet".
Obviously Fenians and GAA types not welcome -except to pay tax of course.