A United Ireland. Opening up the discussion.

[naka]

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.

What!!!
It promotes Irish culture, Catholicism whether it is liked or not is the predominant religion in Ireland .
Colour has feck all to do with it , have you send the number of black kids playing the game and long may it continue.

[Eamonnca1]

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.

Damned if I know why you're bringing skin colour into it but I wouldn't be opposed to exploring the hurling-shinty connection more. Twinning arrangements between hurling clubs in Antrim and Shinty clubs in Scotland, underage exchange visits, regular compromise rules games at club level and not just the international series (which has been running since 1896, by the way), would all do the power of good. The northern flavour of hurling (commons) is part of their heritage that most planters have probably forgotten, which is a shame.

[Eamonnca1]

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

The OO could make plenty of changes to their organization. They could drop the anti-catholic rules and rhetoric and put a bit of daylight between themselves and political unionism. If they could reform into a more benevolent fraternal organization that promotes positive aspects of Protestantism then I don't think Catholics would be lining up to join but at least it'd take out the reasons to object to their parades in Catholic areas. I'd like to see the day when the OO is non-sectarian enough and apolitical enough that their parades would be welcome in nationalist areas.

It's a long way in to the future, but it's an achievable goal.

[Syferus]

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.

Damned if I know why you're bringing skin colour into it but I wouldn't be opposed to exploring the hurling-shinty connection more. Twinning arrangements between hurling clubs in Antrim and Shinty clubs in Scotland, underage exchange visits, regular compromise rules games at club level and not just the international series (which has been running since 1896, by the way), would all do the power of good. The northern flavour of hurling (commons) is part of their heritage that most planters have probably forgotten, which is a shame.

If you saw how little is being done locally here in Ballyhaunis (refugee center and the first mosque west of the Shannon), Ballagh (Syrians and a long-established Pakistani community) and Roscommon (some wonderful Brazilians) you'd know far the GAA still needs to come to appeal to anyone who isn't white and Catholic. And these are small rural towns that for simple competitive reasons shouldn't be giving up swathes of their potential supporter base if they want to thrive.

The GAA will get a couple of lads in their U12 teams from different backgrounds and they usually end up dropping out long before senior but it doesn't stop the back-patting inside the sport - Ballyhaunis was promoting itself as some bastion of inclusion last year but their senior hurling team doesn't have a single non-white player in their ranks despite running blitzes that's filled with minority players. The system is still broken.

[Eamonnca1]

So we have to choose between recruiting protestants, recruiting immigrants, or recruiting from the traditional demographic, but we can't do all three? We can't even do two of those three? Maybe if the association were a bit more outward looking and less cliquish we'd find it easier to bring people in from all backgrounds, Poles and planters alike.

[Farrandeelin]

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.

Damned if I know why you're bringing skin colour into it but I wouldn't be opposed to exploring the hurling-shinty connection more. Twinning arrangements between hurling clubs in Antrim and Shinty clubs in Scotland, underage exchange visits, regular compromise rules games at club level and not just the international series (which has been running since 1896, by the way), would all do the power of good. The northern flavour of hurling (commons) is part of their heritage that most planters have probably forgotten, which is a shame.

If you saw how little is being done local here in Ballyhaunis (refugee center and the first mosque west of the Shannon), Ballagh (Syrians and a long-established Pakistani community) and Roscommon (some wonderful Brazilians) you'd know far the GAA still needs to come to appeal to anyone who isn't white and Catholic. And these are small rural towns that for simple competitive reasons shouldn't be giving up swathes of their potential supporter base if they want to thrive.

The GAA will get a couple of lads in their U12 teams from different backgrounds and they usually end up dropping out long before senior but it doesn't stop the back-patting inside the sport - Ballyhaunis was promoting itself as some bastion of inclusion last year but their senior hurling team doesn't have a single non-white player in their ranks despite running blitzes that's filled with minority players. The system is still broken.

Fair enough. But what work should the GAA in Ballyhaunis do to promote hurling among their Muslim community? Or football for that matter. I highly doubt they all stand outside their clubhouse with sheets saying 'white Catholic only'. And don't mention the anthem, they only hear it in Ballyhaunis once a year when there's a championship match on.

[BennyCake]

So we have to choose between recruiting protestants, recruiting immigrants, or recruiting from the traditional demographic, but we can't do all three? We can't even do two of those three? Maybe if the association were a bit more outward looking and less cliquish we'd find it easier to bring people in from all backgrounds, Poles and planters alike.

'The Poles and Planters Program' - maybe that's what they could call that initiative 

[Eamonnca1]

And don't mention the anthem, they only hear it in Ballyhaunis once a year when there's a championship match on.

The anthem isn't an issue in the free state. Only in the north would I be in favour of dropping it at matches.

[BennyCake]

And don't mention the anthem, they only hear it in Ballyhaunis once a year when there's a championship match on.

The anthem isn't an issue in the free state. Only in the north would I be in favour of dropping it at matches.

That's a partitionist issue though. The gaa is a 32 county organisation. Rule 21 only affected the North but was voted on a 32 county basis.

[Eamonnca1]

The Good Friday Agreement, which we should all be supporting, recognises the sensitivity of flags and symbols in the north. We should all behave accordingly and stop using flags as territorial markers. In a normal country flags are used to unite people, in the north they're used to divide.

[armaghniac]

The Good Friday Agreement, which we should all be supporting, recognises the sensitivity of flags and symbols in the north. We should all behave accordingly and stop using flags as territorial markers. In a normal country flags are used to unite people, in the north they're used to divide.

We don't use a flag to mark territory, every GAA ground in the world flys the flag.

[Eamonnca1]

We don't use a flag to mark territory

In the Northern Ireland it's precisely what we do

[armaghniac]

We don't use a flag to mark territory

In the Northern Ireland it's precisely what we do

The GAA flys  the flag in same way in all 32 counties. 

[6th sam]

And don't mention the anthem, they only hear it in Ballyhaunis once a year when there's a championship match on.

The anthem isn't an issue in the free state. Only in the north would I be in favour of dropping it at matches.

Be careful what you wish for!
Inclusion is of paramount importance , and we should continue to work at welcoming everybody particularly minorities. However that needn't be at the expense of our Irish ethos.
We punch way above our weight as a sport , dwarfing major worldwide sports on this island. A major motivation for most of our best volunteers and a subconscious motivation for all involved is the patriotic attachment of the organisation. If we drop all or many of the trappings of Irishness it may not attract minorities to any great extent, but it could undermine our volunteer base.

[Syferus]

And don't mention the anthem, they only hear it in Ballyhaunis once a year when there's a championship match on.

The anthem isn't an issue in the free state. Only in the north would I be in favour of dropping it at matches.

Be careful what you wish for!
Inclusion is of paramount importance , and we should continue to work at welcoming everybody particularly minorities. However that needn't be at the expense of our Irish ethos.
We punch way above our weight as a sport , dwarfing major worldwide sports on this island. A major motivation for most of our best volunteers and a subconscious motivation for all involved is the patriotic attachment of the organisation. If we drop all or many of the trappings of Irishness it may not attract minorities to any great extent, but it could undermine our volunteer base.

Given its supremacy, the GAA punches at exactly its weight in the country. There are plenty of examples of local sports being massively popular in one or two countries, it really doesn't matter a jot how popular another is internationally if that native sport is already established.

The GAA is no underdog and that is no excuse not reflect the Ireland of 2018 rather than the one that exsisted when a bunch of revolutionaries had a knees up in Hayes' in the 1880s. The identity of Ireland has changed and the GAA needs to as well.

If you think there's much attachment to the patriotic element of the GAA outside the six counties you're sorely mistaken. It's just sport and local communities in the other 26. The club and county flags mean far more to me in the GAA than the tri colour. First it was being afraid of foreign sports, then it was of cops playing the sport, now the boogeyman is some imagined loss of white Catholic culture if we do the things that will allow us to reach out to other groups in the future. This is all very remeincent of the retoric used by Trump's supporters when talking about the changing face of America and the decline of WASPs' influence - not a favourable comparison for anyone.

And if someone is only in GAA so tennously that making it less politically charged and open in the north turns them away, good night and good riddance to those people. They don't reflect my ethos and attachment to the GAA in any way, shape or form.