Joe Brolly

[Rossfan]

The G.F.A is finished. People have abandoned any middle ground
Just look at the triumphalism from sf after the Assembly election and the dup after the Westminster election when they knew they had the balance of power.
They're welcome to each other

I don't know how old you are or where you grew up, but I'm seriously glad my children don't have to to grow up in an environment that I had to!

GFA might be shite but it's over 3000 times better than before it

Well said.
Around 3,600 times - and then all the physically injured.

[vallankumous]

I don't know how old you are or where you grew up, but I'm seriously glad my children don't have to to grow up in an environment that I had to!

GFA might be shite but it's over 3000 times better than before it

Yes, exactly.

It's insulting to have someone suggest I might refer to them as the good auld days.

[Wildweasel74]

Well Val are u ok with Catholics joining the police force now? Or how do u expect the police force to change if you want no catholic representation on it?

[Applesisapples]

The hypocrisy from some in the nationalist community to the PSNI is breath taking. People who credit Gerry and Martin for changing the Republican movement from within shun those who join(ed) the PSNI to do the same. Was the new PSNI perfect no, did it take back RUC officers and hold on to a large number yes, but you need experience in the Police service and where was that to come from? I am delighted to meet Odhran's, Peadar's and Niamh's with the Police Uniform on. I count a number as good friends. When you have a 96% or whatever protestant organisation allied to one section of society you will inevitably have collusion and bad apples. But all the RUC weren't like that and were every bit entitled to be unionist. It's changed times and people like Peadar Heffron and Ronan Kerr were brave to take the steps they did, and were doing so on behalf of their community, some of whom have maimed and killed them and some of whom have just let them down. If Kickhams Creggan behaved as reported then they have shamed the GAA and the whole nationalist community. If they haven't then lets hear their side of the story. The silence of Declan Kearney and the ambivlance of some in SF mirrors the similar reaction of some in the DUP to Loyalism and loyalist paramilitaries. Fair play to Joe Brolly for a hard but necessary read.

[haranguerer]

At the time the RUC changed to the PSNI, there was no fanfare of it being a new police force; both sides still saw it as the RUC, and it was. It took a number of years before the RUC could be seen to evolve into a fair police force (and not related to the religious makeup of its members) - it certainly didn't become this on the same night the signs were replaced.

Having read the article, the main thing that sticks out for me is how glibly the link is made between Peadar's new career not being supported by his club mates, and him getting his legs blown off. Again, this isn't fair. Had Creggan stood behind him, would Peadar not have been a target for dissidents regardless? Of course he would.

Creggan Kickhams didn't shame the GAA nor the nationalist community - inevitably, as a community organisation, they have merely reflected them. Its easy to look back with rose tinted glasses now and castigate nationalists for not accepting the PSNI from the day and hour the name changed, but that is neither realistic nor fair.

[BennyCake]

The hypocrisy from some in the nationalist community to the PSNI is breath taking. People who credit Gerry and Martin for changing the Republican movement from within shun those who join(ed) the PSNI to do the same. Was the new PSNI perfect no, did it take back RUC officers and hold on to a large number yes, but you need experience in the Police service and where was that to come from? I am delighted to meet Odhran's, Peadar's and Niamh's with the Police Uniform on. I count a number as good friends. When you have a 96% or whatever protestant organisation allied to one section of society you will inevitably have collusion and bad apples. But all the RUC weren't like that and were every bit entitled to be unionist. It's changed times and people like Peadar Heffron and Ronan Kerr were brave to take the steps they did, and were doing so on behalf of their community, some of whom have maimed and killed them and some of whom have just let them down. If Kickhams Creggan behaved as reported then they have shamed the GAA and the whole nationalist community. If they haven't then lets hear their side of the story. The silence of Declan Kearney and the ambivlance of some in SF mirrors the similar reaction of some in the DUP to Loyalism and loyalist paramilitaries. Fair play to Joe Brolly for a hard but necessary read.

Some might call it bravery. Others might call it stupidity (among other things).

[Therealdonald]

I'm only new and I'm probably leaving myself open to attack here but I think the actions of the club that Heffron played for his entire life were despicable. If the story is to be taken at full value, there is grown men (friends) who shunned him because of a choice of profession, compare this with the treatment of other players from fellow team mates who in some cases stole money etc to feed a habit, these men by and large were welcomed back into their clubs. He actually states at the start of the article that he only joined as he seen it as his way of doing his bit for a united Ireland. It wasn't as if he was some Rory McIlroy figure waving a shamrock and a lambeg drum. The most interesting aspect of the interview was the bit at the end where he implies who set him up.

[BennyCake]

I'm only new and I'm probably leaving myself open to attack here but I think the actions of the club that Heffron played for his entire life were despicable. If the story is to be taken at full value, there is grown men (friends) who shunned him because of a choice of profession, compare this with the treatment of other players from fellow team mates who in some cases stole money etc to feed a habit, these men by and large were welcomed back into their clubs. He actually states at the start of the article that he only joined as he seen it as his way of doing his bit for a united Ireland. It wasn't as if he was some Rory McIlroy figure waving a shamrock and a lambeg drum. The most interesting aspect of the interview was the bit at the end where he implies who set him up.

He pretty much did, wearing a uniform with a shamrock and a crown.

[Kickham csc]

The hypocrisy from some in the nationalist community to the PSNI is breath taking. People who credit Gerry and Martin for changing the Republican movement from within shun those who join(ed) the PSNI to do the same. Was the new PSNI perfect no, did it take back RUC officers and hold on to a large number yes, but you need experience in the Police service and where was that to come from? I am delighted to meet Odhran's, Peadar's and Niamh's with the Police Uniform on. I count a number as good friends. When you have a 96% or whatever protestant organisation allied to one section of society you will inevitably have collusion and bad apples. But all the RUC weren't like that and were every bit entitled to be unionist. It's changed times and people like Peadar Heffron and Ronan Kerr were brave to take the steps they did, and were doing so on behalf of their community, some of whom have maimed and killed them and some of whom have just let them down. If Kickhams Creggan behaved as reported then they have shamed the GAA and the whole nationalist community. If they haven't then lets hear their side of the story. The silence of Declan Kearney and the ambivlance of some in SF mirrors the similar reaction of some in the DUP to Loyalism and loyalist paramilitaries. Fair play to Joe Brolly for a hard but necessary read.

This is a complex issue and when we talk about Peadar's treatment it needs to be divided into two areas, the clubs response and the teams response.

If we consider the club,  Peadar's extended family were at the time, and now, heavily involved in the running of the club, through committee involvement and mentoring teams etc.

Threats were made to the club in the guise that our underage teams safety could be guaranteed and this influenced a lot of the clubs responses to Peadar. The "difficult position" that he refers to in the article was entered around this and his family would have been included in the discussions on how to handle the situation and many including myself, believed his family were the official line of communication to Peadar.

Not all the club were against Peadar, as I mentioned before the Creggan area has mixed views and the club is representative of the area, so we would have people with progressive views at the time and supported Peadar, but also republicans who believed the PSNI were re-badged RUC.  The big issue at the time was the acceptance of PSNI. If my memory serves me right, when Peadar joined, Sinn Fein had not officially supported the PSNI, as they believed the required changes to the organisation hadn't been made. So Sinn Fein had not come out and supported the PSNI at that time and republicans thought it was too soon to join.

Considering the lack of Sinn Fein support plus the majority of our club members would have had negative experiences with the RUC and army. During car searches, once the club colours were identified, you would have spent hours waiting in the car to be let go, and in some cases threatened. Sean Brown's body was dumped in our community and there are still concerns that the police were involved in the murder. This lead to the resistance that Peadar talked about in the article. While I disagreed with this view, I totally understood where they were coming from.

So some in the club supported Peadar and some didn't. I know people spoke out for Peadar and I'm disappointed that this wasn't identified in the article as it would have given the article some balance and would have gone in some way to identify the complexity of the situation.

I have mentioned the team dynamics before, so not perfect but was being managed and I believe the situation would have settled if given time. As I mentioned before, Peadar played soccer in the clubs 4G with some of his ex teammates for a couple of years after this and he never received any negative feedback at the time.

Now a lot of people (especially the politicians) seemed to have forgotten that this all happened 15 years ago and a lot has changed during this time. The wider community has come on the journey of living in the immediate post troubles era to the more normalized society that we live in now.

The club in the past year has hosted events with the PSNI in the clubrooms, and members of the club and some club member families have joined the PSNI and other police services with no issues within the club.

We as a club tend to keep everything in-house and the newspaper exposure will not be appreciated to say the least. If you look at Antrim GAA message boards, very little to no messages would be posted from Creggan lads in the run up to games etc, and the lack of response on this matter is a continuation of that approach.

When club members have died in the past, only recently did the club post a message in the papers. Our tradition was always no public response, however a letter would written from the chairman to the deceased family on behalf of the club.

While the club may be pressurized into making a statement, I anticipate a private approach to Peadar to bring some reconciliation to the issue, which may include a club meeting

[Milltown Row2]

To be fair lads, there has been a poster from Creggan on who shed some light on things and was at certain meetings when this all started... there are always 2 sides to this, typical NI I know!!

[Applesisapples]

Associating with someone who stole from the club to feed a habit is very unlikely to have you and your family intimidated by paramilitaries. Continuing a friendship with a PSNI officer is a whole different ball game, certainly at that time.
The club were put in a very difficult position. It's easy to say a lot of things in hindsight.

It is not a difficult position and required moral courage which appears to have been lacking.

[Kickham csc]

Associating with someone who stole from the club to feed a habit is very unlikely to have you and your family intimidated by paramilitaries. Continuing a friendship with a PSNI officer is a whole different ball game, certainly at that time.
The club were put in a very difficult position. It's easy to say a lot of things in hindsight.

It is not a difficult position and required moral courage which appears to have been lacking.

No offence, but your full of shit and have no knowledge of what actually happened.

People with moral courage spoke out for Peadar, and people with moral courage spoke out against.

This was a major divisive issue at the time, and our club was caught in the middle. Nobody stayed quiet who was in support of Peadar. The big issue that he had with the club is related to the club being caught between threats to teams and supporting Peadar.

If it was only the senior team, we wouldn't have cared, but the youth was also included.

So the club tried to manage the situation as best they could

[Therealdonald]

It's not a run of the mill scenario I know. And the statement from the Kichkams man clears up a lot of stuff that Brolly didn't make clear in the article. I just think that the whole thing could've been handled a lot better.

[trileacman]

Associating with someone who stole from the club to feed a habit is very unlikely to have you and your family intimidated by paramilitaries. Continuing a friendship with a PSNI officer is a whole different ball game, certainly at that time.
The club were put in a very difficult position. It's easy to say a lot of things in hindsight.

Nail on head. A very one sided piece from a man who's entitled to be angry. There's a truth somewhere in the middle as kickhams csc alluded to. I would say I can't beleive the reaction to this piece but alas I'm resigned to the revisionist nature of society nowadays.

[trileacman]

I'd like to know if the posters celebrating brolly for writing this piece were as supportive of him last week when he acted as an apologist for a convicted paedophile.