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Is there likely to be any collaboration between the accused defence teams when giving closing arguments?  Would it be of any benefit to the defendants to do this to try and strengthen their individual defences? Or would it be a case of every man for himself?

I heard it too, all it is is rumour, unless someone can verify it I'll treat it as such. Even if it was fact, it's not something imo that should ever be submitted as evidence.

[outstretching the arms to our fellow Irish brothers and sisters from the PUL community and persuading them a united Ireland will be peaceful, equal and prosperous.]

Interesting posts , how some are so naive is astounding.  Without militant republicanism this country would never of progressed to firstly the 26 and then the GFA which now has a good chance of eventually leading to the unification of Ireland, free of all brit interference.  Great times ahead , everyone will have a part to play to make the transition a successful one , outstretching the arms to our fellow Irish brothers and sisters from the PUL  community and persuading them a united Ireland will be peaceful, equal and prosperous.

Jesus that gave me a laugh. Go down to East Belfast, Bushmills, Kesh or Craigavon and go door to door peddling that horseshit.

Portadown maybe? A lot of craigavon is fairly republican

Can we all just stop responding to Syferus, he has ruined this thread but putting him on ignore is half the battle. I have used the ignore function but unfortunately anything quoted still shows up. We might get some more reasoned debate and less of the Helen lovejoy melodramatics

[Davitts are on the falls road. Not sure there are many Protestants living in their catchment area..]

Davitts are on the falls road. Not sure there are many Protestants living in their catchment area..

Clubs in towns like Limavady, Portstewart, Lurgan, Portadown, Banbridge, Ballymena, Cookstown, Omagh etc should have resources directed their way when it comes to Unionist outreach.

Shankill Rd?

*traditional catchment area

Davitts are on the falls road. Not sure there are many Protestants living in their catchment area..

Clubs in towns like Limavady, Portstewart, Lurgan, Portadown, Banbridge, Ballymena, Cookstown, Omagh etc should have resources directed their way when it comes to Unionist outreach.

[Take it or leave it]

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.

Unionists who attack Irish culture are morons. They're the type of Unionist I don't want anywhere near the GAA. No amount of outreach will change their attitudes in any case. The Protestants/Unionists that I want to welcome into the GAA are the ones that are indifferent to it (like the thousands of nationalists that are also indifferent) - this is where the GAA needs to target and not the extremists.

Do we then have a mass renaming of GAA clubs so that Unionists (majority of whom will not care for the GAA either way) or can we not just promote and educate as much as possible without the need to change the name of one "offensive" hurling club in north derry?

It's only a small number of clubs and competitions that are questionable. A good start would be a rule that says any new club can't be named after anyone that was notable for political or politically motivated activity within the last fifty years. Robert Emmet and James Connoly would be fine, Bobby Sands would not. Later, hopefully after more protestants come on board, we could expand the rule and make it retrospective to cover existing clubs and competitions.

I can think of one club.
One competition of note.
One or two grounds.

If someone can compile a list of all the offensive GAA clubs, competitions and grounds I'd be much obliged.

Being allowed to play Gaelic games?

If the GAA heads in the north stopped naming clubs after terrorists and playing the Republic's national anthem (seemingly as much as a fûck you to the other side as any nationalistic statement) it mightn't be such an issue.

The only time either side hear the word compromise is when we play the Aussies in Autumn.

Was Michael Glavey a terrorist? Have you proposed renaming your club?


https://sites.google.com/site/michaelglaveysgaa/michaelglaveytheman




https://sites.google.com/site/michaelglaveysgaa/michaelglaveytheman

My club?

I've said this before but it's worth repeating. It'd do no harm for the GAA to tone down the nationalistic rhetoric in the north in the interests of making itself more accessible to people with a northern protestant background. If they find the naming convention of clubs and competitions to be off-putting then I think that's a legitimate concern. If someone from Portadown wanted to recruit me into his hockey club but it was called "Billy Wright's," flew a union flag at the grounds, and played The Queen before matches I don't think I'd feel terribly safe or welcome going there.

Come on lads, we should be able to do a better job of this. By nailing their colours to the nationalist mast some people in the GAA sometimes undermine their own objectives. Protestants playing Gaelic games in big numbers would do far more to make Irish reunification smoother and easier than butting heads and being confrontational about it.

+1

But the lads in the north are all on the one page when it comes to being allergic to compromise..

We've been doing compromise since the existence of the state you ignorant fuckwit

Do we then have a mass renaming of GAA clubs so that Unionists (majority of whom will not care for the GAA either way) or can we not just promote and educate as much as possible without the need to change the name of one "offensive" hurling club in north derry?

HIs interpretation of what a spit roast is won't do him any favours. Character reference from a young medical professional female though should sway things back for him.

Being allowed to play Gaelic games?

If the GAA heads in the north stopped naming clubs after terrorists and playing the Republic's national anthem (seemingly as much as a fûck you to the other side as any nationalistic statement) it mightn't be such an issue.

The only time either side hear the word compromise is when we play the Aussies in Autumn.

How many clubs are named after "terrorists" apart from Fintona Pearses of course?

Tone? McCracken? Grattan? Pearse? Plunkett? Mac Diarmada?

What clubs are named after terrorists?

So, all the infrastructure (im presuming) owned by the Church, all the investment, how does that get written off? How do you go about transforming 100+ Year old catholic secondary schools into intergrated ones? Do we just automatically cut off funding them?

I agree in principle with intergrated education, I just haven't seen enough in practice to support it.

How much are the church investing in school infrastructure?
How much is the public purse investing in school infrastructure?
Who has invested in the infrastructure to date?

Do the church really own the land, the buildings and the kit?

When a school like the Abbey in Newry move campus is it church that buy the land and fund the building and the kit/PME?

Try a school like St Colman's... just asking the question, what happens a school like that? I don't know the ins and outs of who owns what, I'd be fairly certain the church hasn't invested much into education so I don't know why you're answering my question with more questions. But with the college I'd say the Catholic Church probably owns a good bit

So, all the infrastructure (im presuming) owned by the Church, all the investment, how does that get written off? How do you go about transforming 100+ Year old catholic secondary schools into intergrated ones? Do we just automatically cut off funding them?

I agree in principle with intergrated education, I just haven't seen enough in practice to support it.

@David McKeown, David, in your experience does deleting texts and similar amount to destroying evidence?

Did he delete them though? Or was his phone memory "wiped"?