GAA Outreach in Action...

[Rossfan]

Mike Nesbitt leader of the Ulster Unionist Party at the Down County Final today.

His wife is from Kilcoo.

How did he manage for the National anthem??

[Main Street]

Don't know why Brolly didn't reference to his Gaelic Life piece on the issue of Kevin Lynchs. It said all that was needed on the issue of the naming of the Dungiven club.

The "f**k off if you don't like" attitude damaged the GAA position and is also a copy of the knuckle dragging PUL groups attitude that is quite rightly ridiculed on this board.

The fck off if you don't like it attitude is the appropriate response to a bunch of politicans looking to put themselves at the vanguard of the loyalist fascist protest to the democratic process, like the UUP and their new found fanatic (jihadish) opposition to the proposed Maze centre and with this pick up a magnifying glass and lets look at  the odd gaa club.
We just might be collectively poisoned by the toxic discharge from republican tradition. And we all know, republicans are the true bogeymen in Ulster     It's the ulster tradition, kowtow to the chosen majority.

The Axis of evil,  British Army/Unionists/UDR/Loyalist murder gangs has broken up.  Just stand up to the political bullies and tell them to go to fck and to focus on something pro active for a change.

[glens abu]

Sometimes reality breaks through the mesh of the media and the results are refreshing. They can also be embarrassing or infuriating or revelatory but they are always refreshing, because they're the voice of real life, not the media's version of real life, and that in itself is refreshing.


Such a rare moment came yesterday when Joe Brolly spoke about the fact that Dungiven's GAA club is named after Kevin Lynch, a local man who was a member of both the local hurling team and  the Derry county hurling team. He was also a member of the INLA and one of the ten men who died on hunger-strike in 1981. Joe said that he was proud that the club was named after Kevin Lynch and that it was nobody else's business what name the club chose. "If they don't like it, they can lump it".


You don't hear that kind of blunt language on air as a rule. To be fair to him, when the Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore spoke at a function in Derry last night he tiptoed delicately towards endorsing Joe's stand: "I think these are issues that the GAA decides. What we have to work at here is how we build bridges, how we move beyond the difficulties of the past".


Joe's remarks have been greeted with outrage from the TUV's Jim Allister. And I'd feel fairly safe in suggesting people like Gregory Campbell would be equally aghast. In which case  I sugggest Jim  and Gregory  be taken by the hand and brought on a guided tour of Belfast. They could start at Windsor Park. Maybe view the Queen's Bridge, check out the King's Hall,  look up at Windsor House, make their way down Royal Avenue,drive out to Carnmoney and zip along Prince Charles Way. Lots of people, it's true,  think this royal naming is a very good idea. Others, like nearly half the population of the state, think it's a pretty imperialist idea. But the bridges and buildings and roads have been named and I haven't heard anyone from the nationalist or republican community saying they were outraged or demanding a name-change.


Joe Brolly says the Dungiven club was named after Kevin Lynch because he played for the club and for the Derry Senior hurling team. I expect that's true. But I also expect that part of the reason the club was named after him was that he was one of ten men who died on hunger-strike rather than accept that republicans were common criminals.  You have to believe very firmly in an idea if you're prepared to die for it, in this case very slowly and very painfully.  So that kind of heroic resolve may well have been part of what the club admired in this local man.  Unionists of course will argue that the INLA and the IRA were groups of common criminals. Republicans, nationalists and most GAA members, I'd venture to suggest, see things rather differently.


The part of Joe's remark that strikes home with sharp-edged truth is "It's none of their business".  The 'they' he's referring to are those who would presume to tell the GAA, Sinn Féin, the Catholic Church, Catholic schools, the southern government - all sort of organisations and institutions to which they do not now  belong, never have belonged, and have no intention of ever belonging to - that they would presume to tell  these groupings how to manage their affairs. 


Fact: Gaelic games are not played on a competitive basis in any State/Protestant school, except you include Integrated schools. No unionist politician I can think of plays Gaelic games, no unionist that I know of attends Gaelic games. And yet unionist politicians would presume to tell the GAA how they should act, what names they should or should not use, what rules should govern their organisation. What next -  the proposed names of children born into republican/nationalist families  to be submitted to the likes of Jim and Gregory for approval, before proceeding with the infant's birth registration? 


There comes a point where, if you dance to the piper's every tune, the piper begins to feel contempt for you. Joe Brolly has just called time on the dancing. 















Posted by Jude Collins at 2:54:00 pm   
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[deiseach]

Is there any Unionist figure - a public figure, not an anonymous voice online - who could give a nuanced opinion on the scruples they might have about the GAA? Someone to say that they don't mind the GAA doing its own thing but many of the trappings of the association make them uncomfortable and it puts them off encouraging their children (I don't expect any adult to be converted to the joys of a sport) to participate? Offhand, Trevor Ringland is the only guy I can think of who might be capable of pricking GAA consciences on these matters. But instead, we get Jim Allister. It strikes me as being the same as the fleg issue - no Unionist figure is going to say anything in public that might see them outflanked by the extremists, thus leading to a race to see who can be the most extreme.

[theskull1]

Is there any Unionist figure - a public figure, not an anonymous voice online - who could give a nuanced opinion on the scruples they might have about the GAA? Someone to say that they don't mind the GAA doing its own thing but many of the trappings of the association make them uncomfortable and it puts them off encouraging their children (I don't expect any adult to be converted to the joys of a sport) to participate? Offhand, Trevor Ringland is the only guy I can think of who might be capable of pricking GAA consciences on these matters. But instead, we get Jim Allister. It strikes me as being the same as the fleg issue - no Unionist figure is going to say anything in public that might see them outflanked by the extremists, thus leading to a race to see who can be the most extreme.

That's about the height of it. There's no "leading" going on within unionism because of the fear of losing electorate. Appealing to the lowest common denominator is where its at.

[Feckitt]

Mike Nesbitt leader of the Ulster Unionist Party at the Down County Final today.

His wife is from Kilcoo.

How did he manage for the National anthem??

Probably the same as everyone else, cringed the whole way through because it was so shit.

[Milltown Row2]

Sometimes reality breaks through the mesh of the media and the results are refreshing. They can also be embarrassing or infuriating or revelatory but they are always refreshing, because they're the voice of real life, not the media's version of real life, and that in itself is refreshing.


Such a rare moment came yesterday when Joe Brolly spoke about the fact that Dungiven's GAA club is named after Kevin Lynch, a local man who was a member of both the local hurling team and  the Derry county hurling team. He was also a member of the INLA and one of the ten men who died on hunger-strike in 1981. Joe said that he was proud that the club was named after Kevin Lynch and that it was nobody else's business what name the club chose. "If they don't like it, they can lump it".


You don't hear that kind of blunt language on air as a rule. To be fair to him, when the Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore spoke at a function in Derry last night he tiptoed delicately towards endorsing Joe's stand: "I think these are issues that the GAA decides. What we have to work at here is how we build bridges, how we move beyond the difficulties of the past".


Joe's remarks have been greeted with outrage from the TUV's Jim Allister. And I'd feel fairly safe in suggesting people like Gregory Campbell would be equally aghast. In which case  I sugggest Jim  and Gregory  be taken by the hand and brought on a guided tour of Belfast. They could start at Windsor Park. Maybe view the Queen's Bridge, check out the King's Hall,  look up at Windsor House, make their way down Royal Avenue,drive out to Carnmoney and zip along Prince Charles Way. Lots of people, it's true,  think this royal naming is a very good idea. Others, like nearly half the population of the state, think it's a pretty imperialist idea. But the bridges and buildings and roads have been named and I haven't heard anyone from the nationalist or republican community saying they were outraged or demanding a name-change.


Joe Brolly says the Dungiven club was named after Kevin Lynch because he played for the club and for the Derry Senior hurling team. I expect that's true. But I also expect that part of the reason the club was named after him was that he was one of ten men who died on hunger-strike rather than accept that republicans were common criminals.  You have to believe very firmly in an idea if you're prepared to die for it, in this case very slowly and very painfully.  So that kind of heroic resolve may well have been part of what the club admired in this local man.  Unionists of course will argue that the INLA and the IRA were groups of common criminals. Republicans, nationalists and most GAA members, I'd venture to suggest, see things rather differently.


The part of Joe's remark that strikes home with sharp-edged truth is "It's none of their business".  The 'they' he's referring to are those who would presume to tell the GAA, Sinn Féin, the Catholic Church, Catholic schools, the southern government - all sort of organisations and institutions to which they do not now  belong, never have belonged, and have no intention of ever belonging to - that they would presume to tell  these groupings how to manage their affairs. 


Fact: Gaelic games are not played on a competitive basis in any State/Protestant school, except you include Integrated schools. No unionist politician I can think of plays Gaelic games, no unionist that I know of attends Gaelic games. And yet unionist politicians would presume to tell the GAA how they should act, what names they should or should not use, what rules should govern their organisation. What next -  the proposed names of children born into republican/nationalist families  to be submitted to the likes of Jim and Gregory for approval, before proceeding with the infant's birth registration? 


There comes a point where, if you dance to the piper's every tune, the piper begins to feel contempt for you. Joe Brolly has just called time on the dancing. 















Posted by Jude Collins at 2:54:00 pm   
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Very good, could have been a post by you Glens abu

[glens abu]

Sometimes reality breaks through the mesh of the media and the results are refreshing. They can also be embarrassing or infuriating or revelatory but they are always refreshing, because they're the voice of real life, not the media's version of real life, and that in itself is refreshing.


Such a rare moment came yesterday when Joe Brolly spoke about the fact that Dungiven's GAA club is named after Kevin Lynch, a local man who was a member of both the local hurling team and  the Derry county hurling team. He was also a member of the INLA and one of the ten men who died on hunger-strike in 1981. Joe said that he was proud that the club was named after Kevin Lynch and that it was nobody else's business what name the club chose. "If they don't like it, they can lump it".


You don't hear that kind of blunt language on air as a rule. To be fair to him, when the Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore spoke at a function in Derry last night he tiptoed delicately towards endorsing Joe's stand: "I think these are issues that the GAA decides. What we have to work at here is how we build bridges, how we move beyond the difficulties of the past".


Joe's remarks have been greeted with outrage from the TUV's Jim Allister. And I'd feel fairly safe in suggesting people like Gregory Campbell would be equally aghast. In which case  I sugggest Jim  and Gregory  be taken by the hand and brought on a guided tour of Belfast. They could start at Windsor Park. Maybe view the Queen's Bridge, check out the King's Hall,  look up at Windsor House, make their way down Royal Avenue,drive out to Carnmoney and zip along Prince Charles Way. Lots of people, it's true,  think this royal naming is a very good idea. Others, like nearly half the population of the state, think it's a pretty imperialist idea. But the bridges and buildings and roads have been named and I haven't heard anyone from the nationalist or republican community saying they were outraged or demanding a name-change.


Joe Brolly says the Dungiven club was named after Kevin Lynch because he played for the club and for the Derry Senior hurling team. I expect that's true. But I also expect that part of the reason the club was named after him was that he was one of ten men who died on hunger-strike rather than accept that republicans were common criminals.  You have to believe very firmly in an idea if you're prepared to die for it, in this case very slowly and very painfully.  So that kind of heroic resolve may well have been part of what the club admired in this local man.  Unionists of course will argue that the INLA and the IRA were groups of common criminals. Republicans, nationalists and most GAA members, I'd venture to suggest, see things rather differently.


The part of Joe's remark that strikes home with sharp-edged truth is "It's none of their business".  The 'they' he's referring to are those who would presume to tell the GAA, Sinn Féin, the Catholic Church, Catholic schools, the southern government - all sort of organisations and institutions to which they do not now  belong, never have belonged, and have no intention of ever belonging to - that they would presume to tell  these groupings how to manage their affairs. 


Fact: Gaelic games are not played on a competitive basis in any State/Protestant school, except you include Integrated schools. No unionist politician I can think of plays Gaelic games, no unionist that I know of attends Gaelic games. And yet unionist politicians would presume to tell the GAA how they should act, what names they should or should not use, what rules should govern their organisation. What next -  the proposed names of children born into republican/nationalist families  to be submitted to the likes of Jim and Gregory for approval, before proceeding with the infant's birth registration? 


There comes a point where, if you dance to the piper's every tune, the piper begins to feel contempt for you. Joe Brolly has just called time on the dancing. 















Posted by Jude Collins at 2:54:00 pm   
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Very good, could have been a post by you Glens abu

Ha ha I wish

[Myles Na G.]

I'm gonna be honest here. Since when was the GAA about appeasing Unionists?

Some people might argue that the Orange Order was never "about appeasing" nationalists, but it doesn't mean that some people from the "other side" don't find some parts of their organisations/ activities offensive.

Are we still content in 2013 to operate an "I don't give a f*** what they think" attitude?  We know Brolly is, but I was hoping to come on here and see more liberal/ open-minded thinking from some others here.

The truth is that, whatever the circumstances of Lynch's death, he wasn't put away for handing out sweeties to sick children, but was, in fact, a member of a terrorist organisation. No amount of revisionism from Irish Republicans will change that and, although I have no time for Robinson or the DUP, I agree with him that there is no difference between historical or contemporary terrorism.  The scum who murdered Mr Black or Constable Carroll or the soldiers in Antrim a few years ago are exactly the same class of human being as those who carried out similar acts in the 70s, 80s or 90s.

If people don't understand why the name "Kevin Lynch" attached to a sports club can be deemed offensive then, to be honest, I don't see much evidence of community outreach. But if you don't understand that, then here is a heads-up: don't bother criticising unionists for being openly anti-GAA.

OK then, if that is a fact then NI was founded on historic terrorist violence and the threat of inssurection. That makes it an illegal entity...applying your logic. I have said before I suspect that many of those debating the troubles were either not born or too young to remember the '60's, '70's and early '80's. There would have been widespread support and sympathy for the IRA and the hunger strikers in that period when catholics and nationalists were very much under siege from the British and Unionists. Time have changed and we are inching towards equality, it is therefore hard to judge that period by what we have today. I applaude Joe Brolly for saying what he said, whatever his motives. Unionism still cherry picks what is terrorism and what is acceptable violence.

That's not true, and I speak as someone old enough to remember the 60s, 70s and 80s. The IRA may have enjoyed support in Catholic working class areas, but it was by no means universal and it didn't extend much outside those areas. The SDLP was the largest supported nationalist party right up to the 1980s. Sinn Fein only became the best supported nationalist party after the peace process had started and when they showed they were prepared to move beyond violence, after John Hume had opened the door for them and shown them the road forward.

[theskull1]

That's not true, and I speak as someone old enough to remember the 60s, 70s and 80s. The IRA may have enjoyed support in Catholic working class areas, but it was by no means universal and it didn't extend much outside those areas. The SDLP was the largest supported nationalist party right up to the 1980s. Sinn Fein only became the best supported nationalist party after the peace process had started and when they showed they were prepared to move beyond violence, after John Hume had opened the door for them and shown them the road forward.

I'd agree with that. Dungiven is one of those working class catholic villages and they should be respected within the GAA to democratically amongst themselves decide what they want to name their club regardless of what I or Jim Alister thinks. Too many people living history from a very one sided perspective.

[Maguire01]

Joe's remarks have been greeted with outrage from the TUV's Jim Allister. And I'd feel fairly safe in suggesting people like Gregory Campbell would be equally aghast. In which case  I sugggest Jim  and Gregory  be taken by the hand and brought on a guided tour of Belfast. They could start at Windsor Park. Maybe view the Queen's Bridge, check out the King's Hall,  look up at Windsor House, make their way down Royal Avenue,drive out to Carnmoney and zip along Prince Charles Way. Lots of people, it's true,  think this royal naming is a very good idea. Others, like nearly half the population of the state, think it's a pretty imperialist idea. But the bridges and buildings and roads have been named and I haven't heard anyone from the nationalist or republican community saying they were outraged or demanding a name-change.

I'm pretty sure Windsor Park isn't named after the royals.

[Milltown Row2]

Joe's remarks have been greeted with outrage from the TUV's Jim Allister. And I'd feel fairly safe in suggesting people like Gregory Campbell would be equally aghast. In which case  I sugggest Jim  and Gregory  be taken by the hand and brought on a guided tour of Belfast. They could start at Windsor Park. Maybe view the Queen's Bridge, check out the King's Hall,  look up at Windsor House, make their way down Royal Avenue,drive out to Carnmoney and zip along Prince Charles Way. Lots of people, it's true,  think this royal naming is a very good idea. Others, like nearly half the population of the state, think it's a pretty imperialist idea. But the bridges and buildings and roads have been named and I haven't heard anyone from the nationalist or republican community saying they were outraged or demanding a name-change.

I'm pretty sure Windsor Park isn't named after the royals.

I think its named after the area where it is

[Minder]

There is a Facebook page to name a West Belfast street after Bobby Sands

[ONeill]

Falls Road was named after Falls' Pub in Derrylaughan.
Andytown Road after Andy Cole.
Glen Road after Glenn Close

[Tony Baloney]

Falls Road was named after Falls' Pub in Derrylaughan.
Andytown Road after Andy Cole.
Glen Road after Glenn Close

Monagh Bypass after Mona Lisa.