GAA must 'reach out' to unionism

[orangeman]

Im from a town and played both. First love was gaelic.

The option was always there. Never had an impact.



I get the point the your trying to make, however the continuing success of the GAA will not depend on the number of Unionists prepared to play Gaelic games.

The inner city has never been the stronghold of the GAA. probably never will, however there is life outside of  cities whereby the GAA is the fabric of the community.

Why all the crying about getting unionists involved?  What about those who in their thousands will be looking for Ulster final tickets or all ireland tickets.

what about getting them involved.

IMO there is far too much political correctness about.   Change all these rules at the slightest hint that someone may be offended ( who by the way , most likely will find something else to be offended by ) and it still wont make a blind bit of difference.

As i said earlier, an oppurtunist piece by Mr Bradley

We have changed enough - what more is wanted / needed and as Bensar rightly says, it won't make any difference. We've got rid of the sticks by virtue of the rule changes - we don't need further change - membership is open to everyone - so join if you want to - don't join if you don't want -

But if Protestants / Unionists are serious about it, start playing Gaelic ganmes in their schools as a sign of their desire / commitment to join up with us - Catholic schools have been playing soccer and rugby for years now - when are Protestant schools going to start playing Gaelic games ?

Why does Bradley write an article on this subject ?? It mighn't receive the right response and it might be politically incorrect !

[scalder]

I don't think anyone is advocating "changing all the rules"  but I think focusing on Gaelic culture would be positive. Irish dancing I believe (from the media) has made big inroads in unionist areas and shows that they can look past something's "Irishness" and get involved. Why should we bother, well 1 million reasons, you just can't ignore or alienate that many people and hope to be a healthy organisation. Just like the GAA has invested heavily in games promotion in Dublin a similar effort is required with the Unionist community. We need to atleast have a debate about how to achieve this. Lack of true cross community involvement weakens the GAA and is a strength of Rugby in Ireland. Another point is that soccer looks like moving to an All Ireland league and maybe an All Ireland team, when this happens again the game will become more popular within the nationalist community.

Lets look at what the obstacles are, lets be honest and lets have a mature debate.

[orangeman]

I don't think anyone is advocating "changing all the rules"  but I think focusing on Gaelic culture would be positive. Irish dancing I believe (from the media) has made big inroads in unionist areas and shows that they can look past something's "Irishness" and get involved. Why should we bother, well 1 million reasons, you just can't ignore or alienate that many people and hope to be a healthy organisation. Just like the GAA has invested heavily in games promotion in Dublin a similar effort is required with the Unionist community. We need to atleast have a debate about how to achieve this. Lack of true cross community involvement weakens the GAA and is a strength of Rugby in Ireland. Another point is that soccer looks like moving to an All Ireland league and maybe an All Ireland team, when this happens again the game will become more popular within the nationalist community.

Lets look at what the obstacles are, lets be honest and lets have a mature debate.

Are we not a healthy organisation at the minute ?

Are soccer and rugby engaged in the same mature debate ??

From what I saw at the weekend invloving soccer fans in Belfast, I don't think we'll lose too many to soccer !

I know the GAA make some fundamental flaws, but we're a better organisation than we're given credit for !

[In the Onion Bag]

I would love to find away to get greater numbers of unionists involved if only to increase our playing talent and resources.

This is a difficult debate to fathom.  A lot of contributers are nationalist minded people trying to 2nd guess their unionist neighbour's minds (a conflict most likely to lead to misinterpretation). 

I tried to look outside football for other models where unionist were attracted to something Irish.  Irish dance came immediately to mind.  Here you have the case of the 'festival' dance movement catering for great numbers of unionist kids who's parents it seems had little difficulty allowing them joining in something Irish.

Its wrong to assume all unionists are blinkered bigots.  I agree there are plenty hard noses who never will acknowledge the good done by the GAA, but I believe there exists a greater number who, given the right opportunities, could become interested.  In my own experience, and I played with and against several unionists in my time, such players come under great pressure from with their own political community not to be associated with the GAA particularly if they are any good.

[orangeman]

I would love to find away to get greater numbers of unionists involved if only to increase our playing talent and resources.

This is a difficult debate to fathom.  A lot of contributers are nationalist minded people trying to 2nd guess their unionist neighbour's minds (a conflict most likely to lead to misinterpretation). 

I tried to look outside football for other models where unionist were attracted to something Irish.  Irish dance came immediately to mind.  Here you have the case of the 'festival' dance movement catering for great numbers of unionist kids who's parents it seems had little difficulty allowing them joining in something Irish.

Its wrong to assume all unionists are blinkered bigots.  I agree there are plenty hard noses who never will acknowledge the good done by the GAA, but I believe there exists a greater number who, given the right opportunities, could become interested.  In my own experience, and I played with and against several unionists in my time, such players come under great pressure from with their own political community not to be associated with the GAA particularly if they are any good.

Forgwt about them then ! If they don't want to join us fine ! Let's not go runnig after them  - we don't need them !

[Maguire01]

Unionists are quiet welcome into the GAA where they will experience no sectarianism

Have you been living under a rock?

So in my eyes it is not a major issue because there is no massive demand for it to happen. Even if there was it shouldn't be changed because there is nothing wrong with the current setup regarding the issue at hand.

You can create demand. In order to survive, you have to plan ahead.  I wouldn't be too happy if i thought the top brass at HQ were sitting back, blindly content that things will float along fine without change.  It doesn't work in business and it sure as hell won't work in an organisation as big as the GAA.  
Yes, the GAA is traditionally a conservative organistion - indeed conservation is a fundamental element of its objectives - yet it also has to be progressive, forward-looking and not be content that the status quo is sufficient to ensure growth, survival even, in the future. The thought that there is 'nothing wrong with the current setup' is seriously flawed, in my opinion.

[orangeman]

Unionists are quiet welcome into the GAA where they will experience no sectarianism

Have you been living under a rock?

So in my eyes it is not a major issue because there is no massive demand for it to happen. Even if there was it shouldn't be changed because there is nothing wrong with the current setup regarding the issue at hand.

You can create demand. In order to survive, you have to plan ahead.  I wouldn't be too happy if i thought the top brass at HQ were sitting back, blindly content that things will float along fine without change.  It doesn't work in business and it sure as hell won't work in an organisation as big as the GAA.  
Yes, the GAA is traditionally a conservative organistion - indeed conservation is a fundamental element of its objectives - yet it also has to be progressive, forward-looking and not be content that the status quo is sufficient to ensure growth, survival even, in the future. The thought that there is 'nothing wrong with the current setup' is seriously flawed, in my opinion.

Where ARE you living ? Where is the sectarianism in GAA ?

That's a load of balls Maguire 01 - Did you see the TV at the weekend and that handling with Linfield and Cliftonville ??
We don't want any of that shite that goes hand and hand with soccer ! Were you not listening to Nolan y'day morning ?

[Maguire01]

Unionists are quiet welcome into the GAA where they will experience no sectarianism

Have you been living under a rock?

So in my eyes it is not a major issue because there is no massive demand for it to happen. Even if there was it shouldn't be changed because there is nothing wrong with the current setup regarding the issue at hand.

You can create demand. In order to survive, you have to plan ahead.  I wouldn't be too happy if i thought the top brass at HQ were sitting back, blindly content that things will float along fine without change.  It doesn't work in business and it sure as hell won't work in an organisation as big as the GAA.  
Yes, the GAA is traditionally a conservative organistion - indeed conservation is a fundamental element of its objectives - yet it also has to be progressive, forward-looking and not be content that the status quo is sufficient to ensure growth, survival even, in the future. The thought that there is 'nothing wrong with the current setup' is seriously flawed, in my opinion.

Where ARE you living ? Where is the sectarianism in GAA ?

That's a load of balls Maguire 01 - Did you see the TV at the weekend and that handling with Linfield and Cliftonville ??
We don't want any of that shite that goes hand and hand with soccer ! Were you not listening to Nolan y'day morning ?

The sectarianism i was referring to was the Darren Graham affair - discussed to death here and in the media and particularly relevant to this subject.  The idea that there is no sectarianism is therefore not accurate, nor can winsamsoon guarantee that unionists "will experience no sectarianism" - hence my comment.

Why the comparison to local soccer?  Surely we in the GAA should set our standards a lot higher than that!  If you're making that comparison, are you saying that the GAA would be Linfield and Cliftonville, the outsiders, would be the Loyalists?  If you are, i wouldn't be very happy with such a comparison.  If you're not, accept my apologies and please explain what you mean.

[orangeman]

Unionists are quiet welcome into the GAA where they will experience no sectarianism

Have you been living under a rock?

So in my eyes it is not a major issue because there is no massive demand for it to happen. Even if there was it shouldn't be changed because there is nothing wrong with the current setup regarding the issue at hand.

You can create demand. In order to survive, you have to plan ahead.  I wouldn't be too happy if i thought the top brass at HQ were sitting back, blindly content that things will float along fine without change.  It doesn't work in business and it sure as hell won't work in an organisation as big as the GAA.  
Yes, the GAA is traditionally a conservative organistion - indeed conservation is a fundamental element of its objectives - yet it also has to be progressive, forward-looking and not be content that the status quo is sufficient to ensure growth, survival even, in the future. The thought that there is 'nothing wrong with the current setup' is seriously flawed, in my opinion.

Where ARE you living ? Where is the sectarianism in GAA ?

That's a load of balls Maguire 01 - Did you see the TV at the weekend and that handling with Linfield and Cliftonville ??
We don't want any of that shite that goes hand and hand with soccer ! Were you not listening to Nolan y'day morning ?

The sectarianism i was referring to was the Darren Graham affair - discussed to death here and in the media and particularly relevant to this subject.  The idea that there is no sectarianism is therefore not accurate, nor can winsamsoon guarantee that unionists "will experience no sectarianism" - hence my comment.

Why the comparison to local soccer?  Surely we in the GAA should set our standards a lot higher than that!  If you're making that comparison, are you saying that the GAA would be Linfield and Cliftonville, the outsiders, would be the Loyalists?  If you are, i wouldn't be very happy with such a comparison.  If you're not, accept my apologies and please explain what you mean.

There was more to that story than was told in the papers !

[orangeman]

I don't want to be lifiting a paper every Sunday and the GAA getting bad press as a result of spurious allegations being made against protestants - I'm not saying we as an organsiation are perfect - far from it - but we're not too bad nad have this far without any help or input from others ( in fact some would say we've got this far IN SPITE of a lot of aggro etc etc ) !

[scalder]

Ah now Orangeman, are you saying we should not encourage protestants to join the GAA as it might lead to opportunities for sectataian incidents to occur??

[believebelive]

Im from a town and played both. First love was gaelic.

The option was always there. Never had an impact.



I get the point the your trying to make, however the continuing success of the GAA will not depend on the number of Unionists prepared to play Gaelic games.

The inner city has never been the stronghold of the GAA. probably never will, however there is life outside of  cities whereby the GAA is the fabric of the community.

Why all the crying about getting unionists involved?  What about those who in their thousands will be looking for Ulster final tickets or all ireland tickets.

what about getting them involved.

IMO there is far too much political correctness about.   Change all these rules at the slightest hint that someone may be offended ( who by the way , most likely will find something else to be offended by ) and it still wont make a blind bit of difference.


As i said earlier, an oppurtunist piece by Mr Bradley

I presume you have read the article in the GPA Player magazine Bensars - can you post a link to it? Can anyone post a link to it?

[winsamsoon]

So its more important to you that gaelic games are played by nationalists only?

To me, the survival and properity of games depends oon as many people as possible playing/supporting them.
I don't give a stuff if gaelic games' followers are nationalist/unionist/revolutionary communist, whatever.
Obviously you do.

Any other groups of people out there that you'd like to exclude?
Would you exclude the Alliance party's Ards representative, Kieran McCarthy for example.
The Alliance party are unionist, so under your rationale, he shouldn't be anywhere near galeic games.


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Bensars
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Posts: 784


    Re: GAA must 'reach  


Where in my posts did i say taht i didn't want any other groups apart from nationalists playing gaelic games???

I simply stated that the organisation as a whole is based around a nationalistic ideology. This will innevitably then clash with the ideology of Unionism especially in the north. Let's not forget we have southern Unionists too and there doesn't seem to be any mention of these particular section of Unionism. I would agree with the snatter. The organisation as a whole needs to sit down and decide how as an organisation we can promote our games to all of society. Unionism should not be singled out as a sole identity because society today consists of many other diverse groups. Negotitions should not begin by automatically calling for changes within the wording and culture of the GAA that has existed for years. Firstly there has to be an interest from the other groups in society and secondly they would have to show a willingness to accept the GAA as an organistion that is based on sport alone and takes nothing to do with politics. After all that is what the organisation claims to be "  separate form politics".
         Maguire i have been involved in the GAA all my life and i have never seen any incidents of sectarianism whatsoever. You talk about slatting all Unionists with the same brush. All organisations have a element of scumbags. This minority behaviour obviously rose to the fore in fermanagh from what i can gather from the media. This doesn't mean that the whole organisation is sectarian. Come on now lets get a grip. Everyone is welcome in the GAA but no one should be able to come in and dictate terms of their involvement. When i joined the GAA i knew what it was and i had to accept this. It has a lot of flaws as does any big organisation and as members we are entitled to object or agree with whatever issue. Also maguire if you read it properly i said there was nothing wrong in my opinion with the current set up on this particular issue not the organisational set up as a whole.

[orangeman]

Everyone is welcome in the GAA but no one should be able to come in and dictate terms of their involvement

If they like what we do, join us - if they don't - no problem !

[scalder]

Lads its not about allowing people to dictate to us, its about are their changes required to make it more attractive to a section of the population and if so are these changes we are prepared to make. I know this won't happen but I  want  to win over person in Ireland to the side of Gaelic Games, of course we have to retain our soul and not to throw the baby out with the bath water.