GAA is more than simply sport - it says so in their rulebook

In the controversy over a proposed GAA pitch at Victoria Park in Belfast, some people seem to have assumed that the GAA is just another sporting organisation. It is not. It has political objectives.

In its Official Guide, Part 1, containing the Constitution and Rules, Chapter 1.2 says, “The Association has as its basic aim the strengthening of the National Identity in a 32-County Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic Games and pastimes.”

In the preamble to the rules, the GAA writes “Those who play its games, those who organise its activities and those who control its destinies see in the GAA a means of consolidating our Irish identity... Since she has not control over all the national territory, Ireland’s claim to nationhood is impaired.”

At Chapter 1.8(a) the Official Guide says “The National Flag [ie the Irish Tricolour] should be flown at games in accordance with protocol.”

At 1.8(b): “Where the National Anthem [ie the Soldier’s Song] precedes a game, teams shall stand to attention, facing the Flag, in a respectful manner.”

This is an organisation with a strongly Irish nationalist/republican ethos.

Casement Park in Belfast is named after the traitor, Sir Roger Casement, who was notorious for trying to raise an Irish Brigade to fight for Germany during WW1 from among Irish members of the British Army held as POWs in Germany. The Michael Davitt GAA club in West Belfast is named after a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (a forerunner of the IRA) who was convicted of treason felony in 1870 after being arrested at Paddington Station in London while awaiting a delivery of arms. The O’Donovan Rossa GAA club, also in West Belfast, takes its name from another physical force republican who advocated dynamite attacks on English cities in the nineteenth century.

Can we see why unionists might see a GAA pitch as involving a little more than a few guys kicking a ball around?

Dr Paul Kingsley, Belfast