Jarlath Burns

Today I have been asked to talk about the prospects for Irish unity. I am interested to know why you want to know my opinion.

My life has been defined by my involvement in the Gaelic Athletic Association. It contains all the values, the principles and the ideology with which I can identify as an Irishman. So what is the GAA and why would it be relevant in a debate about Irish unity? Well, the GAA was set up in 1884 at a time when Irish culture was going down the tubes, consumed in a sea of British invasive pastimes, soccer, rugby and even pall mall. The language pastimes and sports of Ireland were drowning and they were all saved to a greater or lesser degree by the establishment of the GAA and a man named Michael Cusack.

It is not necessary, for the purposes of this event, to explain the rules of the games of hurling and football which are the main sports promoted by the GAA; suffice to day they are robust, no nonsense and amateur, yet the players are as fit as premiership footballers, as driven as rugby internationals and as focused as the top level tennis stars. You see, our games are played for the love of playing, of winning and of representing community. And this is the GAAs biggest strength and the reason why it has endured and why it is such a vital component of Irish society in the 21st century.

The GAA is in touch with Ireland in a way that politicians, civic leaders and the church in particular have ceased to be for some years now. It is the last remaining bastion of moral authority extant in Ireland today. There are no stories of sleaze, no WAGs, no lurid headlines, no porsches, no fancy lifestyles, no pictures of players emerging from nightclubs, no fat cats operating for their own career prospects because in the GAA there are no career people, no players’ wages, only volunteers. The fella playing in front of 80000 on Sunday will be serving you sausages in the shop on Monday, or teaching your child, or studying for an exam.

This is why the GAA is a critical element in the conversation about Irish unity. You see, the GAA has never accepted partition. Some of our clubs straddle the border, Ulster consists of nine counties and the desire to seek Irish unity is enshrined in the Official Guide of the GAA. There is a commitment to the use of the Irish language and the promotion of Irish culture that is discrete yet honourable, inclusive, not intrusive and at all times, full to the neck of integrity that is to be admired and learnt from.

The GAA kept Ireland together during the tragedy of the Civil War when families, divided by the treaty united in their love of the club and during the troubles, it served as a non violent and creative way of giving witness to the desire to be classed as Irish, to be proud of our identity and to seek a united Ireland. And there was always a cutting edge to its devotion to a 32 county Ireland. Rule 21 forbade members of the British security forces from playing gaelic games and the GAA skilfully and serenely deflected the many brickbats it received form this stance by calmly stating that it would remain in place until the time and climate was right to change it. And it was true to its word. We actually used to ban our members playing in or even watching foreign sports and actually suspended the first President of Ireland Douglas Hyde for attending a soccer international; we still ban foreign sports from our grounds and debate still rages about whether or not we should have temporarily opened Croke Park to rugby and soccer to allow the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road. And this March, it closes to those sports again. But along the way the GAA has suffered for having these principles. Many of our members have been killed by loyalist paramilitaries and for many years our association was seen as a legitimate target by those who saw us as a threat to what they would call the British way of life.

In many ways the GAA has tried to steer a path through the warring morass of society in the six counties. When morons on the nationalist side decide to burn an orange hall, morons on the other side respond by burning a GAA clubhouse. Apart from maddening us that our premises would be targeted in this way, to be classed as the cultural reciprocal equivalent as the orange order is just as offensive. And within clubs, it can be just as fraught with the GAA having to be equally relevant to the SDLP and Sinn Féin in the north and Fianna Fáil and all the others in the south. There is no doubt that the GAA has become embroiled into the political arena in ways which cause us serious discomfort. As an organisation which values culture, we immediately get pulled into the political squabble since culture in the north is part of the battlefield. Was it Goering who said ‘When I hear the word Culture, I reach for my revolver’. And when your language, culture and pastimes have been taken from you by a distinct and calculated act of political strategy, then it will take a political act to bring them back also. The GAA would be upfront about the fact that our desire for a united Ireland and our commitment to the promotion of Irish culture brings us into the political arena and when left to our own devices, we can manage this bit of baggage quite skilfully.

However, sometimes events just engulf us. We all now know about Bloody Sunday, the first one in 1918 when 18 people were shot dead in Croke Park by the British Auxilliaries including Michael Hogan, a Tipperary player whose name the main stand bears. The hunger strike in 1981 was another example. Should the GAA support it, or not? The GAA is political, we admit that, but not party political. Was the hunger strike a party political or a human rights issue? This matter split clubs and divided the GAA community for many years and at times we felt helpless to stop it.

Likewise, when the British army decided to steal the grounds of Crossmaglen off them for two decade, there was an irony lost on them that was quite hilarious if the subject matter wasn’t so tragic, that being that here was the British army who were ensconced in Crossmaglen a staunchly republican village with the apparent objective of keeping the peace between the two communities and promoting peace, and were actually responsible for driving many young men in Crossmaglen into the IRA, occupying the grounds of the local GAA club who would endeavour to give young people a sporting outlet to keep them out of the IRA. We always feel in Ireland that the British went out of their way to just be as stupid as it was possible to be in their occupation. How did they ever win two world wars at all because our experience of them was that they approached every situation with the giddy inquisitiveness of a child trying to find a gas leak with a lighted match.

And bringing us right up to date; this week Bryansford GAA are having their expansion plans thwarted by a particularly bigoted piece of political chicanery from the DUP minister of culture, a man who hadn’t even the guts to mention the GAA Ulster championship last summer in a statement promoting the summer of sporting activities in the six counties. And we are still in trouble because some of our grounds are named historically and emotionally after what we would term irish patriots, but who others would call terrorists. Off the field, we just can’t seem to win and this is why we are distinctly uncomfortable in the political arena and nowadays try to avoid it at all costs.

Yes, the GAA has been involved in the revolution, but more as a plaything of rather than a player in the self same revolution. What we do best is to promote our games, make the idea of the Irish nation real in the minds and hearts of Irish people and we are so far removed from the totally comodified professional sports in this country that it gives us a sense of bursting pride. You might have had your empire which has defined you as a nation, but we have the GAA which to us is a much better definition of what we are.

The GAA remains at the very heart of irish society. It is a moral compass, a mediator, an honest broker; its contribution to Ireland is immeasurable; it gives meaning and purpose to young people at a particularly vulnerable time in their development, it creates social capital that no government initiative could ever generate and it provides social outlet for its members particularly in isolated parts of rural Ireland like no other organisation can. In conclusion however, it might also be a reluctant player in any new robust consensus strategy or movement for a United Ireland. We are focused on building relationships with the Protestant people of the six counties and are succeeding albeit at a very slow pace. We are being extremely careful in how we present ourselves in case we might be seen as narrow minded, conservative or even sectarian; therefore giving ammunition to those who might seek to condemn us. The GAA promotes Irish unity simply by being there. It is a monument to how we use our flag, our anthem, our language, our games, our songs, our music, our dance in an inclusive and non divisive way. We could all learn from the GAA. For the GAA, Ireland is united. There has never been partition. For the near future at least, this might have to do us.