GAA need to step up

It still hasn't been explained how the 'GAA' who invited this team to this tournament, and accept it for a long time as part of competitions and other tournaments was being 'sectarian'.

I'm all eyes to read the explanation downcow, blanch and mark.

You won't get an explanation Francie because it plainly wasn't sectarian.

It's becoming clearer now to most rational thinkers that there is an orchestrated campaign to discredit any Irish cultural activity and try to label it as sectarian. Worryingly some journalists are helping to fuel the fire.

Anything that even sounds Irish must be sectarian. Feiles Fleadhs and Football (Gaelic) = "Sectarian"

Irish language= "sectarian"

Irish Dancing = "sectarian"

Irish sport = "sectarian"

The reason I believe that more and more of a Unionist persuasion are starting to see through the bigoted propaganda, is that these cultural activities are increasingly involving Unionists.

We have the roaring success of East Belfast GAA (despite bomb alerts at their training venues)

We have the thriving Irish language school of Linda Irvine (sister in law of the late UVF member and peacemaker David Irvine) and the acknowledgement of the Protestant history of association with the Irish language

We have Fleadhs inviting marching bands and musicians from the Unionist traditions to take part and enjoy the festivities.

The bigots are getting louder and more ludicrous but fortunately their numbers are falling.

Probably will go very quiet on this thread now ...

...until one of those 19 year old self-proclaimed "Loyalist activists" with vivid recollections of 1970s atrocities, gets outraged because a Damien Dempsey song was spotted on an Alliance Party MLA's playlist

or maybe the lad that stands on the bin spots a fada on a street sign

or maybe the drunken Lord gets vexed 'cos the Ulster club final included a team from Donegal

or maybe the daughter of the loyalist terrorist gun-runner and "elected" MLA (total votes=0) protests at the audacity of the GAA applying for a grant to develop a sporting pitch

or maybe ...

First of all downcow, let me address your last comment. I'm genuinely sorry that you feel like I'm trying to be nasty. If you can find any instances of this please point them out and I will address them. This forum is under the banner of "Social & Fun" and if you feel that people are trying to sensor? or censor? you then we need to put that right. Personally I enjoy trying to understand different points of view.

Regarding the link; I was aware of this incident and after reading it again, there's no doubt that it was despicable and inexcusable.

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.

Do you think he was targeted because he played Gaelic football?

Or, as the article states, was he targeted because he was an Irish speaker?

Are you suggesting the GAA had something to do with it?

The GAA targeted an Irish-speaking GAA player??? Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds?

The man was maimed by dissident terrorists because he was a member of the PSNI. NOTHING to do with the GAA.

Maybe you want to blame the GAA for climate change?

Maybe blame Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann for the escalating price of oil?

Maybe blame Rialtas na hÉireann for the protocol?

etc.

You have nothing to fear from Irish culture. Embrace it.

Mark,

@FrancieBrady will defend all kinds of abuse using narrow definitions of same and elastical thinking. He also consistently fails to see the perspective of those on the receiving end of such sectarian abuse.

Complete and utter nonsense.

The singing of Sean South is sectarian, as are a number of ditties by the Wolfe Tones, even though Streets of New York is one of the all-time great Irish ballads.

The GAA may not condone sectarian acts, singing and chanting by their members, but they allow it. That is enough.

"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject."

As true today as when spoken in 1867.

If Sean South is 'sectarian' then there is an awful lot of other stuff about our history and Unionist history that has to go.

Is this what you are proposing?

Aren't you the poster who fulminates about a statue of a man long dead when it suits the agenda?

Hypocrisy much?

You have no interest in finding a way forward on these issues, you just want to pick and choose what to get annoyed about.

There are people alive today who remember the harm that Sean Russell did to this country.

So in order to prove a bogus claim of sectarianism you use two examples of actual sectarianism.

Says it all really.

Why don't you explain what was sectarian about the PSNI incident without referencing anything else? Because you can't, is the answer.

It is there in black and white.

“The tournament was discussed at an executive meeting earlier this week and after all participating teams were confirmed it was agreed that all teams should be advised of the participation of the St Michael’s team — this was to avoid any confusion with a Co Down GAA club of the same name”

Let’s tell everybody that there is a gay/black/Asian/PSNI team (delete as appropriate) team taking part.

Absolutlely astonishing, no actually, cancel that, completely unsurprising that our resident exclusionary nationalists are defending this.

The PSNI is made up of people from all backgrounds. So there cant be an implication of sectarianism against a group from all backgrounds. So if this was a sectarian incident the sect being discriminated against is the PSNI themselves. Can you refer to PSNI as a sect? Surley it is considered an occupation rather than a sect. And

Who are we to infer are sectarian towards the PSNI? The organisers of the competition who invited the PSNI team to play in the first place? But if they were sectarian against the PSNI they would not have invited them.

Or are we to presume that members of others clubs threatened the PSNI and this is why they withdrew? We have no evidence of this.

Maybe they pulled out because they could not field 15 players lol.

The state of this.

This is the kind of 'bigotry' (the right word, used correctly) that is facilitated by the wrong use of the word 'sectarian'.