The Contested Identities of Ulster Catholics by Thomas Paul Burgess

Author:Thomas Paul Burgess
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

‘We Need to Talk About the Boys from the North’

Indeed, it was not very long at all before the diffusion of the unresolved cultural identity matters surrounding the Northern Ireland Peace Process was laid bare in the sporting arena. The ink was barely dry on the Belfast GFA of 1998 when an admission (to senior league football in NI) dispute arose between Lurgan Celtic and Donegal Celtic Football Clubs and the Irish Football League, which The Irish News (2 June 2000) reported as having required the mediation of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland to be resolved.

This was undeniably a sporting controversy encompassing the historic inter-communal divide between Northern Ireland’s two communities. In this case, these two perceived ‘pro-Catholic’ and ‘pro-Nationalist’ football clubs were, as they saw it, being unreasonably denied entry to the Irish Football League by, again, what they interpreted as a pro-Protestant/pro-Unionist League administration. That the diffusion of cultural identity divisions into the sporting sphere was of an inter-communal nature is perhaps unsurprising in this case, and there have been several very similar cases in more recent times. However, what could not have been foreseen is the extent to which the inter-communal aspect of the relationship between identity and sport for Catholics in Northern Ireland has arguably been usurped by intra-communal strife with their contemporaries south of the border. This will be considered through a case study that follows later in this chapter, in which recent developments within the Gaelic Athletic Association will be examined in detail.

It is indisputable that the GAA has endured a strained relationship with the Unionist community of Northern Ireland since the partition of Ireland in 1922. This was perhaps unsurprising as a sporting body advancing an unrepentant Irish Nationalist ambition would inevitably find itself at odds with the underlying ethos of a country demonstrating a robust Unionist majority. Indeed, Farrell contends that, ‘The practical result of the creation of this Protestant police state was to be the permanent disaffection of the Nationalist minority’ (Farrell 1976).

Rather, the GAA , as the Unionist community perceived it, epitomised an unwelcome Irish nationalist presence in the newly formed Northern Ireland, publicly displaying its presence in towns and villages up and down the country. What was more damaging to the GAA ever finding accommodation within the northern state at that time, however, was its own articles of association.The association’s relationship with Northern Unionism has never been a happy one … they have strongly resented its prohibition on the police, enforced in 1904, and its longstanding ban on the playing of ‘foreign’ – or, as it seemed to them, ‘Protestant’ – games such as cricket and rugby . (Phoenix 1985)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.