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United Ireland planned - on the sports field

07-12-2004 10:05am

#1

eirebhoy

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1366943,00.html

A pact which would unify Irish athletics for the first time in 70 years is due to be put in place early next year.
Martin McAleece, husband of Irish President Mary McAleece, has been lined up to broker talks which would see athletes from Northern Ireland no longer competing for the United Kingdom but for Ireland instead.

McAleece has been approached to chair a meeting which will take place in Dundalk, possibly as early as February, after preliminary negotiations between officials of the rival southern and northern athletics organisations signalled they are at last ready to come together for the first time since their acrimonious split in 1935.

The original schism in the association, which had its origins in politics rather than sport, is regarded as a microcosm of the rift which has divided Ireland for 83 years.

A senior adviser to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said its resolution now was timely. 'Coming at such a sensitive stage in the peace process, the timing of the moves to bring all Irish athletes together in one organisation is very significant,' he said. 'Over the years, the split has defied all attempts to arrive at a solution, in spite of the efforts of people on both sides of the border.' Earlier talks, held in secrecy in Dublin, ended in broad agreement that the associations would unite. The proposal is that one umbrella body will be formed under a new title. The new arrangement would have to be approved first by the UK athletics board and then, more crucially, by the world governing body, the International Amateur Athletics Federation.

Problems separating north and south in soccer remain as intractable as ever, but in other areas there is a definite willingness to bury differences of the past. The most notable of these is a growing awareness by the Gaelic Athletic Association of the need to rid itself of a reputation for insularity by making overtures to national rugby and soccer organisations.

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