GAA need to step up

I agree. But it would be better for the sport to take the leading role in this rather than be forced to change through law. Some things are sectarian and make no secret of it and wont change by their own initiative. But the GAA could change here for thier own advantage. I cant see anyone leaving or stop playing GAA if clubs and competitions are not named after IRA members but it certainly would reduce the stigma that is factually there today when someone from east belfast wants to play GAA.

GAA clubs are autonomous which is why they individually decide who they call their clubs after. I am not aware of them naming a club after somebody who wasn't a member.

Therin lies the intractable problem. People on both sides have different versions of the history.

It cannot be resolved by one side capitulating.

Some way has to be found to accommodate what happened on the this island. And it won't be found by making one side deny their version. It is ludicrious to believe that will ever happen.

You might as well go all in downcow. The Irish state has similar aims to the RA and the GAA

Yeah but every club receives money through the GAA. The GAA could put pressure on individual clubs not to do this.

I agree people have different political opinions of the IRA. But to make the sport to open as many there is no need for clubs to take a stance on the IRA by naming a club after a member.... they're sporting clubs at the end of the day.

Your last paragraph is what I mean. The GAA have politically sided with one side of a political spectrum. It is for a political party to this not a sporting club, that want to apeal to as many people to play the sport. It is not denying peoples right to have a political view but just leave it away from sporting clubs that should appeal to all people.

the same unionists ranting and raving about the GAA, an Inclusive Oragnisation were very silent on the bonfires, KAT, burning political posters, etc. Maybe get your own sectarian house in order first, after all it wasn't a GAA Hall that grown "People" were singing a song about a murdered woman on her honeymoon" Played GAA for many years and politics never came up.

I thinked you confused yourself there.

Don't get the problem here.

Are you saying the parish 3G pitch is sectarian place now?

The GAA are being asked to forget what happened here and to accept the blame for it.

They are being asked to forget what the British did with the aid of people in downcow's community.

downcow's community (some of them) cannot bring themselves to see that they bear as much responsibility as anyone else.

..

In fairness I think the sort of people who take issue with a club named after someone who died in the 1700s will always find something to complain about.

Imagine looking at that picture and then posting a complaint about the name of the club!

I searched for a while to try and understand what you were getting at.

Was it the crest with the English, Irish and Ulster Scots words for "together"? or the Harland & Wolff cranes, the Red Hand of Ulster, a shamrock and a thistle?

I finally realised that it was the venue. It's a school opposite Stormont just off the Dundonald Road. You actually have a problem with a GAA open day being held at a GAA pitch at a school?????

How ironic when the veiled threats of terrorism against both adults and children who play GAA have forced Belfast City Council to halt work at Victoria Park this week (no I won't complain about the non-inclusive name)