Yahoo News Jarlath Burns insists the modern GAA is no longer a cold house for unionists
GAA president Jarlath Burns says the association is no longer a cold house for unionists and protestants.
Speaking on the BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme, it was put to Burns by presenter William Crawley that there was a perception that the GAA is a a catholic, nationalist and even a republication organisation and was a cold house for protestant and unionists.
While accepting that the GAA still has a distance to go, Burns stated: “That’s fully understandable, but the modern GAA isn’t.
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“If you look at the latest GAA club that has been formed in East Belfast, we’ve been watching that really carefully. The number of people from a non-nationalist background who’ve been involved in that has been mesmeric. If you look at Bredagh up the road from there as well, the links they’ve had with the local Orange Lodge, for example.
“If you look at all the clubs that have done things which are cross community, they’ve all been really well received.
“We do have a distance to go on this, we have a journey to go on this because a lot of the perspectives that the protestant and unionist community might have about the GAA are bourne out by things that they have seen and witnessed themselves.
“We do have some explaining to do with regard to the context around some of the things that will be cast at us, many of which are valid, but we have to always have one eye on the future.
“The modern GAA is a very inclusive organisation. If you look at our rule 1.12: “The Association is anti-sectarian, anti-racist and committed to the principles of inclusion and diversity at all levels.”
On the issue of GAA GAA cups and competitions being named after people with links to republican paramilitaries, Burns responded: “We do have competitions named after people involved in the conflict, they are not GAA organised competitions.
“We have lots of Gaelic games, which are not Gaelic Athletic Association games, they have nothing to do with us, and it’s important we make that distinction.”
Since taking office in February as the 41st president of the GAA, Burns has been asked for his opinion on the funding for Casement Park.
When the question on how any funding gap might be resolved, Burns reiterated his view that the money should come from the British government, but added added that he wouldn’t mention the possible costs involved as the project had gone out to tender.
Back in November, it was confirmed that a new contractor would be needed to build the 34,500-capacity stadium, which is set to be one of 10 stadiums used for Euro 2028.
The Buckingham Group went into administration in September and was due to build Casement along with Northern Ireland firm Heron Bros. Ulster GAA have been working with the Department of Communities to secure a new contractor.
“I’m not mentioning any figures because we’re entering a sensitive tendering process,” added Burns.
“We’re waiting for Gordon Lyons (Minister for Communities) to issue the tender documents. While we do so, it would not be right for me to talk about figures and what it might cost.
“I think that it (the funding shortfall) should be filled from the British Government.
“The reason why is that in the 2000s we built ourselves nine stadiums at our own cost - one of which was Casement Park.”
“We were invited in by the Executive to say they had this idea of a Maze Stadium. It didn’t really suit our needs at the time, we had Clones in Co Monaghan. We said, for the betterment of the peace and everything else, we came into that and we stayed in it right to the very end.
"We would still welcome a Maze Stadium because we could be doing with it. Rugby and Soccer pulled out if it and, as a result, Windsor Park and Kingspan Ravenhill were built - we didn’t get one.”
The former Armagh football captain added: “At the moment, we are building stadiums in Lancashire in England, Louth, Kildare, Meath, New York and Waterford.
"We are building training hubs in Longford, Armagh, Carlow, Wexford and Down. We’ll do all of that ourselves because we do that routinely. This is a different project.”
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