royaldunne
County: Meath
Posts: 8272

1794415
Htaem. It always astonished me some (thankfully a minority) who are only in the gaa for some lost long ago sense of nationalism or needing to reaffirm their oirishness. I am in the gaa for the game (solely football) and ladies football too, i don't go to a game to see the flag fly or hear the awful anthem played (you know what im talking about , the one in navan on a freezing February night) when getting up off the wooden seat that has somehow managed to become stuck to your jeans is just too much. So you sit as the cd seems to scrape like old vinyl. It is actually insulting to the anthem, and if you were in America Meath gaa would be up for dissing the flag as they say.
But i don't give two hoots about the anthem and its impossible to see the flag anyway depending on where you sitting and i only ever look if i can to see what team has d dthe breeze.
I feel sorry for the ones that are so insecure about their national identity that they go to a sports game to feel Irish. Pathetic.


"Awful anthem". Only in Ireland folks, only in Ireland. You probably look down at us "fools" for actually signing the anthem so? I mean heaven forbid you have to stand for 70 seconds for the anthem, oh how inconvenient for you. But I mean it's nice to know a winner such as yourself feels sorry for people like me, I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm also a Gaelgeóir too, I'm so ashamed!!!!!!!!!! "Sinne Fianna Fáil.........." ~PHS

Pope_has_spoken (Dublin) - Posts: 138 - 01/10/2015 10:06:06    1794539

Can't understand the antipathy of some people to their own country, as if it's something to be ashamed off. As if they are not part of it or above it, I'd be embarrassed for them if I gave them a second's thought. For those who are only interested on the "game", whatever that means - maybe it's time you joined a new organisation, if you don't understand an organisation why would you join it? I'll think you'll find though that many organisation have hidden agendas, unlike the GAA's open one.

The fact is that no matter what Burns proposed some people here would have supported it. If you give yourself and your culture away what have you left? For those who decry what they consider outdated "nationalism" take a look around the world as it is today. If you don't stand up for yourself then you get ploughed into the ground, surely that's the most basic lesson that a game of football or hurling teaches you. As for unionists, they never give anything to any one, why should the GAA reach out to them?

rcarragh (Dublin) - Posts: 305 - 01/10/2015 10:20:28    1794549

Well i will explain to you, since you obviously stopped reading my post at awful anthem.
I continued to say awful anthem that is played in navan , that sounds like scratched vinyl from 1960s even though its on a cd? Got that? Good.
And if you bothered to read on you would also see i said such rendition of the anthem are disrespectful towards it, and it should only be played in national finals. Now i know cause dubs rarely play outside croke park that you do not have to suffer the what can only be compared to someone strangling a cat versions of the anthem that is often heard in county grounds around ire (both north and south)
Also since you are a gael goer i thought you would actually know that sinne fianna fail is actually not the first line of the anthem that you so proudly stand for. Look it up.
Now all that cleared up for you. ? Good.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 01/10/2015 10:27:31    1794552

But slayer the anthem is not played in croke park for first game of a double header, ever, this year Meath v Westmeath not played last year Meath v Kildare not played year before Meath v Wexford not played. Same applies to quarters never played for first match, now my views and many others would be that on the 6th of January someone playing a god awful version on a what sounds like a grammer phone to 200 people is disrespectful and tbh pointless. Keep the anthem for national finals, even provincial finals but not every pre season and league games.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 01/10/2015 10:34:29    1794558

Ill try again. Pope has spoken , if you read my post correctly you would have seen that the awful anthem i was referred to was the one played in navan during league matches. Any Meath person will agree with me on that one, i also said that versions like that are disrespectful to the anthem and it should be reserved for national finals only. Just to clear it up for you.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 01/10/2015 10:41:23    1794559

I have to laugh at the spin being put on the fact that because we cherish everything about what makes us Irish, including the flag and anthem which games with our national games, that we're somehow insecure. I look forward to the day when every other country round the world starts apologising for flying their flag and singing their anthem, particularly those that have and still do engage in colonialism.

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 01/10/2015 10:45:25    1794561

Rcarragh Also yes i am only there for the game, which means two teams playing against each other. I think if you tried to sell tickets to someone playing the anthem on a loop for 70 mins while watching a flag fly you wouldn't get many going. But hey if that's your reason for going fair play. But heres a tip for you wait for "the game" after the anthem, trust me itll be worth it.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 01/10/2015 10:45:49    1794563

Remove the tricolour, remove the soldiers song, remove the links to the IRA through stadium names, stop the sunday playing and change the name "no rules football" then you might be getting somewhere

Above is a comment made by a unionist about the issue on a local newspapers form. This tells you the mindset.

Tom1916 (Armagh) - Posts: 2001 - 01/10/2015 10:58:06    1794570

bumpernut, Id ask you, what exactly is a national game?
Is it a game that can only be played in Ireland? - There are European championships in gealic football...
Is it a game that can only be played by irish people? - There are numerous English people playing gaa in England.
What is national about it?

You seem to focus solely on the word national, and completely ignore the word game...

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 01/10/2015 10:59:18    1794572

royaldunne
County: Meath
Posts: 8277

But hey if that's your reason for going fair play.

That's got nothing to do with what I said.

But I think I know the reason for your antipathy to the anthem:

gael goer ?

If you don't have any Irish fair enough, but there is no need to be insulting to others who do.

However, I'm not sure your grasp of English is any better, tell me what's a "grammer phone" ?

rcarragh (Dublin) - Posts: 305 - 01/10/2015 11:33:08    1794594

So many people are making the mistake of talking about Unionists as some kind of hive-mind. Most Protestants don't join the loyal institutions and the ones at Harryville and Holy Cross are a tiny minority. We can't let their actions dictate ours. The best way to defeat their backwards mindset (and I include dissident republicans here) is to be as inclusive as possible. We can't call our games "the national games" if we treat 20% of the nation as outsiders

Count_Awesome (Kildare) - Posts: 736 - 01/10/2015 11:58:47    1794619

Remove the tricolour, remove the soldiers song, remove the links to the IRA through stadium names, stop the sunday playing and change the name "no rules football" then you might be getting somewhere

Above is a comment made by a unionist about the issue on a local newspapers form. This tells you the mindset.

Indeed Tom. And yet we have fools who not only want to jump in to bed with these people but are happy to let them be on top too. Any wonder our Island is in the state it is today. Though there is a history of belly tickling there so I shouldn't be totally surprised.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 01/10/2015 12:25:33    1794644

Count Awesome - surely you realise that the diatribe that we hear from those who are in positions of power within Unionism is to appeal to those who come out to put their X in a box come election day. They will spout out whatever they feel is necessary to get that vote. If there wasn't such a vast mindset of those who were opposed to the GAA/things Irish then they wouldn't be so forceful in venting their feelings. If there was a majority of Protestants who were liberal/fair minded or whatever you want to call it, then they would be trying to appeal to them and we wouldn't hear half the keech we hear. Unfortunately we are where we are and the feeling is a lot more widespread than you or others might realise.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 01/10/2015 12:36:14    1794653

Remove the tricolour, remove the soldiers song, remove the links to the IRA through stadium names, stop the sunday playing and change the name "no rules football" then you might be getting somewhere

Above is a comment made by a unionist about the issue on a local newspapers form. This tells you the mindset

... of that one particular person...

He probably wont be playing, so don't worry about him.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 01/10/2015 12:49:05    1794665

Sadly the Unionists are a lost cause.Hundreds of thousands
of them attend Orange marches on the Twelfth to "celebrate"
colonial battles in Ireland and elsewhere.It is an unpalatable
truth but there is nothing redeemable about this form of
"culture" and their hatred of Ireland.Like what kind of a
people want to tramp through areas where they are not
welcome just to annoy people.Go to an Orange field where
you are out of sight and out of mind.

The problem I find with them is not personal.Some of them
seem ordinary but I genuinely find this "culture" distasteful.
The Union flag is a flag of shame given the amount of people
killed under around the World and yet these people festoon
towns with them.And yet some would remove a solitary
tricolour flown in a respectful manner to appease these
types of people who burn it on bonfires.The mind boggles....

REDANDBLACK30 (Down) - Posts: 1618 - 01/10/2015 12:58:59    1794678

"Any wonder our Island is in the state it is today"

Yeah average wages at an all-time high, low unemployment, not has many moving overseas, national teams doing well, no famine, no more war, the sun is even out today, gdp of around 20k.

Maybe its different in Antrim, ill do a whip around at my club for a canned food collection straight away. Ill get up a start up page, send in the UN peacekeepers and see if we can even clear those clouds for you :)


The horror the horror!!!!

DoireCityFC (Derry) - Posts: 1580 - 01/10/2015 13:51:57    1794726

Master, what are you talking about? Gaels in the North were attacked and intimidated solely because they were involved with the GAA. The pogroms and xenophobic, bigoted hatred are because of a deep intolerant, sectarian mindset within Unionism/Loyalism. This supremacism cannot tolerate equality for Catholic people North & South and their Irish culture and heritage. Unless you have experienced this at first hand or lived through it I believe people don't have the knowledge to speak about it.

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9706 - 01/10/2015 14:02:06    1794736

I had family whose children were at the Holy Cross school at that time. 14 years on it's still very, very raw and emotional. The targateing of these children remains one of the most darkest, shameful episodes within the history of these islands. I know people who walked away from cross community work after it and have never got involved again.

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9706 - 01/10/2015 14:13:51    1794739

Like 90% of Irish people i don't speak the dead awful language. Its pathetic nonsense gibberish. But that doesn't make us that don't 90% less Irish. It like many other things should be consigned to the history books.
The only reason i voted for enda kennys party at last election was he said he was removing this gibberish as compulsory for leaving cert and that why i will nit vote for him next time. Make it voluntary by all means so those that need to reaffirm their oirishness can have their fill. But for those of us who are secure in our identity we can happily ignore it.
Btw you didn't answer my question as to why you sing the wrong first line to the anthem??

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 01/10/2015 14:29:46    1794747

As much respect as I have for Jarlath Burns I feel he is speaking completely out of turn here. The GAA is an national Irish sport encompassing the 32 counties on the island of Ireland and lets not forget the anthem was written in 1907 (in county down by the way) long before the awful deed of partition - therefore everyone on the island can share their claim of it. Growing up in the north, going to football matches and being able to sing our anthem and face our flag with pride and without fear of being deemed offensive or a bigot is such a patriotic thing and, for me, is part of what the GAA as a whole means to me. Taking that into consideration, if any unionist were to attend a GAA match they are bound to realize that we do not stand and belt Amhrán na bhFiann to spite the PUL community but, indeed, because it fills us with pride and gives us a sense of true culture and nationality. Indeed we are not being anti-unionist but simply pro-Irish. Without launching an attack on the PUL community, the reality is that the majority of Unionists do not want a connection with the GAA, even if they aren't bitter, it's just not their culture...which tends to include bonfires, distasteful bands etc...but besides that it is not the responsibility of the GAA to try and entice a minority group to go to GAA matches. Why in under God should we surrender our love of our anthem and our tricolour for already uncompromising unionists. Have to say Jarlath's words really angered me. Personally I am not bitter, I am pro-GAA, pro-Nationalist, pro-ireland and by no means whatsoever so should we be made feel that we are in someway doing something wrong or being offensive by embracing all elements of the GAA culture that have been practiced for years. I mean you tell a group of GAA heads that they can't sing the anthem or have a flag up because of a minority in the north of ireland...who's representatives in government won't even attend the executive never mind a GAA match...it's madness, total madness and I firmly believe Jarlath is wrong.


Moreover, I am very surprised by his comments when I actually have a quote by him which states, "The GAA promotes Irish unity simply by being there. It is a monument to how we use our flag, our language, our games, our songs, our music, our dance in an inclusive and non-divisive way. We could all learn from the GAA...."
Take from that what you will but I personally think that it's nothing short of a disgrace that he has came out and said that we shouldn't have the anthem or flags for the benefit of unionists.


P.S do we really need to entice even more people to take up All Ireland seats????

MissDownFanatic (Down) - Posts: 411 - 01/10/2015 14:41:58    1794758