I speak our native language and am proud of that, as for that Meath man and his story of Ireland being 1000s of years old yet we are shouting about a flag and anthem that is only 100 years old, what planet are you on? Ireland is divided in 2 not North and South but East and West. If you look at people from the West we have the same skin complexion as people from the Catalan region in northern Spain, it is assumed that people from that region settled along the west of Ireland, on the other hand people from the East of Ireland have British blood due to the close proximity of the 2 areas and the landlords, plantations etc and the people look more alike. So what some people are saying is we should be playing the British National Anthem for Leinster, half of Ulster and half of Munster champ games, the Catalan anthem to be played for Connacht, west Ulster and west Munster games but also Ireland was taken over by Normans, Vikings, Saxons, French, Scottish, English in the past 1000 years and more recently IMF and EU so what National Anthem is to be played. Over the past 1000 years men, women and children died for our country and eejets dare to ridicule their sacrifice for us, every time the tri colour is flown and Amhran Na bhFiann is played we are honouring those heroes, remembering their sacrifice and proud to be representing them today, maybe it's not the way they believed the country would turn out but it's better than a lot of other countries are living through. What drives me mad is gobsites that refuse to take off their hats for the National Anthem, it is insulting not to remove headgear and that includes hurling headgear

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 02/10/2015 21:09:13    1795324

bad.monkey
Tried to respond to your last comments, clarify my previous comment, didn't get through (not sure why). Maybe we're all flag-talked out.

Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 02/10/2015 21:16:47    1795327

Riverboys. The association pre dates the anthem or flag, so what Htaem rightly points out it was only added later so it is not part ot the core principles, and your argument to try to dismiss Htaem only proves one thing, that you cant. He is 100% right.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 02/10/2015 21:48:13    1795338

Does Burns (and his like) not realise how futile, how utterly pointless this gesture would be? What a truly pathetic excuse NOT to play any sport, how about some plain honesty? They hate anything remotely Nationalist, they can't stand being reminded that people are different to them and I am sure it applies the other way. The Tricolour which to them is a terrorist rag is offensive and as for that bloodcurlding rebel anthem!! Anthems are played at finals go down to the local club nursery and there are no flags or songs to offend, it is US that is causing offence - you know just being what we are! So Burns argument is just a shallow empty one just so (he) can show how (at the the big games) how truly all embracing we are as a people and how far we have come blah blah, in other words it is purely for his benefit and his like.
Now this is probably a very novel idea and truly ground breaking, we couldn't care less for people who don't play our games (why would we?) it is that simple! There are in the south people who dislike GAA culture/games and what it represents to them but so what? Why is it the GAA's duty to embrace people who just don't like us, probably hate us? Isn't that what the middle finger is for?

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4897 - 03/10/2015 09:43:19    1795361

riverboys

If you look at people from the West we have the same skin complexion as people from the Catalan region in northern Spain, it is assumed that people from that region settled along the west of Ireland

Catalans, are you sure? I thought we were more closely related to the Basques.

Anyway, I was talking in the millions of years, never mentioned the thousands and all humans evolved from Africa anyway, around the Great Rift Valley I think, so none of us are originally from Britain or Catalonia as you claimed.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 03/10/2015 09:43:28    1795362

royaldunne

Cheers royaldunne, again like yourself I go to Gaa matches for the sport itself, not for a song or to see a flag, is that really so hard for people to understand?

The great thing though is that we're as Irish as they are and always will be, it's just we don't have the need for constant reassurance :-)

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 03/10/2015 09:57:25    1795363

Htaem

Exactly, i even checked my passport this morning just to make sure i was Irish cause i go to see football and not sing a song or look at a flag..
The only flags i am interested in are the green and white ones when i cant make out if it was a point or a wide. :).

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 03/10/2015 11:42:29    1795399

I don't see too many suggestions to make Windsor Park a more welcoming place for Catholics or Nationalists .

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6031 - 03/10/2015 12:08:36    1795408

In the context of a 32 county political entity, republic or otherwise I would be open to a new anthem and flag if necessary to unite all the people of the island, No need for 2 international flags, I would agree with Burns

suckvalleypaddy (Galway) - Posts: 1671 - 03/10/2015 12:18:58    1795412

I don't see too many suggestions to make Windsor Park a more welcoming place for Catholics or Nationalists .

Removed playing GSTQ before football final.

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4624 - 03/10/2015 12:45:11    1795420

Greengrass

I don't see too many suggestions to make Windsor Park a more welcoming place for Catholics or Nationalists.

All sports venues should be welcoming for sports fans, including Windor Park, that goes without say.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 03/10/2015 13:22:59    1795428

There is growing evidence that people around the West of Ireland are descended from the North West coast of Spain, particularly from Galicia. The Scandanavians settled in the East around Waterford, Wexford and Dublin which are Viking settlements and they intermarried with the Anglo Normans around the Pale. Going back further historians and anthropologists believe the first settlers in Ireland came in through the River Bann near what is now Coleraine in Co. Derry and navigated down through the rivers and lakes of the island. Whatever the facts NO ONE on this island can claim sole ownership of the name Irish.

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9706 - 03/10/2015 13:59:00    1795436

That just isn't true, Htaem

http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/linfield-pitches-in-to-help-camogie-team-train-for-match-25998005.html

Count_Awesome (Kildare) - Posts: 736 - 03/10/2015 14:03:28    1795438

Count_Awesome

What isn't true? that sounds like a nice story btw.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 03/10/2015 14:18:05    1795441

The NW200 bike races are started with the playing of the British national anthem and are waved off with the Union flag. It's un-necessary at a bike race and doesn't do much to welcome non-Unionists. I'm capable of being Irish without the GAA, or without any trappings, flags, or anthems. I'm a Republican from a Republican family and we never even had a tricolour in the house. Unlike insecure Unionists with flags hanging off every lamp post and hen house for months on end, we never had anything to prove about our identity.
The appeal of the GAA derives from two aspects:
1. Community (the GAA has more non-playing members than playing members); and
2. Amateurism.
If amateurism and residence-eligibility goes, I'd lose interest in the GAA. It'd then have been downgraded from a vehicle for community cohesion to just another vehicle for passive entertainment. The GAA is special because it's counter-cultural. Irish and most Western societies are based on greed and individualism. In the GAA, it's 'our best against your best'. A winning team is only the end result of mostly unseen and unsung wider community effort. It's inspiring to see people doing stuff for no big material reward and being delighted when the group succeeds. Harvard researcher, Robert Putman, stated in a 1993 study (of democracy in Italy) that the steady depletion of 'social capital' in modern society provides a major challenge. His work illustrates that social capital is a public good, one that the markets and their private agents (Messrs. Kenny, Cameron et al) alone cannot provide. 'Third Sector' organisations, such as the GAA, play a crucial role facilitating and promoting the growth of social capital. People who don't understand this talk about how the GAA 'needs' to 'embrace' professionalism and then it'll be 'even better'. Sure, better for players who would have more time for training and better for TV audiences; but any such fracturing into active professional elite and passive amateur consumer would represent a victory for the market over community; a victory of the few over the many.

If the choice was between an amateur GAA with no flags but with a core set of amateur, community-based ethics and a slick, semi-pro GAA with flags, give me the former every time. If the national flag and anthem is an obstacle to making moderate Unionists feel welcome at GAA games, then we should give serious consideration to Jarlath's suggestion. As an Irish Republican, I try to do what little I can to make Unionists feel part of the Irish family. Much bitterness and bigotry derives from insecurity and fear. Before the Troubles, quite a few local Unionists followed our local club team. That all stopped when the Troubles started. One of the saddest things I ever heard was my late Father telling me about one such local Unionist fella, standing on a hill a few fields away, trying to watch GAA matches from afar without being seen - afraid to be seen to betray his community by attending a game openly and perhaps afraid also of standing out in a newly-polarised community.

Not all Unionists are the churlish yahoos who monopolise Unionist party politics. Lots of moderate Unionists don't even vote. Of course, there are plenty in the Unionist community who'd rather have a sex change operation than go to a GAA match; but there are others in the Unionist community who are more confident about their identity and who could be persuaded to come along and give it a try. The appeal of our games is rooted in their distinctive features - community and amateurism. The GAA healed divisions in the South after the civil war and let's not assume that it could have no similar part to play in the North:
http://ulster.gaa.ie/2015/09/game-of-three-halves-camps/

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts: 1141 - 03/10/2015 14:49:52    1795452

Would it even work?
Would removing the tricolour and anthem lead to a surge in young protestants playing gaelic games?

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 03/10/2015 19:44:52    1795526

Htaem
The great thing though is that we're as Irish as they are and always will be, it's just we don't have the need for constant reassurance :-)

then why have the two of you littered pages 1-18 of this thread with reassurances of how Irish you both are when most people can post their point of view on this matter and move on?!

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2386 - 03/10/2015 20:32:55    1795541

I think the title of this story isn't correct - Burns didn't call for a removal - he was asked if he would support a removal and he said it wouldn't cost me a thought. If he had said no way or anything different then its a different story/ bigger story breaking out.
I don't know if its a strategy of the GAA to start getting more people from other communities playing our games - if it is I would say try looking after the people currently playing games & there wont be as many quitting after underage / retiring early. The way club teams are treated at times isn't right. I am not talking about the die-hard players that are playing at top level for club/county - I am talking about the lads that play in lower divisions & in small clubs. Players don't know from one week to the next if they have a game - bank holiday weekends are never given free - men with young families I am sure would appreciate 1 or 2 of these off during a season- Games get cancelled and shifted at the last minute.
I think the GAA need to focus on what is turning players away from there games & then make efforts to resolve.

tyronesaints (Tyrone) - Posts: 14 - 04/10/2015 11:41:18    1795590

Good post, essmac

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 04/10/2015 12:01:30    1795595

I wish ex players like Burns would comment on the actual game rather than the politics. It's like multi millionaire celebs commenting on politics and people are sick of it. Protestant rugby players stand for anthem in Dublin so why can't Protestant Gaelic players like some are today. The farce we could have is Ireland's call being played at games that no one wants. When the rugby lads are away from home like in World Cup we have this wishy washy compromise of a song that inspires no passion and I genuinely feel Ireland are disadvantaged - just look at the other teams when their anthem is played.

IrishGael3 (USA) - Posts: 1092 - 04/10/2015 14:53:52    1795629