A rather disturbing story appeared in today's Irish News; I repeat it here.

'A man has criticised a south Belfast bar after he and his family were "led off the premises like criminals" because his son was wearing a GAA top. Brian Austin said he was stunned when his 23-year-old son Daniel was asked to leave Cuttars Wharf in Stranmillis, while other patrons wearing rugby gear were permitted to stay on. Mr Austin who had been out with family visiting from South Africa on Monday evening said they felt "embarrassed and humiliated" by the ordeal. "It was the Dublin away top with Vodafone emblazoned across the middle and then there is a very small badge in the corner that says Dublin GAA" he said. "I just can't understand that someone would take umbrage at this". "I went to the management and they said it was their policy that no football or GAA tops are allowable but rugby tops are. You can wear GAA tops around the world but just not in BT9 in case you offend someone".
A spokeswoman for Cuttars Wharf said the bar's management could not comment as the policy is implemented by it's parent company Wine Inns. No one from the parent company was available for coment last night'.

Now I know some wags will slag the Dublin top but this is indicative that there are still some very entrenched negative and biased mindsets in the North regarding the GAA especially amongst middle class Unionism. This is a throwback to the bad old days and akin to the 'back of the bus' mentality that many Nationalists and Catholics in the North had to, and still have to, contend with. Surely Croke Park and the Irish media must ask questions of this bar and it's parent company to determine if sporting and political apartheid is official company policy! Thoughts?

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9817 - 30/05/2012 14:54:32    1183734

yeah you sum it up with your last couple of lines
ridiculous in this day and age.

but for instance, i think a number of pubs in the republic would ask a man wearing a Glasgow rangers jersey to leave. again not right, but it would happen.

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5245 - 30/05/2012 15:02:01    1183745

cavanman47
County: Cavan
Posts: 69

1183745
yeah you sum it up with your last couple of lines
ridiculous in this day and age.

but for instance, i think a number of pubs in the republic would ask a man wearing a Glasgow rangers jersey to leave. again not right, but it would happen.

About 10 years ago after a Celtic-Rangers match 5 Scottish lads walked in to the local with their Rangers tops and Kilts. Not an ounce of trouble. They where having the crack. If they where from the north there would have been trouble.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 30/05/2012 15:12:19    1183751

Fair enough Cavanman but I believe this was more to do with not annoying the largely middle class, rugger loving clientele that frequent that bar; the ones that say they aren't bigoted but are as every bit as your knuckledragging Loyalist. They are the same ones that silently fume at Nationalists waving the old, original 9 county Ulster flag at Ravenhill and not the Northern Ireland flag and say to themselves "What are they doing here?". Anti-Catholicism and anti-GAA sentiment know NO boundaries in the North especially in leafy, awfully nice unionist suburbia. The ones that love to bellow "Some of my friends are actually Catholic" as it was a novelty!

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9817 - 30/05/2012 15:12:27    1183752

It is now imperative that the parent company Wine Inns, the NI Tourist Board and the Dept. of Culture, Arts and Leisure in the North make statements on this. How can they advertise all over Ireland and abroad for tourists and then disrespect and insult those with an interest in the GAA??

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9817 - 30/05/2012 15:27:21    1183773

About 15 years ago there was a young lad, irish lad, kicked to death in a now closed night club in balybunion co Kerry.
His "crime" ? Wearing a Rangers jersey in a nightclub. He hadnt a clue what the jersey meant or even that it was a rangers jersey.
Not that the scum who did it knew or cared

if it was a rugby bar and known as a rugby bar then it makes a little sense ulsterman.
Rugby tops in Ulster are now more or less cross community and unlikely to offend. GAA tops on the other hand are still a dangerous thing to wear in Belfast and we know that, this man as a tourist didnt know it. That was not his fault mind. But I can see where the staff were coming from. All it would take was a lout to take offence and holy war would break out. Its not the pubs job to defend someones rights to wear a dubs shirt, it is their job to protect their customers tho. And the potential for trouble has to be avoided at all costs. Sorry man but I can see the pubs POV here.

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 30/05/2012 15:42:50    1183785

Can understand a ban on soccer jerseys but gaa and rugby should be acceptable.

Brolly (Monaghan) - Posts: 4472 - 30/05/2012 15:49:49    1183792

liamwalksintown, they said they ban all jerseys except rugby ok, yet on their facebook their advertising a comp o win a soccer jersey, yu better believe if yu walk into that pub with a liverpool/ utdersey yu will not be asked to leave. FACT

LiosTuathail (Kerry) - Posts: 216 - 30/05/2012 15:50:51    1183794

Brolly
County: Monaghan
Posts: 2737

1183792
Can understand a ban on soccer jerseys but gaa and rugby should be acceptable.

on the way back from clones on many occasion while stopping off in Monaghan town for a quick half , the door staff on many not all! I may say wouldn't let any boys or girls on the premises wearing GAA shirts but when using the same premises off licence they had no such rule.

fortyfive (Tyrone) - Posts: 5929 - 30/05/2012 15:56:11    1183802

only a year or so back I was at a chippy with my family on the mall in Armagh , my youngest daughter had an Irish dancing wig and tiara on and a track top saying what her Irish dancing school was , their was a Loylist parade that had just finished and 4 big burly tattoo bandsmen came into chip shop and proceeded to call my 12 yr old some disgusting names I challenged them only for the owner of the chip shop to ask us to leave , I reported it to the PiSNI no action was taken!.

fortyfive (Tyrone) - Posts: 5929 - 30/05/2012 16:03:53    1183808

Very well said Ulsterman. Middle class protestants like to emphasise their liberalness by the fact of having catholic friends.

lilywhite1 (Kildare) - Posts: 3027 - 30/05/2012 16:07:32    1183814

Hey... I know these tourists were asked to leave and they were a little put out by the experience.

But well at least they have impeccable taste.

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 30/05/2012 16:08:35    1183815

Is this really newsworthy, seriously?

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 30/05/2012 16:16:17    1183829

fortyfive - the response I would like to post to that story contains language this website would probably not print. Unbelievable stuff, and my heart goes out to your daughter.

With regard to the original story, it's sad to think that no matter how good a time that family have on their holiday in Ireland, you can be damn sure the story that will get the most airing when they get home is how they got thrown out of a pub for wearing a sports jersey.

Sad also to think that some think it's ok to ask the family to leave for fear of insulting some other patron. In a civilised society, it's the victims need protection, not the bullies. The family should never have been approached, and you'd have to question the motives of any business that's going to implement a policy the protects and effectively institutionalises bigotry and racism in the interests of establishing a clientele.

By that arguement the cops in America and the RUC were fully entitled to stamp out the 1960's civil rights movements in the name of "protecting" the locals.

festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3148 - 30/05/2012 16:19:26    1183833

What about the lad with the Connacht RUGBY jersey in Belfast who was kicked half to death a few years ago. There is an element in Ulster who are such in a mindset that would not be out of place in a salem witch trial.

Be interesting to see what media coverage this gets from the southern and northern media brigade's.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11557 - 30/05/2012 16:23:38    1183835

Lads its ok the ones from the Republic totally understand the intolerance we have to put up with. A friend of mine was getting a taxi from stranmillis road to the europa on a thurs night. The taxi driver took him down through sandy row. I know sandy row is beside the europa hotel but why did he take that route instead of taking the traditional route? Perhaps it had something to do with the cork jersey he was wearing. Never once have i seen a taxi driver take that route to the europa.
Say what you want but if you walk into the wrong street in belfast wearing a gaa top you will know it.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 30/05/2012 16:26:39    1183840

Disgusting but no big surprise, I myself was refused service in a well known belfast city bar (named after a man from Spain). I was with a group of people from work and I was wearing an O'Neills coat (just black with white stripes), there was no GAA reference or emblem on it whatsoever, just the word O'Neills. I was told that I wouldn't be served as I was wearing a "GAA coat". The only thing to do is confront and boycott these sectarian establishments. PS the cutters wharf bar also has soccer nights when the 6 counties are playing and the place is full of 6 county soccer jerseys.

Tom1916 (Armagh) - Posts: 2001 - 30/05/2012 16:27:17    1183841

I've been refused into many an establishment in Dublin City after a game wearing a Dublin top. Yet if its a big game when the whole county is wearing blue there is no problem. Pubs are fickle and downright ignorant in way they suit themselves in terms of door policy. I don't think the pubs in Dublin are anti-GAA but they do suit their own ends in terms of their cliental. In terms of Ulsterman's post: the pub if discriminatory against GAA alone should be given negative publicity. Then again there is many a bar in the north where you wouldn't dream of wearing particular sports tops so its not as if this is an exception.

seany16 (Dublin) - Posts: 1663 - 30/05/2012 16:33:51    1183847

Tom1916: "PS the cutters wharf bar also has soccer nights when the 6 counties are playing and the place is full of 6 county soccer jerseys".

So it wasn't company policy just to allow rugby jerseys. Just plain old fashioned anti nationalist bigotry that is still very much alive in the North today.

lilywhite1 (Kildare) - Posts: 3027 - 30/05/2012 16:38:34    1183851

Is this really newsworthy, seriously?

Of course it is. Northern Ireland now has a very prominent tourism marketing campaign in English speaking countries and nowhere does it tell you that if you travel from the south to the north that you might need to change what you are wearing. We might know from experience what does or doesn't look right in certain surroundings but for such an aggressive marketing campaign this should rightly be served as a wake up call to certain areas and premisies in Belfast that you can't treat people like this.

doublehop (Kildare) - Posts: 4172 - 30/05/2012 16:41:41    1183855