The GAA is probably the most important social and sporting organisation ever to have come into existence in Irish life...
In the next few weeks or so, the first announcements around new funding sources for integration will be made public. These will centre initially on the ability of our major sporting codes to do more in relation to integrating immigrants into their formal structures and locally based organisations.
The idea is that rugby, the soccer authorities, basketball and, of course, the GAA would be encouraged to formalise their commitment to integration and push the issue on a local level to clubs, officials, parents and playing members alike. With the senior championship season well underway and the excitement building for the September All-Ireland festivals, it is a good time to reflect on what it means to be Irish and what this particular, very Irish organisation can do to broaden that definition in an inclusive manner. Already the talk from different parts of the countries is of how so many children of immigrants are getting stuck into the local GAA teams on the ground.
Hopefully any further funding will extend this Irish welcome from the GAA even further, and involve a thought-out way of doing this on the organisation’s part. Certainly the other sporting codes will also be assisted, but in many ways how the GAA handles diversity in the years ahead will mirror how the country manages to cope with the challenges that immigration now poses for Ireland.
The GAA is so wrapped up with our identity and habits as a people, it is no exaggeration to state that it is probably the most important social and sporting organisation ever to have come into existence in Irish life.
Nowhere was this more brought home to me than at the Gaelic grounds in Limerick over the weekend, where the Munster final saw Tipperary and Clare battle it out in what was a hugely entertaining and clean-fought game of hurling. The GAA, almost alone among our national institutions, has come through our period of intense modernisation unblemished and virtually untarnished by scandal or systemic crises of any kind. That in itself – given the public scrutiny that the banks, the clergy, my own political party and other institutions have faced – is something of an achievement in an Ireland that has changed beyond recognition.
The democratic ethos and broad church, in social terms, that the GAA appeals to lends very well to the whole notion of integration. In many ways the organisation itself has been a powerful source of integration within Irish society already. Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh has also given his own strong voice to the whole notion of integration, as has the influential Cork GAA personality Frank Murphy.
Hopefully there will be great voices and roars from the terraces of Munster in the years ahead for young men and women, the children of immigrants, who will in time excel at our native games. Immigrants who really want to find out what makes the Irish tick should make the effort to get those valued tickets for Croke Park over the summer. On a good Sunday, the electric atmosphere of a GAA crowd tells you virtually all that you need to know about Ireland.
