The PSNI Gaelic football team stepped closer to full participation at club level with a friendly encounter with Belfast club St Brigid's last night.
The team was clapped onto the pitch at Harlequins rugby grounds by deputy chief constable Paul Leighton, Policing Board chairman Sir Des Rea, and a small group of well-wishers.
There was no protest despite the release earlier of a statement from a group representing victims of RUC-loyalist collusion which criticised the fixture.
An Fhirinne said it could not "accept the legitimacy of the PSNI until they have admitted their involvement in the conflict here over the past 37 years - from the burning of Bombay Street to the collapse of the Assembly".
However, Joe Brolly, RTÉ pundit and All-Ireland medal winner with Derry in 1993, dismissed his critics, including the graffiti artist who branded him a collusionist on a Belfast wall. "You know you've finally made it when there's graffiti put up about you," joked the St Brigid's forward. He quipped his team-mates would not go hard on the PSNI men in case they then took off sick for eight months.
Mr Leighton looked to full participation in club football. "We're getting into it at club level," he said. "It's another step, a normal game. GAA is mainstream sport. We want to play our part with a full heart and in good spirit." Acknowledging some heavy defeats suffered at the hands of the Garda team and by the PSNI recruits at college level in the Sigerson Cup, Mr Leighton opted to look ahead. "We're getting closer."
However, St Brigid's, using the game as a warm-up for a Division 3 decider tonight , won by 4-17 to 1-8.