Madam, - Under the headline "GAA urged to embrace modern Ireland" (September 10th), the long-serving and highly respected secretary of the Cork County Board, Frank Murphy, is quoted as saying his association should "change, reflect and embrace the opportunities of modern and multicultural Ireland".
He adds that "the rule of the association being non party political and non-sectarian is now rather narrow in its terminology and scope and should state that the association is both anti-sectarian and anti-racist and that its rules be worded in a more pro-active sense in welcoming people irrespective of their religious persuasions, political opinions or cultural backgrounds to share with us in fulfilling the association's objectives".
The statement, its location, its timing and its source are all highly significant. It came at the commemoration of the death of a young man, Liam Lynch, during the Civil War at Kilcrumper in Cork and followed closely on two controversial recent events. I refer to an ignorant sectarian incident in Fermanagh where a young Protestant GAA player was subjected to abuse by opponents and was on the verge of giving up the game as a result.
And then we had the heated debate about what kind of headgear was permissible for gardaí.
Frank Murphy's statement is most welcome given that the GAA's record on these matters bears scrutiny. Time was when those who played "foreign games" were forced to use assumed names or suffer their teams to be barred from all GAA activity.
The "ban" was the cause of much bitterness and division and was dropped from the rule book in spite of aggressive opposition from many quarters where people who played or attended "foreign games" were seen as, at best, flawed in their commitment to Irishness - and that was not all that long ago.
Well! We have come a long way. - Yours, etc,
SEÁN KILFEATHER,
South Circular Road,
Dublin 8.