Can hope and history rhyme, Seamus Heaney's poetic words, at the annual congress of the GAA in Croke Park today? The venue is apt as the most contentious item of business is this afternoon's debate on the use of the stadium for soccer and rugby internationals.
In the midst of a variety of arguments and speculation as to who will attend the congress and how they will vote, the core consideration has sometimes been obscured - namely, is the GAA comfortable with the prospect of Irish supporters travelling past an empty Croke Park en route to the airport in order to attend "home" soccer and rugby internationals abroad? Gaelic games and rugby are, historically, the main all-Ireland sports on this island.
It is not germane to point a finger at the inaction of the Football Association of Ireland or the Irish Rugby Football Union. When and if Lansdowne Road is redeveloped - given that the project is not even yet at the planning stage - international soccer and rugby teams will temporarily have no home venue on this island. The GAA is the only sports organisation able to provide a solution.
There have been mounting signs in recent weeks that rank-and-file members of the GAA are not comfortable with the prospect of Croke Park being locked up in these extenuating circumstances. There is an apprehension, at a political level, of a public relations catastrophe. But there is also a welcome desire to be neighbourly. That instinct should not be scorned by internal opponents of change or the GAA's persistent detractors. There have been vexatious arguments from business interests in Dublin, which seem happy to extract substantial revenue from Gaelic games followers without acknowledgment, but then to castigate the GAA over money that might be lost if Croke Park is not opened to other sports.
The view of many GAA members is that as a community-based organisation with a tradition of observing the national interest, they should make the gesture of opening up their main venue. This has been largely decided without putting a price tag on the gesture.
Financial considerations won't be any more of an argument today than they were four years ago, when a move for change was narrowly defeated. Back in 2001 the Government lobbed money at the GAA on the eve of congress in a tactic to keep alive the Taoiseach's dream of a stadium in Abbotstown. The Stadium Ireland project is now shelved and the GAA has its finances under control. The argument that public funding demands a response from the GAA is equally seen as a red herring given that such grants were specifically made with no strings attached.
Today's debate should concentrate on the changed profile of the GAA. The temporary accommodation of other sports in their superb stadium, rather than having the national flag flying for Irish fans in England, is the right thing to do. The GAA's place in today's Ireland has been hard earned over the years. It would be anti-national to send rugby, another all-island sport, abroad.