The President-elect, Mrs Mary McAleese, last night confirmed she wants the GAA ban on the RUC and British army personnel joining the association removed. A spokeswoman for the President-elect Aras an Uachtarain said Mrs McAleese had first made public her desire for the ban to be removed in a speech to the Queen's University GAA annual dinner in 1995.
Unionists have consistently accused the GAA of being a sectarian organisation because of its Rule 21, which prohibits members of the RUC and British soldiers from joining it. Attempts to have the rule deleted or even discussed have failed. A motion calling for its removal at the GAA's annual congress three years ago was set aside to allow a special convention on it to take place. No date has been set for such a convention.
In an interview with Daily Telegraph journalist Mr Eamonn Rafferty almost two years ago, for a book, Talking Gaelic, to be published on Monday, Mrs McAleese said she regarded the ban as "sectarian" and harming the GAA.
"Nowadays it smacks of what Sean MacBride called `sleveenism', the petty little dig. Gaelic sports have a dignity and respect about them that they do not need to indulge in petty vindictiveness.
"Gaelic sports are at a peak of perfection now, but the ban tarnishes what should be gilded and golden for all the world to see," she said. If the GAA removed the ban it would speak volumes about "their greatness of heart".
She said: "For me the ban runs against the grain of all that was, and is, good in Ireland. All before the Famine and throughout it, what marked out the Gaelic culture and the Gael was their willingness to share; whatever little they had was shared."
Mr Rafferty said Mrs McAleese had spoken about how much she enjoyed playing camogie in Ardoyne, Belfast where she grew up. Other interviewees include politicians, clergymen, sportsmen and other personalities.