The GAA and the national anthem

Sir, – Brian O'Connor's clinical diagnosis of what's wrong with the GAA playing the national anthem before games should be of interest to every member of Ireland's most successful and influential sporting organisation ("It's time for the GAA to forget this national anthem business", September 19th). The benefits for the GAA of its past decisions to drop the ban on people who played soccer or who were members of the security forces in Northern Ireland should encourage the organisation's membership to support O'Connor's proposed remedy of playing Amhrán na bhFiann only on the international stage.

If there is to be a debate in the GAA on this issue, let us hope we will be spared the kind of vitriol that condemned previous proponents of change (now accepted as benefiting the organisation) as “anti-Irish” and “West Brit”. The GAA has done much, both on and off the pitch, to improve the quality of life for both rural and urban communities. It doesn’t need the trappings of nationalist hubris to prove its worth and maintain its relevance in both the Republic and Northern Ireland.

There is one paragraph in particular in Brian O’Connor’s superb article that would make an excellent poster for schools: “There’s enough flag-waving in the world, too much patriotic posturing. There’s never been a problem that can’t be made worse by wrapping a flag around it, or a song.” I suggest there’s never been an island where this is more relevant than Ireland. – Yours, etc,

OLIVER DONOHOE,

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Kimmage,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – Brian O’Connor seems to think that every club and county across the island of Ireland is “probably oblivious to just how incongruous playing the national anthem is” before GAA games. What he doesn’t seem to realise is how incongruous his recent article was.

Amhrán na bhFiann is very much a matter of identity. We are Irish. This is our national anthem. It is sung before our national games. It is sung at our national games at every level.

Those who feel intimidated by their own national anthem probably shouldn’t attend their country’s national sporting events. – Yours, etc,

SÍLE

NÍ­ CHOINCHEANNAIN,

Kilkee,

Co Clare.

Sir, – I believe all those attending All-Ireland finals have no objection to standing for the playing of our national anthem. Of course it is not as thrilling as the French national anthem, but it is our anthem, and I, for one, take pride in singing it! – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL LEAHY,

Cobh,

Co Cork.

A chara, – So, Brian O'Connor repeats the old canard that those of a "different political persuasion" will rush to the GAA fields if we stop playing Amhrán na bhFiann before matches.

This patent drivel is the usual guff peddled by those who wish to remove any Irish cultural signs from our national sports. Unionists don’t want to play Irish sports because they, as Newton Emerson pointed out in these pages, don’t feel Irish “in the slightest” (Opinion & Analysis, September 13th). Making our sports “neutral” will not bring a single unionist to the pitches and would remove a distinct sign of Irish identity from these most Irish of gatherings. – Is mise,

PAUL LINEHAN,

Howth,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – In addition to the temerity of the GAA playing the Irish national anthem in Ireland, the spectacle of fans wearing their county colours is also divisive and promotes a false sense of “belonging”. Keeping score at sporting events is also grossly discriminatory as it encourages an “us and them” mentality. And, yes, I am being ironic. – Yours, etc,

ALAN BYRNE,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.