Supporters of unification must make a place for Northern Protestants in a united Ireland that will let them stay British if they wish, the GAA president Jarlath Burns has said.
“If we are serious about a united Ireland, we have to try to make it as attractive as possible to them by reaching out,” said the South Armagh-based leader of the sporting organisation.
Supporters of unification who are often vocal in their criticism of the behaviour of Unionists must examine their own consciences about the attitude they display to those of a Northern Protestant background, he said.
Those backing unification must reach out to Unionists to say: “If we do this in an orderly manner, and if we work very closely with you, your lives can be enhanced, and you can still be British in a united Ireland.
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“That’s a big challenge for us. That’s why our language has to be so temperate, and we have to be so understanding of the things which are important to them, like the Orange Order,” he told the “How to Gael” podcast.
Currently, the Unionist community is “under siege; they feel they have no friends”, Burns said, adding that “they’re very easy to offend” because they will find “a way of being offended” no matter what others say.
The gains made politically by nationalists will continue because of demographic changes: “It’s all green, right up as far as North Antrim, East Antrim, East Derry. Even the constituency of East Antrim, East Derry last time round were very close.
“If they go the next time round, they are in serious trouble, and that piece of orange is going even further up into the northeast. All of those things really play into their insecurities and into their fears,” he told the podcast.
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The Orange Order is as important to Unionists as the GAA is to those in the nationalist community, he said, adding that he has been criticised in the past for making that comparison.
“The Orange Order evokes exactly the same sense of community identity. All of those values that are important to us, as the GAA is to use. You simply cannot just dismiss the Orange Order and say it’s this, that or the other,” he said.
Unionists, particularly those in rural parts of Northern Ireland, are proud of the Order and marches that “give witness to their sincere belief in the Reformed faith”, along with their Orange halls.
“That’s very important to them. Their Orange Hall is very important. The wee band that they have, that’s very important to them in the same way as our club is important to us, our teams are important to us, our identity, our flag,” he said.
Asked how the Orange Order could be accepted because of its “very homophobic, very misogynistic, racist” views in the past, Burns sharply countered saying that an organisation could not be branded because of the comments of a few.
The GAA is seen by many Unionists as supporting the IRA because grounds are named after revolutionary figures, and some involved in the Troubles, but that is “a skewed view”, he argued.
Equally, supporters of Irish unity will end up with an equally skewed view of the Orange Order if it inspected so narrowly: “We’re not going to really get any further in terms of understanding,” he said.
The “easy thing for us to” is “to tar the whole Orange Order when controversial remarks are made and say it is sectarian and bigoted”, he said.
“But let’s be a wee bit bigger than that and say, ‘That was just one person who wrote that’.
“That may or may not be indicative of the entirety of what the Orange Order believes. And we have to enter into that understanding in good faith. That’s the way I would see it,” he said.
