Outside view of the way we are

I have been presented with a most interesting book devoted to GAA matters. It is named Talking Gaelic, and was compiled by Eamonn Rafferty who has taken an unusual look at the GAA and what it means to Irish people. In his book, Rafferty has done what nobody has done before - he has interviewed a wide spectrum of people who have given a new insight into what the GAA means to Irish people.

He does not confine himself to people who would normally be associated with GAA activities. He interviews people such as Michael Ancram, Mary Kenny, Barney Eastwood, Willie Anderson, Tommy Sands, Tommy Makem and Nell McCafferty - and many more. The list above includes people who would not, normally, be associated with the GAA, but we are also given the insights of Joe McDonagh, the reigning president of the GAA, Eamon Dunphy, Charlie Redmond, Bertie Ahern, Martin Storey, DJ Carey, Anthony Tohill and Niall Quinn and Mary McAleese, before she became President of Ireland.uthchleas Gael..

Quite a lot of what appears in the book is predictably supportive of GAA attitudes. However, some of the attitudes of those with no natural affinity to the GAA are even more interesting.

The chapter which has been written by Robert McCartney, the founder and leader of the United Kingdom Unionist Party, is particularly notable. Bob McCartney, as he is better known, is not at all antagonistic towards the GAA. He tells us that he frequently attended Gaelic football and hurling matches in his youth and at Queen's University mixed quite regularly with those who played the games. He explains, and this is the great tragedy of Northern Ireland, that: "My interest In Gaelic continued until 1969 when the Troubles, as they are called, broke out in Northern Ireland and there was a parting of the ways."

He writes with some passion about the role which sport could play in improving the relationships of people within Northen Ireland's divided community. He writes affectionately of the great days of the Down team in the '60s and is even decent enough to include Donegal in Ulster. He also regrets that, with his shock of white hair, he might be far too identifiable if he were to go to Casement Park on a Sunday afternoon, having been there on several previous occasions.

"Even today I'm so well known with my grey hair that if I turned up to a match, I might well come in for some stick, so it's not an option to go there again. Well not yet." It is encouraging that he should append that final sentence.

Rafferty again shows fine judgement in selecting Barney Eastwood as an interviewee. The man who was central to the Barry McGuigan phenomenon tells how he scored Tyrone's first point against Dublin in the All-Ireland minor final of 1948. Eastwood recalls how in the early part of the match he was given a pass from Sean McGrath and, as he sped towards the goal behind the Dublin defence, he heard the Tyrone coach, Gerry Brown, shout: "Put it over the bar, put it over the bar." He did what he was told to do and Tyrone won by 11 points to 1-5. He still regrets that he didn't go for the goal. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has met him that Willie Anderson is a genuine supporter of Gaelic football. Willie will take his place in Irish rugby history as the captain of the Irish team which marched, arms linked, to confront the New Zealanders and the Haka at Lansdowne Road. Anderson identifies the religious divide between the games which is fostered by the school system. He accepts the historical reasons for the establishment of the GAA and adds, most cogently and powerfully: "That's fair enough, but now that (Catholic) strength may be its very weakness. If you don't open up and spread your wings, you run the risk of declining."

It is because of nuggets of common sense such as these that Eamonn Rafferty's trawl through Irish attitudes to the GAA is so absorbing and so valuable.

Talking Gaelic - Leading Personalities on the GAA. By Eamonn Rafferty. (Blackwater Press, £8.99).