This week, a Protestant quit the GAA after alleged sectarian abuse - but it's long been part of sport in the North, writes Carissa Casey.
When Lisnaskea Emmets hurler Darren Graham walked off the pitch last Sunday during a match against a local team, he kick-started another furious round of Northern Ireland's equally famous sport, "whataboutery".
Graham (25) is a Protestant who says he has been subjected to repeated sectarian abuse on GAA pitches. Last Sunday, he alleges, a member of the opposing team, Brookeborough, called him a "black c***", and for Graham it was the final straw. "I told my club I was quitting, and I'm not going back until something is done about it," he says.
Graham's plight is just the latest example of Northern Ireland's ignoble tradition of sectarianism in sport, despite well-meaning and sometimes successful efforts to eradicate it.
The problem pre-dates the Troubles - in 1948 Catholic player Jimmy Jones had his leg broken during riots after a football match at Belfast's Windsor Park - and, given this latest incident, may long outlast the political settlement.
Accusations of rampant sectarianism span the three most popular sports of football, GAA and rugby. However, other sports are not immune. Boxing legend Barry McGuigan's decision to fight under a flag of peace for world championship bouts, and to adopt British citizenship in order to fight for a British championship, led to him being dubbed "Barry the Brit" in some nationalist quarters.
Elsewhere, in 1972, Cliftonville cricket ground in north Belfast was set on fire.
In Northern Ireland, it's perhaps not surprising that simmering tensions between divided communities spill over on the sports field. For some, sporting fixtures are the only occasions when they meet the "other side".
What shocked many about the Graham incident was not so much his complaints of sectarian taunts during GAA games, but the revelation that a young man whose father, a UDR man, was killed by the IRA, crossed the so-called peace line to play for an organisation that until recently banned members of Northern Ireland's security forces from joining its ranks. "I just loved the sport," says Graham.
He is not the first Protestant to play Gaelic games in Northern Ireland. Down footballer Peter Withnell is best remembered locally for the goals he scored in the 1991 All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry. He too was a Protestant. But there was at least one incident during an Ulster final in west Belfast's Casement Park, when scuffles broke out following allegedly sectarian comments that were made within earshot of Withnell's mother.
EACH SMALL TRIUMPH over tribalism faces a hatred so well-worn that it seems to surprise the perpetrators when it's pointed out to them.
In a 1948 soccer match between Linfield and Belfast Celtic at Windsor Park, Celtic player Jimmy Jones was thrown over the wall that surrounded the pitch. He suffered a broken leg and Belfast Celtic withdrew from Irish football. There followed several decades during which sectarianism and Windsor Park became virtually synonymous.
In 1990, a match between Donegal Celtic and Linfield erupted in an orgy of violence. Celtic players were attacked, while riot squads stormed the team's supporters, shooting plastic bullets.
A year later, the Ulster Freedom Fighters threw a grenade at the supporters of the mainly-Catholic Cliftonville in retaliation for the IRA bombing of Musgrave Park Hospital a few days previously.
But easily the most tragic of all football-related violence in Northern Ireland occurred far away from the pitch. In June 1994, while much of the island was cheering on the Republic's efforts in the World Cup in the US, the Ulster Volunteer Force burst into a bar in Loughlinisland, Co Down and shot dead six football fans who had been enjoying the game.
IN MORE RECENT times, violence and the threat of violence has continued. In August 2002, then Celtic footballer Neil Lennon walked away from the Northern Ireland team just prior to a football friendly against Cyprus. His family had received death threats from loyalist paramilitaries, apparently sparked by Lennon's stated desire to play for an all-Ireland football team.
While the Irish Football Association (IFA) has made great strides in combating sectarianism in the sport, it became bogged down last year in accusations of sectarianism when it emerged that nationalist players were being forced to travel under British passports to international games. The IFA claimed that Fifa insisted all players carry the same passports. Nationalists insisted that, under the Belfast Agreement, both Irish and British passports were valid forms of identification for citizens of Northern Ireland.
The organisation still refuses to allow football matches to be played on "the Sabbath" for overtly religious reasons. The ruling is likely to be changed later this year, but the issue will remain, since some clubs will opt to play on Sundays while others will refuse.
Rugby is played on Sundays at the Ravenhill ground in south Belfast. Among those who have staged protests against this practice is the First Minister, Ian Paisley. The grounds are close to his Free Presbyterian Church.
The GAA, of course, still claims allegiance to a united Ireland, which is in itself sectarian to many unionists. The organisation has launched an investigation into Graham's allegations and has promised tough action against perpetrators. GAA president Nicky Brennan has invited Graham to Croke Park and reiterated that the organisation is open to all religions.
Graham has welcomed the invitation, but insists that action is needed to stamp out bigotry within the organisation's ranks.
In the meantime he is being supported by his fellow team-mates and perhaps the ghost of Sam Maguire - another proud Protestant Gaelic player, in this case from Co Cork.