GAA president Jarlath Burns has delivered a scathing appraisal of the DUP’s Northern Ireland Communities Minister Gordon Lyons and his failure to engage with the association and the effect on Casement Park as well as detailing what he described as “the hostile environment” the association had to endure.
In a media briefing conducted just after the conclusion of this year’s annual congress, he was asked about the current status of Casement Park in Belfast.
In his address to congress, the president had said that the priority now was to secure a stadium for Ulster GAA now that the ground was not going to be redeveloped as a venue for the Euro 2028 soccer championship.
Expanding on the subject afterwards, he said that had given the facts on Casement in his speech and continued.
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“Facts are that the person who we need to champion this is Gordon Lyons. We are disappointed with how he has performed so far.
“What does that mean? When we met him on the 31st of October, when arising out of that meeting, we had three action points for him to do. The first one was that he was going to write to Hilary Benn [British government Secretary of State for Northern Ireland] asking for a meeting to see was he going to come up with the money on our behalf, because he’s operating on behalf of the Executive and that’s their priority.
“The second thing he was going to do was to put it on the agenda for the Executive.
“The third thing he was going to do was to identify areas where Ulster GAA could begin work, demolishing work, as it stands with what they have, with work that mightn’t need a tender. That was the 31st of October. I wrote to him on the 20th of December asking where he had got to with those action points.
“And I’m still waiting for a reply. And it’s February 22nd.
“If you just put that into context, the president of the biggest sporting organisation in Ireland is in contact through writing and he hasn’t still received an acknowledgment that he wrote to the Minister.
“If you compare that to Charlie McConalogue [new Irish Minister for Sport], who has just been appointed, I’ve now had two meetings with him. I was in Ballybofey and he came here to see me at Congress and we’re meeting at the Taoiseach next week.”
Burns added that when Lyons had been appointed last year, he had received an invitation to a GAA match of his own choosing but despite the 2024 dominance of Ulster counties in football, he had yet to take up the offer.
“He has yet to attend a match of hurling or football. And if you look at the success that the GAA has had in the last year in Ulster, and what we won, and he hasn’t attended any of those. I understand that it’s a difficulty attending games on a Sunday, but Armagh played Tyrone Saturday night a week ago in front of 14,000 people, I don’t know if he would know whether it’s on or not.
“So, I don’t want to be negative. We have to work with these people, but I also want to be realistic about what we’re dealing with and how challenging the landscape is for us, and for [Ulster GAA officials] Stephen McGeehan, Brian McEvoy, Tom Daly, people who are living this every day. They are becoming extremely frustrated. So, I wish I could be optimistic, but unfortunately, it’s really only pessimism on Casement at the moment.”
Despite these downbeat sentiments, the president had been encouraged by a visit to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
“But I will say that we went to Stormont a week ago, and from all the other parties we got great support. The Alliance Party are fully behind it, SDLP, Sinn Féin, even the Ulster Unionists understand where it’s coming from.”
He was also critical of unionist politicians for failing to speak out on the appearance in Antrim of bogus street signs to the effect that the GAA was the sporting wing of the IRA and not welcome
“Having said that, last week there was a series of signs, very, very insulting signs on the GAA going up in Randalstown, really threatening signs. Not one member of the unionist politicians have condemned it or had anything to say on it.
“So, we are operating in a very hostile environment, there’s no doubt about it, and it’s disappointing to say that because of all the work we do reaching out. That’s where we are.”
