The GAA during The Troubles
By Jack Kelly
On Tuesday the 11th of October 2022 in Hampden Park in Scotland, Irish football history was made. The Republic of Ireland’s women's team qualified for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand through a goal by Donegal native Amber Barrett. Amid their post-match celebrations, members of the team were, unknowingly, recorded singing the pro-IRA song ‘Celtic Symphony’ by the Wolfe Tones which contains the lyrics ‘Up the Ra’.
Cue an ironic overload by the British media implying that the members of the Irish women's football team need to be educated on Anglo-Irish history when their whole education system ignores it. Of course, the singing was more than likely a bit ill-judged but the backlash from
mainstream media in the UK in response to the singing has really highlighted the ignorance of some across the channel. Maybe it's just another example of sport being politicised which in this part of the world is, sadly, nothing new.
The GAA, since its inception as a part of the Gaelic revival, has been closely associated with Irish Nationalism and this has continued, particularly in Northern Ireland, where the sport is played predominantly by members of the Catholic nationalist community. An argument made within Northern Ireland unionist circles is that the GAA is a nationalist organisation and that this is evidenced by the naming of GAA clubs, grounds, competitions and trophies after famous nationalists or republicans.
As a result, during the Troubles, the GAA was targeted by loyalist paramilitaries leading to an increase in the number of sectarian attacks on GAA clubs in the north for a prolonged period.
The most appropriate place to begin an investigation into the Troubles is its epicentre: Belfast. Over 50 years ago, Antrim looked like they were about to establish themselves as a coming power in the world of Gaelic football. With a spate of underage and school titles coupled with an Ulster senior football final appearance in 1970, they were on the brink of something seminal. Unfortunately, over a few weeks at the beginning of 1971, the troubles ignited in Belfast, resulting in a steep decline for GAA success in Antrim.
When we now hear the old tropes about the modern inter-county GAA player ‘having it too easy’ or ‘being looked after’ we often roll our eyes and shake our heads at these cliches. The dedication and commitment of the modern player must be admired but in Antrim during the
Troubles, there was a devotion to a cause bigger than the Sam Maguire cup (imagine!). There was a member of the Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army (PIRA) in the team.
On June 21st, 1970, the iconic Brazil men’s national football team won the World Cup with an eye-catching 4-1 win over Italy. On the same day, Antrim, donning a similar yellow kit, beat a much-fancied Down team to reach the Ulster football final. The Antrim footballers had arrived.
Frank Fitzsimmons played midfield for Antrim on this day, but he wasn’t overly jubilant when the final whistle blew. Fitzsimmons was antsy. He wasn’t comfortable in this environment because he was a member of the PIRA.
Fast forward a few weeks and on 5th of July, GAA legend Taoiseach Jack Lynch calls for every illegal firearm in Belfast to be disposed of. The night before this appeal, the British Army stormed the Lower Falls Road and seized arms and ammunition while also placing the locals under curfew. This had a direct effect on the Antrim footballers as centre back Billy Millar had to be smuggled out of his community on the day of an Ulster semi-final which saw Antrim beat Monaghan on a score line of 2-10 to 1-8. Derry beat Antrim in the final, but the Antrim footballers could be proud of themselves and going into 1971 they would have been right to have been optimistic.
Just as a period of success was on the horizon, society was turning sour, and Belfast was the host of what was becoming a warzone. On January 13th, there was mass rioting in Ballymurphy and just two days later the predominately Catholic north Belfast district of Ardoyne went up in flames.
As a counter to this, from February 3rd, the British Army began searching houses in the Catholic areas of Belfast resulting riots and gun battles. Three days later, the first British soldier was killed.
The escalation in violence can be made abundantly clear by the numbers. In 1969 there was 16 deaths made up of Police, British Army, civilians and paramilitary. 26 a year later. By 1971, the death toll had risen to 171 and in 1972 it went up to 476.
By 1971, surveillance was a constant and this extended to the Special Branch collecting intelligence on GAA activity. Frank Fitzsimmons had to be secretive about his whereabouts and barely saw his children. He would be absent from team photos and match reporters were told to list him as ‘AN other’. Having to maintain this level of secrecy inevitably effected his GAA career. Fitzsimmons had to miss an Ulster club game after hearing reports of a raid.
In 1974, Fitzsimmons was charged and did three years in prison, but the GAA was still regularly feeling the strong arm of the British military. In 1972, Casement Park was seized as part of Operation Motorman. Men had to hide in lorry containers to travel to matches, clubs split between ‘Officials’ and the ‘Provisionals’ and there was such a large amount of the GAA community imprisoned, they were able to set up Gaelic football league in the prison compounds.
During this time, Antrim football, naturally, fell off a cliff as the Troubles decimated them. Between 1970 and 2000, they only won four games in senior football Championship but the effects of the Troubles was not confined to Antrim during the 70’s.
Kieran McGeeney captained the Armagh senior footballers to the counties first All-Ireland championship in 2002. The team was made up of men who grew up during the Troubles and had a strong Crossmaglen Rangers presence in it. Crossmaglen is an area in south Armagh that was described by the club's secretary during the 70’s and 80s, Margaret McConville, as ‘the town the army took over’. The club’s pitch was used as a landing strip for the army’s helicopters, regularly during matches.
The use of disruption was at the core of the British Army’s tactics in Crossmaglen. In 1978, an under-14 match had to be moved to a different venue as the army refused entry to the venue. Patrols were often scheduled as players were travelling to matches and training.
Former Tyrone and current Louth Manager, Mickey Harte spoke rather frankly about trying to enjoy football during the Troubles in his Laochra Gael documentary. ‘When you’re living through a conflict of that nature’ he says, ‘you don’t have your full mindset to be able to devote your life to an activity which is a hobby because there’s too many things to think about’.
It’s no great coincidence that no Ulster team won an All-Ireland between 1968 and 1991 (Down on both occasions) and that Troubles had a detrimental effect on the GAA and wider community in the north for over 30 years. GAA players of this time were disrupted, intimidated and immersed in a struggle away from the playing field but what effect did this period have on the next generation of footballers?
Prior to Dublin’s domination of the All-Ireland football championship over the last 10 years, there was a golden generation of players from the north in the noughties. In that decade, Ulster counties won 4 All-Ireland championships. Armagh (2002) and Tyrone (2003, 2005 and 2008) were champions of Ireland for the first time in their histories. These players were born into a time of violence and were routinely targeted throughout their formative years for being members of a Nationalist sporting association.
The British Army built obstacles for members of the GAA community in the north to break their resolve and, inadvertently, built an unbreakable mentality. Targeting a fundamental cornerstone of these communities had the opposite effect. To quote the Latin proverb ‘Hope is our only comfort in adversity’.