When sport speaks truth to power
AT Parnell Park last Saturday, the Dublin ladies footballers hosted Kerry in the first round of the league. The most significant moment of the evening however didn’t involve the on-field action but what happened as the national anthem Amhrán na bhFiann rang out.
As Mick Bohan’s All-Ireland champions linked arms in a line together, the players held up a banner that read: ‘SOS COGAIDH SA PHALAISTÍN’, the white capital lettering on a black banner background urging for the equivalent of ‘ceasefire now’ as Gaeilge.
The banner refers to the bombardment of Gaza by Israel which has killed over 24,000 Palestinians, including around 10,000 children. Where over half a million are now facing famine as Israel continues to restrict aid.
The nature of this response to the barbaric attack by Hamas on October 7 which killed 1,200 Israelis has resulted in South Africa filing a suit to the International Court of Justice in the Hague that Israel’s military actions constitute genocide.
A full statement by the Dublin squad accompanied the public protest, showing how this was no impromptu act but something the squad had discussed and was clearly heartfelt: ‘We, members of the Dublin Senior Ladies Football Team and Management feel strongly about taking a stand on the issue of an Immediate Ceasefire in Palestine.
‘As we have watch events unfold in the region on our screens every day for the past 106 days, we have been greatly disturbed and saddened. Almost 25,000 lives have been lost, 70% of whom are women, children and young adolescents, while more than 20,000 babies have been born into a living hell.
‘A staggering 85% of the population have now been displaced while all the hospitals have been destroyed in Gaza.
‘We are privileged to represent this great city of Dublin, however with that great privilege comes a great responsibility to do the right thing. We want our voices to be heard. So, we are taking this opportunity to plead with the key influencers and decision makers.
‘Please do all in your power to help bring a ceasefire and end to hostilities in the Gaza region. ‘Ní neart go cur le chéile.’ Afterwards, manager Mick Bohan suggested: ‘it’s an apolitical statement… it’s a human rights issue,’ clearly aware how the rulebook expressly states that the Ladies Gaelic Football Association is an amateur association that is ‘non-sectarian and non-political’. A standard line among sporting organisations.
But as events in Gaza continue to command world headlines, this is one subject where sport and politics will continue to intersect.
The following evening, a planned protest took place outside the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght in response to Basketball Ireland’s decision to play Israel in a FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025 qualifier in February. Leaflets were also handed out inside the stadium.
Since then, it has been reported that various members of the Irish team will not be travelling to play.
This is not a question that is going to go away.
How does sport deal with Gaza? Should political protest be allowed? Should sport and politics mix? Should sports stars have a voice or ‘stay in their lane’ as the age-old criticism goes? Should the pitch or sporting arena be free of all protest?
On Wednesday evening, the government refused to back a motion to join the suit lodged by South Africa, opting instead to put forward a counter motion to ‘strongly consider’ an intervention – which was subsequently passed.
At a time when political prevarication is the order of the day, and the veil has been lifted on geopolitics and the international world order, it feels important that sports stars stand up and bear witness. To speak truth to power. Recently, over 200 members of the Irish sporting community came together to show solidarity with the Palestinian people. Under the banner of ‘Irish Sport for Palestine’, they signed an open letter calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and also on Sport Ireland, the Olympic Federation of Ireland and all relevant sporting bodies to call for an international investigation into Israel’s violation of the Olympic charter. And to impose sanctions.
On that list were sports stars past and present. From a range of codes. Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr and internationals Kevin Moran and James McClean. Ireland rugby internationals Keith Earls and Tony Ward. Olympian David Gillick.
John Robbie, former Ireland and Lions rugby international, added his own personal testimony: ‘Selfishly, I toured apartheid South Africa with both the Lions and Ireland in the 1980s, and I have had to live with it ever since.
‘As such I am proud to add my name to this important project. A just settlement will free Israel from the stigma of the present, just as the new South Africa, for all its faults, has freed white South Africans.’
A whole host of players from the Gaelic games family were there. Dublin All-Ireland winner and campaigner Philly McMahon, analyst, barrister and campaigner Joe Brolly, Limerick’s five-time All-Ireland winner Seán Finn, Cork camogie’s Ashling Thompson.
I noticed another name on that list, Galway footballer Damien Comer. At the Allianz Football League launch, I asked him about the motivation to sign the Irish Sport for Palestine open letter.
A teacher himself, it wasn’t just about the death and long-term trauma being inflicted upon another generation but a sense of shared humanity.
‘It’s very hard to watch when it’s popping up on your news feed or popping up in the news every day, to throw a blind eye to it. What can we do that’s going to help? There’s very little individually one can do bar try and reach out and call for a ceasefire. ‘To see women and children subject to that bombardment is cruel, really.
‘As a teacher, you see how vulnerable kids can be… what’s going on is really upsetting.’
Irish Sport for Palestine is just one representation of those same sentiments.
At Vicar Street before Christmas, 800 people packed in to support an ‘Irish Writers for Palestine’ event.
Paul Lynch was there to speak, just after being honoured as the Booker Prize winner. Sally Rooney, Kevin Barry, Mark O’Connell and so many more gave spoken word presentations. But it was the Palestinian testimonials that went deepest. Like Ahmed Masoud who travelled to Dublin to feel a sense of solidarity as his family lay under siege in Gaza. Or Bana Abu Zuluf whose poem stilled the room.
Art and music and literature and politics have always mixed; its naïve to think sport would be any different.
Now there is a compelling logic to the idea that the pitch should be sacrosanct, should be free from any displays.
You can’t just allow banners and pitch protests or displays for the ideas that you might agree with — when plenty of others might have a different view. Or a different banner.
But every now and then, moments come along where a public protest feels organic. Feels like a milestone moment.
Colin Kaepernick’s decision to take a knee during the anthem in the NFL captured the Black Lives Matter movement in a single gesture.
Just as the iconic Black Power salute did by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico Olympics — a gesture that was the brainchild of Dr Harry Edwards, the civil rights activist and eminent sports sociologist.
Back in 2017, he delivered a fascinating keynote presentation at the GAA Museum Summer School at Croke Park on ‘sport and politics’.
He spoke of the above and when sport and politics intertwine at important moments.
When it’s sport that can speak truth to power.