GAA PLAYERS ARE FINDING THEIR VOICES
Despite their association’s non-political stance, a number of high-proflie footballers and hurlers have come together to support positive social change
ANOTHER week of tragic tales from society’s margins. Last Monday night, a Lithuanian national in his late 30s, who had been sleeping rough at the Four Courts in Dublin city, was found unresponsive and brought to the Mater Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
On Tuesday, a homeless man in his late 50s who had been sleeping in a tent near the grounds of Gonzaga College in Ranelagh, died while sleeping rough as temperatures plummeted.
Both were on the radar of various homeless services after engaging with them, the latter actually on a ‘priority’ list to be housed only to be left waiting due to a lack of suitable accommodation.
It brought the number of deaths of people sleeping rough to seven in the past three months alone.
Maybe that shocking statistic part explains why the immediate response to the Gaelic Voices For Change movement has already gained such swift momentum.
A group of current and former inter-county football, hurling and camogie players have united under an umbrella organisation to use their voice to support the most vulnerable in society.
Following a series of meetings over the past two months, over 200 county players are to support a national ‘sleep-out’ in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick, Belfast, Waterford, Wexford, Portlaoise and Carlow on Saturday, December 16 from 6pm to 6am.
Pat Gilroy has signed up the Dublin senior hurlers. David Herity the Dublin senior camogie team. Stories of other teams following suit around the country quickly rolled in, expanding even to planned events in London.
‘It’s about players putting heads above the parapet, looking out from their bubble and seeing if they can contribute on greater social issues,’ explains former Wexford hurling captain Diarmuid Lyng, one of those driving the initiative.
‘No, we’re not going to solve the homelessness crisis. That’s not the aim. At the moment it’s about mobilising a group of people in the country who have a very definite following, who have a very definite standing. To mobilise that into a singular voice, to say “Look, we’re going to stand in solidarity at the very least”. We’re making a stand. We’re going to collect money, raise awareness. Who knows what will come from that.’
The organisation, supported by both the Gaelic Players Association and the Women’s Gaelic Players Association, includes household names such as Tipperary hurlers Brendan Maher and Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher, Waterford All-Star hurler Noel Connors, Cork footballer Valerie Mulcahy, Dublin footballers Eamon Fennell, Michael Darragh Macauley and Sinéad Finnegan, Tyrone footballer Gemma Begley and Cavan footballer Alan O’Mara.
And they are not bailing in blindly, either. Lyng understands the traditional resistance to sports stars pushing the envelope. ‘When there is a social issue spoken about by players, there is that attitude, “stick to playing ball”. And there is merit in that argument because there are highly qualified people working on these issues. We, at our most basic, said we want to contribute – we don’t want to get in the way. ‘So we met with Focus Ireland, we met with social justice campaigners, met with people involved with the homelessness crisis in Dublin to try and get an understanding. We went to them and said, “How can we help you?” ‘They were supportive because they are pulled so tight at the moment. If we can raise funds is one thing, that’s a great thing. If we can unify and solidify a voice that says we’re not happy in how we treat our most disadvantaged, I think that’s a good thing.’
Last Christmas, the Home Sweet Home movement dominated the political agenda by occupying Apollo House in Dublin city centre, Glen Hansard becoming a high-profile front. A long-time fan of the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter, Lyng knows that the figures for 2018 are even more stark now.
‘There’s a 24 per cent increase in homelessness this year. We now have the highest childhood homelessness figures in Europe. It is getting worse.
‘There’s a multitude of factors that we couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Players aren’t expert in the economic conditions that create homelessness, in the conditions that create addiction, in the factors that play a part. Apollo House, it definitely started a conversation.’
An important conversation they want Gaelic players to be part of.
Just because the GAA is set up to be a non-political organisation, it doesn’t stop players having an opinion or supporting positive social change.
‘Maybe the organisation of the GAA is non-political. To say that’s muddied waters is a drastic understatement because the politics of our organisation, our society, is not just down to our politicians. We’re all part of the organisation of our society. We all have an influence and the potential to influence.
‘I’ve seen it myself. Being involved in an inter-county team and just having a good diet, being able to bench whatever or squat whatever isn’t enough in life. Just to be a good sports player is not fulfilling because you know at 32, 33 that curtain falls. When you see behind it, you see the vacuum.
‘I see how we treat sports stars and famous people, that the more we identify them as just sportspeople, the more limited they are to think of themselves as same. I believe that by engaging young players in what’s happening around them, by encouraging them to look up from within the bubble of intercounty training, by surpassing limiting beliefs about them, that they can be forces of very necessary change.
‘Not only do they have their own voice, they channel the voice of a hundred thousand supporters.’
Across the world this past 12 months, sports stars have become intertwined in some of the biggest social and political stories. Colin Kaepernick’s decision to take a knee during the American National Anthem set the San Francisco 49ers
We all have an influence and the potential to influence
quarter-back on a path to becoming a symbol in the struggle to highlight racial injustice. Gerard Piqué risked his Spanish soccer career when he dared to speak out during the Catalan independence referendum.
Manchester United’s Juan Mata is heading up the Common Goal project whereby soccer players donate one per cent of their basic salary to charity in the shape of a collective fund run by Berlin-based streetfootballworld.
The Gaelic Voices for Change movement springs up a time when there is a deepening sense of the GAA being divided into the haves and have-nots, of too much focus being on the corporate and commercial rather than the club and community. That goes too for the game’s elite players.
‘I don’t think that is befitting of the type of organisation that we have and why it was founded in the first place and what it’s meant to represent.
‘What else is the GAA only a social organisation?’
The GAA has been a long-time agent for social change in communities, the Healthy Clubs project just one of many initiatives. Even still, this is part of a necessary rebalancing, Lyng feels. ‘The GAA continue to make a serious contribution. There are also aspects at the other end of the scale where there is an excessive focus on elitism. That is also true and real of the organisa- tion – whether the people at the top agree with that or not, that’s the feeling of people on the ground.
‘It’s not that the GAA are moneyhungry, all elite and only about one thing. It’s just that a scale exists. I think a lot of the GAA population around the country feel that maybe that scale has tipped too far towards the elite, towards the financial end of things. The financial end of things is crucial because there are obvious commercial realities.
‘But we engage most effectively through community. Not just a geographical community but by anything that brings people together. Hurling, football and camogie bring us together. If we can do our small bit and engage as many of those people as possible, we are contributing to a fairer and a more compassionate society. This isn’t just the role of Gaelic Voices for Change, this is a role we all share.
‘Homelessness is an issue because there are people dying on the street sleeping when there are the means, but not the desire, to house them. Not having a desire to house them is a reflection on all of us, not just our politicians. This is being branded and rebranded as acceptable and even normal by those in charge. We no longer can accept this level of inequality and injustice.
‘I am proud that other GAA players are standing up too. We need support. And it is coming.’
Gaelic Voices For Change are also appealing for help with tea and coffee, food, sleeping bags, music and entertainment, and fundraising in each of the sleep-out locations on Saturday, December 16. People can also support by donating online at gaelicvoicesforchange.com. All funds raised will go to homeless charities including the Peter McVerry Trust, the Simon Communities, Focus Ireland and the Capuchin Day Centre.
The group are on Twitter and Instagram @GaelicVoices4Ch and on Facebook at ‘Gaelic Voices For Change’.