GAA’s all-island policy set to be tested by clubs’ return in North

THE GAA’s all-island policy in relation to activity will be tested later this month as Northern Ireland expects to green light a return for outdoor sports training.

In a five-phase roadmap confirmed by the Northern Ireland Executive, outdoor sports training is included in the ‘Cautious First Stage’. No dates are attached to the plan which will be data-driven but there is optimism that GAA clubs in the North would be permitted to restart activity some time later this month, if the review in two weeks’ time approves it.

The Executive will review current Covid-enforced restrictions on March 16 with optimism growing that outdoor training can resume after that.

Case numbers and deaths in the North are considerably lower than the rest of the island and with vaccinations progressing quicker, that places both jurisdictions at different levels, which will challenge the GAA’s ‘move together’ position outlined last May by then GAA president John Horan.

“We are a 32-county organisation and are quite proud of that fact,” he said at the time. “We’re conscious that we have to go with the pace of the slower of the two. We’re not going to move to exclude one side or the other.”

GAA activity remains suspended until April 5 but any liberty to go earlier in the six counties would be difficult to resist, given the momentum building behind outdoor underage activity.

A number of prominent Northern Ireland sportspeople sent a letter to the Executive last month urging an immediate return. One of the signatories, former Armagh footballer Aidan O’Rourke, has been vocal in stressing that outdoor activity was “safe for juveniles and Government know that at this stage”, adding that “we’ve had enough conversations at the very highest level at this stage.”