Border poll not for GAA

THE prospect of a border poll is either imminent or distant depending on who you talk to. Those who suggest it’s imminent are probably engaging in a little bit of wishful thinking or, more likely, virtue signalling and good old-fashioned politicking.

The wording of the Good Friday Agreement does give the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – at the moment the hapless Karen Bradley – the option of calling a border poll, but only if she has reason to believe it stands a chance of succeeding.

That’s not the situation we find ourselves in at the moment. There is no imminent possibility that a border poll might succeed. A poll conducted for the Irish Times last weekend found only 32% of voters in the north in favour of unity with the Republic. Those figures do not a border poll make.

Granted those figures could change depending on how the Brexit end-game finally plays out. A no-deal or a hard border might get people to reconsider where they stand – on both sides of the sectarian divide – but as of now talk of a border poll is largely pie in the sky and for the sake of stability is probably best avoided for the time being. Under those circumstances you’d have to question the wisdom of a potential candidate for the presidency of the GAA advocating for the association to take a position in favour of Irish unity in any such border poll.

On one level Jarlath Burns’ position is that of a hypothetical of a hypothetical. There won’t be a border poll so the question of the GAA’s support of it or not doesn’t arise, but it does send a signal and not an encouraging one in our view. If the GAA is to be successful in reaching across the sectarian divide in the six counties it can’t be seen to be the sporting arm of Sinn Féin. Even the merest suggestion that the GAA might intervene on one side of the debate would be potentially alienating to those whom the GAA hopes to reach.

Not only that politicising the GAA in the manner in which Mr Burns seems to advocate would be counter productive to what he hopes to achieve. It’s through engagement and the breaking down of barriers that the cause of unity will be advanced, not by flag waving nationalism and the overt advocacy of a political position. The GAA’s soft power shouldn’t be squandered. We hope cooler heads prevail.