Imagine the outcry from the Shinners if the Orange Lodge named one of its halls after a UDA man....

GAA club to continue staging contest named after IRA’s Cahill

A GAA club that hosts an under-12 football competition named after one of the Provisional IRA’s founders is to continue staging the contest despite threats of funding cuts from the north’s sports minister.

Nelson McCausland cited the Joe Cahill Memorial Shield as an example when he said any club, ground or competition named after a paramilitary could have its grants slashed.

Cahill was convicted of killing a policeman on Easter Sunday 1942 and became the Provisional IRA’s chief of staff in the 1970s before advocating peace in later years.

DUP minister Mr McCausland said he was planning an ‘equality statement’ to which all applicants would have sign up to “see if we can come to a situation where we do not have commemorations or celebrations of terrorism in sports grounds”.

The GAA yesterday hit back at the plans by insisting all its clubs met requirements for public funding.

“The GAA is by rule a strictly non-party political, anti-racist and anti-sectarian organisation. It also has a long-established, publicly stated

anti-violence policy,” it said in a statement.

“It is noted that the minister for culture, arts and leisure has instructed Sport NI to conduct a review of the current clauses and policies in relation to sports club funding.”

The secretary of Cardinal O’Donnell’s GAC in west Belfast defended hosting a football competition each Easter in memory of Joe Cahill.

Sean McVeigh said it was a “community competition” with four clubs including nearby Gort na Mona and St John’s.

“We have hosted it every year since Joe died and we only host it on the grounds that Joe’s grandchildren, wife Annie and daughter Aine are members of the club,” he said.

“Joe literally lived 10 yards from the club in his Beechview Park home and the club has a strong connection with him because of his family and involvement in the local community.”

He said he would “wait and see” whether or not the club’s funding was affected but said the competition would continue.

“We are very happy with our association with the competition and, as for Nelson McCausland’s comments, I would view them in the wider DUP context of continuing antagonism towards the GAA,” he said.

Sinn Fein assembly member Barry McElduff, who chairs the assembly’s culture, arts and leisure committee, yesterday criticised the minister.

“Nelson McCausland is not the minister for some cultures or some sports. He has a responsibility to respect all cultures, traditions and sports,” Mr McElduff said.

The only sporting organisation in Northern Ireland believed to be named after a republican paramilitary who died during the Troubles is Kevin Lynch’s Hurling Club in Dungiven, Co Derry.

A spokesman said the club’s name celebrated the INLA hunger striker’s contribution to sporting success as captain of the All-Ireland-winning Derry under-16 team in 1972.

A number of soccer competitions are named after IRA men, including the Bobby Sands Memorial Cup held during Feile an Phobail in west Belfast.