Yesterday I spent the day in Dublin after being fortunate enough to be given last-minute tickets to the All-Ireland Final. I’ve never so much as watched a GAA match before, let alone understood the rules, the etiquette, or the history surrounding Gaelic Games. 

The twenty minute walk from Custom House to Croke Park provided me with an insight that I was about to experience something very new. After years of walking down the Donegal Road with my Daddy heading to Windsor Park in Belfast, the first difference I noted was the sheer amount of women heading to watch the final. Secondly, there were no set routes or entrances for either supporters.

“So, do all the Tyrone fans sit together?” I asked, to which I got a cheeky snort of laughter back. Imagine mixing the fans at an Irish League north Belfast derby. This was so foreign to me (in a good way), I couldn’t get over it. 

There was a surrealness about it all. Knowing that just below us An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the Secretary of State, Karen Bradley, were watching on. Likewise, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood were both in attendance. Then, when the marching band came out I thought to myself, “Oh, here, maybe this isn’t so foreign after all.”

With this followed the arrival of Irish President, Michael D. Higgins: 100% statesman, 100% cute as a button. I felt right at home, apart from not knowing a single word of Amhrán na bhFiann. I listened on, content at the sound of 83,000 respectfully singing their National Anthem. 

Despite being slightly agitated that players didn’t seem to be wearing matching socks, I had a great day all round. But it left me with the same frustration, as it always does: a frustration that our divided society does not allow broad access to all its parts for all its citizens growing up in Northern Ireland. I’m from north Belfast and I couldn’t name a single local GAA team, let alone where they play. This might be something to do with our segregated education, but that’s for another day. 

Northern Ireland is not yet 100 years old. I love this place with all my heart and the warmth and uniqueness of our people, but I will always maintain it lacks a depth of culture because of the relative newness of its creation. But I think it’s as much to do with the hesitancy of trying things alien to ‘your own’. 

Not long ago I remember reading several articles about Syrian children arriving on the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme, joining local GAA clubs, many rising stars. It was so refreshing to read.

Wouldn’t it be something if all wee ones where given that chance from primary school right through? If everyone had a chance to give Gaelic games a go? 

One day it’ll not be strange for a wee Prod from Ballysillan to attend a GAA match. What a day that’ll be.

Oh yes, and well done to the big effort from the Tyrone Lads. #tireoghain