imutual.co.uk

It's an irish saying - and it often comes true.

On the BBC website thare is a report entitled
'I'd like my kids to play gaelic games' - Ireland and Ulster star Stockdale on Lurgan Legacy experience (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/northern-ireland/53152062), which through poor writing, fails completely to get its point across - unless youre in the know.

In the article, it says that Jacob Stockdale (an Ireland and Ulster Rugby star) and Stefan Campbell (Captain of the Armagh Gaelic Football team) struck up a friendship whilst working together in a cross-community project, which they call the "Lurgan Legacy", leading to his statement.... blah de blah.

The actual story is that the two guys signed up for "Lurgan Community Aid" which delivered to the vulnerable across the communities in Lurgan, NI during the lockdown.

Stockdale is the son of a Presbyterian minister and Rugby in NI is traditionally a Protstant sport, Campbell plays in a GAA sport, normally confined to the nationalist community. In the past, they would have gone to separate schools and would never have met each other.... so this charity work brought them together.
The result is that Stockdale is now calling for an end to separation of sport along religious lines.

Something good from bad.....

Is it a separation of sport on religious grounds or should that be on racial origin grounds? If you are a Protestant you are almost certainly descended from immigrants from Scotland and England. If you are a Roman Catholic then you are almost certainly descended from people who have lived in Ireland for millenia

As a Scot of Irish descent once said to me "I am a Catholic, atheist of course but a Catholic". Meaning not which religion he considered he belonged to but which racial group.

It's not separation on religious grounds - it's separation due to religious schooling. Both sports have their roots in school, but GAA sports were simply not played in Protestant schools and Rugby was seen (in the North) as middle-class, to which few Catholics aspired. Like in so many areas, these differences became permanent in the adult population, there was little opportunity to mix.

Given that migration between the North of Ireland and Scotland has been going on for millennia, and the Gaels of Scotland came from Ireland, I'd suggest there are as few "racial" differences as there are between Serbs and Croats..... a slightly different language and a different religious base marking the divergence. Generally "Protestant" and "Catholic" are lazy catch-alls for the tribal situation in the North... where there are Unionists, Nationalists and those in the middle (who favour the status quo).... and the two major "tribes" have very different traditions. But in this case, sport depended on who was delivering the education.

Your Scottish friend may have meant somethig different to your understanding too .... I was educated by Nuns and Christian Brothers, but I'm non-religious. However, if pressed, I will always opt for Catholic rather than any other descriptor.