I AM thinking about the incongruously related subjects of the nature of the GAA and policing. Normally I prefer to keep my policing and national sports in different head spaces, but needs must.

This reflection drew me to the following conclusions – that the GAA is great, at its very best when it is inclusive, made an inspirational choice with its President Jarlath Burns who could be the next Irish President if he’s that way inclined, but is like every large organisation, imperfect. GAA Go is terrible for hurling and we need to put the Championships finals back to September.

The PSNI exercises me more and there are things that we would not be comfortable with in any police service in any context in any part of the world. Having an internal spy branch that spied at industrial level on journalists, lawyers, NGOs, the accountability bodies including the Ombudsman and the Policing Board and even on itself, is a matter requiring a public inquiry. Every minute that is taken up with half measures delaying that further depletes any residual confidence in hope for a better policing future.

Covering up RUC collusion in the murders of citizens and challenging families in courts who seek to find the truth of those policies and practices, is a continuing outrage. It is good to see that the new Chief Constable is beginning to instruct solicitors in some cases to drop the challenges to courts who direct awards in civil cases and disclosures of information, but it is not enough, and the continual defence of RUC crimes is crippling the PSNI.

The retention of plastic bullets in the armoury of the PSNI is an insult to the dedicated years of campaigning, research and advocacy of the families of those killed by plastic bullets. It runs contrary to the spirit of the Patten Report and undermines confidence in new methods of policing. Plastic bullets have no place in operational policing on this island.

The stubborn lack of equal community representation in the make-up of the PSNI tells us all that there are many nationalists and republican young people who simply will never consider a career in the PSNI because of all of the above, and more.

Things that should not make us feel concerned are the odd/rare occasions when the PSNI try to be a willing partner in community development and make an effort to be part of the community.

Somewhere in County Mayo there is a photograph, taken by a complete stranger, of me sitting up on an Italian policeman’s horse wearing a carabinieri hat, wearing an Ireland t-shirt, on the day Ireland played in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Italia ’90. Now with me not being an accomplished horsewoman, this may well have not been the wisest decision that cop ever took. But the craic was great and we all thought great things of each other.

PSNI members waving Armagh flags and driving to cheers to crowds in Camlough is not only sound, it is unprecedented and astonishing after the years of horrific policing in South Armagh when the RUC treated the community with hostility at best, and contempt at worst. If the PSNI move to condemn or reprimand the good craic, good form and building of relationships that represented, it will be just plain sad and another opportunity for a new beginning lost.