Many memorials exist throughout this island to commemorate those who lost their lives through Ireland’s many conflicts. However, there is currently no memorial to members of the GAA who died in the conflict in the North. 

Peadar Thompson from Relatives for Justice (RFJ) is hoping to change this and is currently putting together a large project which will record the lives of all GAA members who died in the conflict, with each person memorialised through their love of Gaelic games.

The project has five main aims, which will be centred around a book, which will contain all those who lost their lives, as well as a photograph and a statement about their life, and involvement with the GAA. Plans are in the works for an exhibition, hopefully at Casement Park, a fully researched and detailed web portal for all victims as well as commemorative art and clothing.

The reasons why there currently isn’t a memorial to GAA members who lost their lives in the conflict is complex, and manifold. Peadar explained the reasons why, ranging from why some memorials are local in nature, and how partition has affected the ability to properly remember those who died.

LEGACY: The project will focus on all members of the GAA who were killed during the conflict
3Gallery

LEGACY: The project will focus on all members of the GAA who were killed during the conflict

“There were two experiences of the GAA in Ireland," he says. "In the South it fostered pride in your own identity. The GAA was formed by people who wanted to take pride in Irish identity and indigenous games. Sports until then in Ireland was very much middle to upper class, and centred around rugby, soccer, athletics etc.

"Your class largely dictated whether you could partake in organised sport. The GAA was a huge part of the Gaelic Revival, and it was extremely successful, with hundreds of clubs forming within the first ten years of its existence. After partition and the gap which appeared between the two states you had Irish people in the South who could play GAA as a hobby and as recreational sport.

"In the North people were left in a state in which viewed anything that was Irish as suspicious, as it threatened the idea of the Northern state.”
 
Peadar said that as a result the GAA was ostracised by the state, didn’t receive funding,  and during the conflict its members were targeted.

"The British military occupied GAA grounds because they knew strategically taking these grounds would tear the heart out of communities. In the North the GAA was an absolute lifeline for people to express their identity and feel the same as other Irish people on the island.

"They clung to it to say, ‘I am Irish, I play hurling and football here just as they’re playing it in Dublin, Kerry and Cork’, it was what Irish people in the North could hold onto as really being theirs.”

As well as partition, fear of sectarian retaliation also prevented many clubs from remembering their loved ones who died.

Peadar explained: “Each club reflects its own community, or area. For example Na Fianna Coalisland have lost several players. They’ll hold commemorations, local tournaments, blitzes etc in memory of their members who were killed, but those won’t be held provincially or nationally. It will only be within that area.

"Other clubs have had members killed who haven’t acknowledged it or done anything to memorialise the members who were lost, and that can come down to a plethora of reasons.

"When it comes down to conflict-related deaths, it can lead to very uncomfortable conversations and pain for family members, and more often than not when it comes to GAA members being killed it is a result of sectarian violence, and campaigns of intimidation and hate.

We initially went through obituaries, newspaper archives and sources such as ‘Lost Lives’ to see if there was any mention or link to the GAA, we’ve noted them. The problem is there are so many people who haven’t got that.

"If you’re in a small community and someone is killed, and the local GAA club is where people come together, if the club make a statement condemning the killing, it could lead to the gunmen coming back and they may not have wanted to raise their heads.”

Peadar also explained the role the state played in targeting GAA members through their collusion with loyalist paramilitaries:

“The state apparatus during the conflict, and during the so-called ‘dirty war’ had the state using loyalist gunmen to attack anything which was seen as being part of the ‘pan nationalist front’, which saw people attacked for being civic voices in Irish politics, taking pride in Irish culture, Gaeilgeoirí etc and the GAA is a huge part of that, and leaders within the community were targeted. So anyone who did stand up felt like they were putting a target on their backs, and that culture of violence led a lot of GAA clubs to not do anything.”
 
Asked how RFJ have been able to come up with such an extensive list of people, Peadar explained the project started off with them searching old newspaper archives, but also how one of the biggest sources of information have been families themselves, who have helped tremendously and informed RFJ about people they have missed or otherwise wouldn’t have known about.

“We initially went through obituaries, newspaper archives and sources such as ‘Lost Lives’ to see if there was any mention or link to the GAA, we’ve noted them. The problem is there are so many people who haven’t got that.

"We started out with 160 names, but I know it’s bigger because every family that comes in will ask if I’ve included someone else, and I won’t have known about them, and that’s happened with nearly every family we’ve spoken too, so we expect looking at those projects the list could grow to around 300 people.
 
“We’re trying to raise this as much awareness about this as possible, to reach everybody. People have come forward from our tweets, and emailed us, but we don’t want to miss out on anyone before the book comes out in February 2023.

"Our next stage will be reaching out to the Ulster Council and asking them to contact every club individually to see if we can add some more people. Up until this stage we haven’t officially involved the GAA, and the reason for that is because we’re doing this for the families. It’s not an archiving process for the GAA, this a project for families, and for families engaging in this it is very cathartic because the GAA was such a huge part of their loved one’s lives and identity.

"When families talk about this, even though it can be very emotional, you can see how it can also be a positive experience to talk about the passions of their lost loved ones. This project is for the families, by the families. However, we do know that the GAA are very supportive of it, through the conversations we’ve had with them.”

SUSPICION: The British Army and Northern state viewed the GAA, and anything Irish with suspicion. Photograph: Stephen Davison /Pacemaker
3Gallery

SUSPICION: The British Army and Northern state viewed the GAA, and anything Irish with suspicion. Photograph: Stephen Davison /Pacemaker


 

Aiming for a February launch, Peadar explained the plans for the book and the web portal which will have a wealth of information, and allow people to remember their loved ones, and help researchers too.
 
“Our book will contain a brief synopsis of each Gael who was killed, including a photo with a few short passages into their lives and the role the GAA had in their lives. In the book we’ll have one picture on each page, and as the book won’t be able to contain the full scope of information on each person, we’re going to develop our website with individual profiles for each person.

"All the information that we can’t fit into the book will go onto the website. For example, if one of the victims was killed in the Loughinisland massacre, you will be able to go in and click on a link which can tell you about what happened there. After this we are going to put on an exhibition, we will be collecting personal memorabilia that are GAA related, donated from families of their loved ones.

"Items such as hurls, football boots, medals etc. These items will be powerful, like the concept the Pat Finucane centre had in which they used people’s shoes, which were donated by the families of victims of the conflict.”
 
Peadar also stated how there are currently hopes to get an exhibition in Casement Park when it is redeveloped, so the museum can remember how dark a time it was for GAA members, and how the organisation and the love for Gaelic games was a source of strength for so many.
 
“We would like the exhibition to go into the new Casement Park, but we don’t know whether that will happen yet, we are saying to them that if that is going to be the home of Ulster GAA and there will be a museum room, then that room should acknowledge the history of the GAA and how it survived the conflict.”
 
Peadar noted how the main thing he has found throughout the project is how much of a source of strength the GAA was for ordinary people, and how it allowed its players and organisers some escapism from an unequal society which treated them with disdain and suspicion.

“Inevitably it became very important to Irish people in the North and it had to survive an experience that was just so completely different to what people in the South experienced. When I’m talking with families, they always describe it as a real lifeline during the conflict. They’ve said they may have been harassed all day, the police may have brutalised you going to and from matches, but when you’re on that pitch, the escapism that these people are describing was very real for them, and so many have said to me ‘God knows where we would be without the GAA’. It was an absolute lifeline for them'.
 
“We want it to be recognised how important the GAA was to the people of the North. It was a real source of strength. There’s a story to be told here.

"The story of the GAA is the story of Ireland, so naturally the conflict comes through that, and it reflects partitionism that runs through the island.

We are recording GAA members who were killed by all sides. We have IRA informants who were killed, who were in the GAA. We have hunger-strikers who were GAA members, RUC members who were GAA members, members who were killed by the British Army and by loyalist paramilitaries.

"There’s a huge story and we want to bring aside the human side of it. What can be seen through all of it is how the love of Gaelic games can be seen as a source of healing, immaterial as to how someone was killed, or why they were killed or who killed them. The one thing that unites all these victims is their love for Gaelic games, and there’s something very human about that.”
 
Peadar has stated his aim is to finish the project by January, to have the book ready for February. 

RFJ is still asking people to come forward if they know of anyone who lost their life in the conflict, and was a member of the GAA, as they wish to record everyone.

Peadar added: “What makes this different from a lot of conflict memorialisation processes is that we’re not asking people to relive traumatic memories. We’re not asking families to go over the pain again of losing their loved ones.

"Families are constantly being asked to relive their trauma and bring it up, and often for very little these days. Families are constantly being retraumatised, and this project is one of the few occasions where they can come in and celebrate a very important aspect of their loved one’s life.

"The GAA family is unique, and those who lost their lives should be remembered, and we should acknowledge just how much of a lifeline the GAA was to people, how people have told me the GAA got them through the darkest days of the conflict."

For more information on this project, contact GAA@relativesforjustice.com or visited www.rfjgaa.com