Dr. Katie Liston:

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach agus leis an gcoiste as ucht na spéise inár n-aighneacht, entitled, Sport, Culture and Identity: A change of focus. We have engaged in public and civic fora over the past three years, including ARINS, which Professor Doyle mentioned, as well as in Ireland's Future, which the committee will hear about shortly. This committee is a significant development and we thank its members for their work and patience in listening to academic arguments.

In our submission, we set out the ways in which sport is intertwined with how people view themselves and others, for better and for worse, with the potential to act as both social glue and social toxin. This submission builds on interviews with key stakeholders, North and South, and on our work on sporting heritage, and that heritage is reflected in and reinforces social and community relations today.

Sport is inextricably bound up in cultural life. It is one of the most powerful forces for the expression of hybrid identities and how we understand this is crucial to ensuring that sport can play a positive role in future relations.

We believe that any discussion of future relationships on these islands that does not involve sport is, in fact, incomplete because to do so would be both to overlook a key component of people's emotions, their sense of self and shared identity and to neglect a crucial social space for realising conflict reduction, reconciliation and shared bonds with all of the challenges these bring. Reunification would, however, be but one possible staging post in this ongoing process of building fraternal bonds across our islands. Our submission explores the utility of sport, the role of imagined communities and the complexities of North-South relations and governance. We also signpost some interim steps that are needed towards inter-cultural commonalities forged and learned through sports encouraged, we hope, by calm and principled leadership.

I will hand over to my colleague, Professor Maguire, who will outline three main areas that we think would require careful consideration.