Professor Joseph Maguire:

I will pick up on and try to draw together a number of points. The formation of the Irish Free State was bound in the statecraft that was demonstrated here in Dublin. While it was not the term used at the time, it was projected as a form of soft power. In what way would the new nation be forged on an international stage? That was always contested both north of the Border, where people were doing likewise, and also in how the British Government would react to the aspirations for recognition and jurisdiction on an international stage. That remains contested and is, in microcosm, expressed in the boundary rule which is maintained in athletics. The history is one of contestation and struggle. We need to understand how and in what ways that has emerged over time and how it still informs the present.

The second issue raised is the power of sport. My fear and worry, having examined violence within subcultures in sport, is that if we do not address the concerns, fears or worries, and the intense sense of identification with different forms of Irish-Britishness, or Britishness itself, within particular sports, then even with reunification, we will be left with a legacy of a subculture of violence which will be difficult to address. It is particularly an issue among young men, but not just them.

The third matter relates to one thing the Government could do, which was picked up on. It would be to ensure that bodies, whether Sport Ireland or the Olympic Federation of Ireland, which receive money from the Government should plan for these matters and address the concerns we have raised as a prerequisite for the funding, as we have said the Government should.