Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I second Senator Burke's amendment and I agree with him. I read Joe Brolly's article on Peadar Heffron and I was extremely disappointed. I did not realise until the last few days that Peadar Heffron's path crossed mine. I played football for the Boyle GAA team on a friendly visit to Creggan Football Club nearly 30 years ago. Peadar Heffron's father, Frank, was probably playing that day and Peadar was probably there. It was a wonderful day and, despite being in the middle of the Troubles, we were very well treated. It is a memory I will always have.

I am sure Peadar Heffron was also on the PSNI team that played Kilmacud Crokes. It was a very robust game but friendships arose from it. There was a protest outside the gate but, thankfully, we have moved on a lot from these things in the past 15 or 16 years. We need to draw a line under this and Sean Kelly, MEP, has said there needs to be mediation. It is a very difficult problem because a young man from a nationalist club, who was very proud of his GAA background and his GAA roots, found himself shunned because he joined the PSNI. I do not want to go back to the past but we need to draw a line under this very embarrassing situation, which is very hurtful to Peadar Heffron and his family.

Next Saturday and Sunday there will be a commemoration of the armistice, when up to 50,000 Irish men, nationalist and unionist, lost their lives. I encourage all Members of this House to attend their local services to show their solidarity with the nationalist young men who were airbrushed out of our history many years ago.