Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The uachtarán, his family and the GAA family are heartily welcome here today. This is very historic. It is a great day and it is great to see the uachtarán here. I come from a different side of the GAA. The late Sean Young, who was my manager, played for Derry. He always said that I was more interested in where we were going after the match than in the match itself. I ended up running the Roscommon supporters club. We have great memories of bringing a boat from Boyle to Carrick-on-Shannon when we played Leitrim, of bringing four buses to Castlebar, and of going to London and New York. They are memories of times I really enjoyed and for which I feel fondness and pride. That is something about the GAA. One meets other supporters and everyone mingles. When I brought the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly to Croke Park in 2015 these parliamentarians from England, Scotland and Wales could not believe there was no such thing as segregation at matches. I was very proud to tell them that it is a voluntary, amateur organisation, although it is not amateur in the way its business is run. I congratulate the president on that.

As we know, the GAA was set up to foster Irish games. It brought about a renaissance in nationalism. The GAA was very involved in the War of Independence but at this time I want to thank it for its respect for and memory of GAA players who fought in the First World War. As somebody who believes these men should be remembered from a nationalist point of view, I pay tribute to the GAA for doing that in recent years. What we all thought of as Hill 16 was originally known as Hill 60. In the 1930s members of the Connaught Rangers fought at Hill 60 during the Gallipoli campaign. It was known as Hill 60 until the 1930s when some senior figures in the GAA decided to call it Hill 16. I want to point out the complexities in our histories. However, the president is heartily welcome and I congratulate him on representing a new Ireland.

Whether in the Thirty-two Counties, London, New York or anywhere else in the world, the GAA represents a new Ireland. I thank it very much for doing so.