GAA Bends the Knee to Diversity Lobby

An ideological mop-up operation appears to be the order of the day across a variety of Irish institutions. In the aftermath of the anti-racist protests, while we have not yet seen Irish statues deposited into rivers, there has nevertheless been a move by our ever-insistent diversity lobby to push the institutional envelope on a variety of issues.

Measures that would have otherwise been regarded as outlandish a month ago, are now hegemonic among our political, cultural and business elites. They are keen to re-engineer Irish society to mirror that of an America falling apart through multicultural animosity.

From the Oireachtas to An Garda Síochána, right down to primary school education, every facet of Irish life is taking cues to modify itself. Moves are being taken to employ more diverse staff, roll out anti-racist training, and stamp out any iota of xenophobia (real or imaginary).

Hatespeech laws have been fast tracked, Direct Provision is pencilled in to be axed, while our media class cynically fixates on accusations of racism among students in secondary schools as evidence of structural racism.

Friends of mine in the corporate world are bemused at being assigned reading lists to instruct them on ‘white privilege’ theory by corporations with revenues the size of small nations. Most people I know working for American firms, or with a large enough HR department, have reported this mania creeping in first-hand.

Perennially at the cutting edge of rent-seeking pro-diversity measures, Trinity College and its Trot-infested student union has proposed a new black studies module. It will contain new protocols on combating racism, probably necessitated in their minds by the existence of this publication.

An entire new crop of anti-racist Stasi officials are being grown to enter the workforce to feed fat on the marrow of Irish society. To be absolutely clear, these are the people intended to make all our professional lives a living nightmare once given free reign by the State and corporate enablers.

Anxious to go with the flow, our native liberal trendsetters have been grappling for reasons to offload white guilt on a population which was racially homogenous until the day before yesterday, and has no colonial history to build a narrative around.

Over the past month the Left has realised that the culture war, or at least the march through the institutions is over. They have absolute control of Western power structures, and are stretching their institutional muscles against dissidents, expunging the public square of problematic historical figures.

Sadly, among the organisations fast falling under the liberal yoke is the Gaelic Athletic Association. Long an apolitical bastion of a more implicitly conservative Ireland, it has recently succumbed to pressure over matters of diversity.

Commencing in March, and under the auspices of its new Diversity Officer Ger McTavish, the organisation has increasingly dipped its toe with a variety of leftist NGOs, each endeavouring to bring diversity dogma to the playing fields and boardrooms of the GAA. 

The legitimising reason for these reforms were, per usual, unverified anecdotes about on-pitch racism experienced by players. While these incidents could very well have occurred, they do not merit whole-scale restructuring of the GAA. 

Beginning with anti-racist workshops for GAA members, as well as fresh new procedures to stamp out racism and promote diversity and inclusion within the sport, it follows behind similar efforts by both the FAI and IRFU. 

It is expected that clubs are to create diversity officers to implement these new initiatives and enforce these new guidelines. Part of the new remit is for the GAA to incorporate Ireland’s migrant communities into the fold and reflect the changing makeup of the nation. 

To promote these new measures, the GAA has also commissioned a sleek new media campaign titled “GAA: Where We All Belong”. 

Of note for readers of this publication is the role of the bloated anti-racist quango ‘Irish Network Against Racism’ (INAR) in quietly spearheading these initiatives. 

With its extensive networking among Irish media and political elites, as well as foreign funding from everyone’s favorite Hungarian oligarch, INAR has apparently sunk its teeth into the GAA, adding the sporting body to its progressive soft power arsenal. 

With its apolitical orientation and more culturally nativist outlook, the GAA has previously been somewhat of a holdout, as institutions from across the board fell under the auspices of progressive power games. Beginning with the gradual inclusion of the GAA at LGBT+ pride events, and extending into the more recent reforms, their orientation has changed. The GAA, once a redoubt, is now institutionally compromised and safely part of the progressive camp, at least at the senior level. 

The gombeens that preside over it, long-caricatured as being reactionary cranks, have bent the knee to the diversity lobby without a fight. Whatever ritualised and ossified nationalism that was left within GAA seniority evaporated at the first progressive compliance test. 

Indeed, even before these measures were rolled out there were murmurings of deracinating the organisation by removing any use of national symbolism in the form of the tricolour and Amhrán na bhFiann. The post-nationalist GAA it appears has set the tone for the emergent progressive orientation of the organisation. 

How much of these liberalisation efforts come on the back of attempts to market the organisation globally I’ll leave to the reader to decide. In recent years the sporting association has received criticism for effectively selling-out and undermining its community ethos with its collaboration with Sky Sports. To be fully integrated into the modern corporate nexus these anti-racist measures are normally mandatory, implying there is a financial aspect to these moves, although left unspoken in the fanfare of the GAA’s announcement.

In the world of leftist social engineering, control of sporting institutions is a paramount objective. With soccer in Ireland, we see the effective indoctrination of parts of its working class fan-base in the form of anti-racist initiatives, particularly with clubs like Bohemians and Celtic FC. This is mirrored across the Continent as typified by the German club St. Pauli.

The moves against the GAA is comparable to the ongoing shift within the American Nascar racing organisation. Similarly regarded as a hallmark of conservative society, with lingering Confederate sympathies among fans, it is being retrofitted to be more progressive in light of a high-profile racist incident involving a noose hung in the garage of a black racer, which was subsequently exposed as being fraudulent. 

To put it plainly, these initiatives, whatever the organisation, are designed to create an obedient proletariat for the Left to manipulate. 

The GAA was in no way a racist institution before these measures were rolled out, and will be no less one when they are fully implemented. These reforms, whatever euphemism they wish to use, are compliance tests for the GAA and its activist base, and one which they have duly fallen for. 

Those who give up their Sunday morning to coach a children’s hurling match are the same people that may someday form the social base for a national populist movement in this country. The powers that be are strategic in what they are doing and want to indoctrinate these potential electoral rebels as soon as possible, hence these moves to bring diversity reforms to the GAA. 

Germinating from the social fallout of the Famine and deracination that emerged from it, the GAA was built on a degree of cultural and national chauvinism. Out of the ashes of a collapsing Gaelic society the Irish would carve out a sport drawing on our past, and which could act as a cultural springboard for nationalists going forward. 

Do not think for a second that these measures are not sinister in intention. As we have seen wherever progressives get the institutional foot in the door, even an organisation as noble as the GAA can quickly be hijacked by an ideological clique. 

The GAA at its core is not some generic soccer club to be repackaged and sold to major corporations, or used to implement the latest progressive social engineering fad. It is an organisation created for and by the Irish people, an essential expression of national identity that should justifiably give our progressive overlords sleepless nights.