The GAA president has said that the association would be open to change in relation to the use of Amhrán na bhFiann and the Irish flag in anticipation of potential new post-Brexit agreements in Ireland.
Aogán Ó Fearghail believes that the association will adapt as necessary to any future agreements on the island of Ireland, predicting that Brexit will inevitably affect the GAA.
"If the GAA is serious about contributing to this conversation, it might look at its own official guide where it talks about membership of the GAA being an expression of a people’s preference for native ways as opposed to imported ones." - Paul Rouse
Speaking in the UAE on the GAA/GPA Football All Stars tour, Ó Fearghail said: “There might well be political re-alignments on the island of Ireland and if there are then, the GAA, just as it did when Nickey Brennan was president at the time and before him Sean McCague, they welcomed the Anglo-Irish agreement. Every successive president has done that. I've done that.
“You certainly cannot look at these issues in advance of an agreement, that’s for sure.
“The flag and the anthem means a lot to the GAA and will continue to do so, but who knows in the future? In the future, if there are different agreements in place for the whole of Ireland, of course the GAA would be inclusive in that.”
“Brexit is going to affect the GAA the same as it’s going to affect everyone else and it does cause concerns. In the future if there are new agreements and new arrangements we’d be open-minded about things like flags and anthems but not in advance of agreements.”
However, GAA historian Paul Rouse believes that the GAA president is talking very much in a hypothetical sense, stating that Ó Fearghail has taken several leaps into the future, regarding the issue.
Speaking on Morning Ireland, Rouse said: "The president of the GAA has taken several leaps forward here into the future. He has imagined the situation where some sort of agreed Ireland, as he has called it, which of course is code for some sort of united Ireland, would be in place, which is very much a hypothetical situation.
"And he has imagined that the GAA would, in that context, fly a different flag and use a different anthem.
"Of course, the reality of it is that the GAA reflects nationalist Ireland, it doesn’t lead it and such a move would be a reflection of a changed anthem and a changed flag within such an agreed Ireland."
When asked whether the anthem was becoming obsolete due to the fact that many do not know the words of Amhrán na bhFiann, the GAA historian explained the sentiment and sense of national identity that remains attached to the flag and the anthem.
"The flag and the anthem have huge sentimental [value] and there is a sense of national identity, which wraps itself around that, even if people don’t understand exactly what they are singing," said Rouse.
And Rouse believes that the GAA can perhaps better "contribute to the conversation" by looking at its own rules and guidelines to promote inclusiveness within the organisation.
"If the GAA is serious about contributing to this conversation, it might look at its own official guide where it talks about membership of the GAA being an expression of a people’s preference for native ways as opposed to imported ones and talks about the notion of control over all of the national territory."
