JOE BROLLY: The GAA has now become what it once loathed

TWO months ago, Fadi and Jumaa Assi were gathering firewood outside their tent in the Khan Younis camp. After it’s annihilation, almost all of Gaza’s population now live in tents. Their father Abu, who is paralysed and wheelchair bound, was waiting for them anxiously inside the tent when he heard neighbours screaming. An Israeli drone had murdered his two sons.

The IDF, as is their practice, described the boys as “suspected terrorists” who were “conducting suspicious activities on the ground.” Their press release concluded, “Following identification, the Israeli Air Force eliminated the suspects.”

Fadi was eight years old. His right hand and right leg were completely severed. Juuma’s head had been blown off. He was only 10 years of age. They were executed by an Israeli drone. For the people of Gaza, the ceasefire is an imaginary concept.

At this moment in time, Allianz, through its investment subsidiary PIMCO, is one of the largest private institutional investors in Israeli government bonds, or “war bonds” as they are known in world markets. Since October 2023, PIMCO’s records show that on Allianz’s behalf, they have bought $960 million in these war bonds.

On Thursday this week, the GAA’s director general Tom Ryan said “I am not going to speak about the merits or otherwise of Allianz as a partner. I take that for granted, everybody knows that too.” He went on to say: “I know there are other issues in the world that are more important than whether we play an All-Ireland final in August or July, but there are other organisations and agencies society trusts in managing those issues. Those are the agencies with the expertise and authority to take action in those areas, we don’t.”

This is the same GAA hierarchy that blocked 10 motions on Allianz to Congress on the mystifying basis that they were ‘inappropriate.’

The truth is that the GAA is the organisation we “trust in managing this issue” and that it has “the expertise and authority to take action” in this area.

As for Gaza and the West Bank, where over 700 Palestinians have been murdered since the ‘ceasefire’, our Director General said, “I am not going to speak about the appalling situation in Palestine. Everybody in this room is a decent and right minded person and we all decry these events.”

Which put me in mind of the ‘thoughts and prayers’ of US politicians and gun lobby groups after every mass shooting in America.

After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, which killed 19 people, President Trump, a renowned Christian, tweeted “My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of this terrible shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.”

Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, helpfully tweeted a bible verse, “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world [John 16:33].” Ted Cruz tweeted, “our prayers are with the victims and their families.” Lindsay Graham tweeted, “Thoughts and prayers with the victims.”

After the Uvalde school shooting in 2022, where the gun man executed 19 pupils and two teachers, the National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre offered his thoughts and prayers to the dead and injured at their annual convention, holding a prayer meeting on the morning of the first day.

The GAA’s thoughts and prayers are irrelevant. God is not saving the people of Gaza. The decency and rightmindedness of the delegates in Congress and the fact that “we all decry these events” is bullshit, a word defined in the OED as: ‘rubbish, nonsense; insincere and frustrating; specifically empty or untruthful statement.’

To be fair to Allianz, on their website they also offer some limited, implied thoughts and prayers. “We see with horror the suffering of civilians in Israel and Gaza” they say (Gaza civilians coming second in their suffering chart). This single reference is squeezed into a web release which condemns the terror attack on Israel by Hamas and is devoted to a rousing ‘We Stand with Israel’ message.

I exhaustively researched the question whether Allianz has ever condemned the IDF or Israel for any of their actions. I was not able to find any public record of Allianz ever issuing a statement of condemnation against Israel or the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). On the contrary, Allianz’s public position has historically focused on condemning attacks against Israel and expressing solidarity with its Jewish employees and citizens.

The GAA is adopting the same commercial stance as the Irish government over the Occupied Territories Bill. The Bill, which will never be enacted (it has been soft pedalled for eight years) is “irresponsible.” Irish people need to “Grow up.” In this world, commerce is more important than morality and political doublespeak is essential.

As Tom Ryan put it this week: “I do think we need to bear in mind where our responsibilities begin and end as an organisation. We are motivated by the right things and we want to do the right things.”

It is a ruthless world, where morality is reduced to triviality.

On Saturday, a small group of conscientious GAA members from the main ‘Drop Allianz’ protest managed to get into Congress. Our president Jarlath Burns lambasted them, saying, “It’s ironic that people complaining about illegal occupation have illegally occupied Croke Park,” and asked the protestors to “examine their consciences.”

He went on to say that as a South Armagh man, “I don’t need any lectures or people shouting in my face about what it’s like to go to bed at night, fearful that someone would barge into your room and riddle you with bullets,” which will be a consolation to the families of the 71,000 Gazan dead.

Like Orwells’s Animal Farm, the GAA has become what it once loathed.

MAKING THEIR STAND…Former Dublin football and hurling manager Pat Gilroy, right, All-Ireland winner and former Tyrone footballer Peter Canavan and former Meath All-Ireland winner Colm O’Rourke, left, attend a protest march outside Croke Park on Saturday