Copy of letter sent by Jim Doyle of the 1916-1921 Club to Jarlath Burns, the President of the GAA, on 31 May 2026.
As of 27 July 2026, there has been no response from the GAA. We have therefore taken decision to publish the letter:
An tUasal Jarlath Burns,
Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael,
Páirc an Chrócaigh,
Bóthar Mhic Sheoin,
Baile Átha Cliath 3.
31 Bealtaine 2026
A Uachtaráin, A Dhuine Uasail,
An Cumann 1916-1921 (the 1916-1921 Club), which includes within our own membership life-long members and supporters of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, commends the GAA for its great achievements in fostering Gaelic Games for the past 142 years, and for doing so with regard for native Irish culture more broadly.
We further commend the GAA for having recognised in past iterations of its Official Guide that those ‘who play its games, those who organise its activities and those who control its destinies see in the G.A.A. a means of consolidating our Irish identity.’
We share the GAA’s position that our native games ‘are more than games – they have a national significance – and the promotion of native pastimes becomes a part of the full national ideal, which envisages the speaking of our own language, music and dances.’
The 1916-1921 Club endorses the primary purpose of the GAA, as set out in previous editions of the Official Guide, as being ‘the organisation of native pastimes and the promotion of athletic fitness as a means to create a disciplined, self-reliant, national-minded manhood.’ We concur that the overall result of that purpose is, or ought to be, ‘the expression of a people’s preference for native ways as opposed to imported ones’.
Furthermore, we agree with the assertion in the GAA’s Official Guide (2022 edition) that were Ireland to ‘forsake her own games and customs in favour of the games and customs of another nation’, our country’s claim to nationhood would be further impaired. We strongly commend the GAA for its basic aim of ‘the strengthening of the National Identity in a 32 County Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic Games and pastimes.’ We also wish to put on the record our support for the four stated additional aims of the GAA. The 1916-1921 Club’s objectives stand in common purpose with the aims of the GAA.
Therefore, it was with great disappointment that the Committee of the 1916-1921 Club learnt of the intention of the Croke Park Stadium and Commercial Director that Croke Park, the pre-eminent stadium for Gaelic Games, would host a soccer match involving two foreign clubs, namely Manchester United and Leeds United, this coming August.
We note the rules governing the use of GAA property (2019) and we concur with the GAA’s stated reasons for not making the Association’s grounds widely available for use for non-Gaelic field sports. Those reasons, as you will be aware, are:
- It conflicts with our fundamental aim of promoting Gaelic Games;
- It would have a serious adverse effect on the promotion of Gaelic Games in the medium and long term;
- The Association would lose the advantage that its facilities provide it with in competing with other – often professional and commercially driven – sports;
- Many GAA grounds are currently over-utilised;
- A conflict of interest would lead to grounds not being available at all the times they would be required for the playing of Gaelic Games;
- Our playing season would be dictated by the demands of other sports.
Furthermore, we note under the rules that the Ard Chomhairle ‘retains the right to sanction use of GAA grounds, from time to time and in limited circumstances, for other field sports’ and the stipulations that such usage ‘may only be permitted where the event is considered by Ard Chomhairle to be exceptional in nature and of national significance’ and ‘where it is considered by Ard Chomhairle Council to be in the broad interest of the Association and in accord with its aims’.
The 1916-1921 Club asks, how can the GAA Ard Chomhairle conclude that the hosting of a soccer match between two foreign profit-seeking bodies is either in the interest of the GAA or in accordance with its aims? How can the GAA seriously consider a match between two foreign soccer clubs to be of Irish national significance?
In accepting the invitation to be a patron of the GAA, Archbishop Thomas Croke outlined, ‘[o]ne of the most painful … reflections that, as an Irishman, I am compelled to make in connection with the present aspect of things in this country, is derived from the ugly and irritating fact, that we are daily importing from England … her fashions, her accents, her vicious literature, her music, her dances and her manifold mannerisms, her games also, and her pastimes, to the utter discredit of our own grand national sports, and to the sore humiliation, as I believe, of every genuine son and daughter of the old land.’
Archbishop Croke highlighted the danger posed by English sports not only to Gaelic Games but to that which Gaelic Games are so essential – Irish national identity. The Archbishop was unambiguous in his reasoning for becoming a patron of the Association, writing, “if we continue travelling for the next score years in the same direction that we have been going in for some time past, condemning the sports that were practised by our forefathers, effacing our national features as though we were ashamed of them, and putting on, with England’s stuffs and broadcloths, her masher habits and such other effeminate follies as she may recommend, we had better at once, and publicly, abjure our nationality, clap hands for joy at sight of the Union Jack, and place ‘England’s bloody red’ exultantly above the green.”
Archbishop Croke saw in the GAA a ‘society of athletes’ opposed to the spread and acceptance of English sports in Ireland. It is difficult to comprehend that the stadium named in his honour would be hired out for the promotion of the very thing that he so clearly and meaningfully opposed.
Central to the proposed soccer match is the promotion of an English soccer competition in an Ireland already saturated with non-stop glamourisation of the English soccer industry. In our own time, the spread of English soccer culture among children and young people in Ireland is quite evident. That is the context in which there is now the very real, stark and indeed dishonourable prospect of Croke Park playing host to a soccer match between foreign corporations. If the GAA Ard Chomhairle insists on Croke Park hosting this soccer match, among the jarring images of the day will be Michael Cusack’s statue awash in a sea of Manchester and Leeds United jerseys passing in and out of the Cusack Stand.
Why the GAA Ard Chomhairle, at this time, would opt to take an action that would promote a sport which is in clear competition with our native games, and runs contrary to the amateur ethos of our games, leaves us astounded and greatly disappointed. We implore you and the GAA Ard Chomhairle to keep faith with the legacy and vision of Michael Cusack and Archbishop Croke, and the aims and ethos of the Association, and not to proceed with the use of Croke Park for a professional soccer match between foreign clubs. The use of Croke Park for the promotion of something that stands in such direct contrast to the aims of the GAA would be a travesty. Instead, Croke Park’s purpose and identity as a stadium for Gaelic Games ought to be cherished, protected and reinforced.
We look forward to hearing from you in relation to this matter.
Is mise le meas,
Jim Doyle
Uachtarán Chumann 1916-1921