The first and most interesting was that Ulster Rugby have been banned from participating in the Belfast Pride Festival parade. Recently Ulster Rugby have been making an effort to reach out to the LGBT community. That has now seemingly been nipped in the bud. Their crime was to support the World Rugby ban on trans women playing in women's sport.
World rugby conducted research after some high profile cases where trans women had caused significant injury to biological women on the rugby pitch. They found that trans women were, on average, 40% more powerful and 15% faster than women, leading to "significant risk factors for biological females". These factors are only reduced by 5% when testosterone reduction is enforced. Subsequently, World Rugby decided to protect female players by banning all trans women from that category. Ulster Rugby support that decision. It is hard to criticise that position.
Rugby is a brutal sport at times and serious injury is common. In the last few years World Rugby have been introducing a raft of measures to try to limit the number of injuries suffered in the sport. The logical thing to do is to protect females by banning trans women. I have a certain sympathy for the trans community. They are more likely to face public ridicule, abuse and prejudice than most demographics and are the group with the highest suicide risk. We must make sure that they are protected and accommodated safely within our societies. Having said that, under no circumstances should they be allowed to participate in women's sport or have access to women's safe spaces. That is a step too far, in my humble opinion. The current aggressive pro-trans lobby is a very, very unfortunate development in the debate. The ones advocating for tolerance during many years of activism are now the intolerant ones, and we can add Ulster Rugby to the list of the "cancelled" along with JK Rowling and Kathleen Stock. How unfortunate.
The other news item was that during an under-16 GAA match in Cookstown, a referee and an umpire were "stabbed" by a youth. Further reading explained that the two officials received minor wounds while trying to restrain the youth who produced the blade during a brawl. "Stabbed" made the better headline where "sliced" may have been more accurate. Nevertheless, it is yet another case of on-field violence that has plagued the GAA for decades. Twitter is frequently adorned with videos of GAA brawls. It is part of its toxic culture. If the authorities really wanted to stamp it out, it could.
The other news item was that during an under-16 GAA match in Cookstown, a referee and an umpire were "stabbed" by a youth. Further reading explained that the two officials received minor wounds while trying to restrain the youth who produced the blade during a brawl. "Stabbed" made the better headline where "sliced" may have been more accurate. Nevertheless, it is yet another case of on-field violence that has plagued the GAA for decades. Twitter is frequently adorned with videos of GAA brawls. It is part of its toxic culture. If the authorities really wanted to stamp it out, it could.
Football has radically improved its penchant for violence since the 70s, when leg breaking tackles and on-field brawls were common. My mate is a footy ref and he reports that football has greatly improved in recent years as punitive measures have been enforced against teams and players. Why does the GAA not stamp it out? Are they proud of it? Do they think it adds to the sport? If a unionist questions this aspect of the GAA or its acceptance of club names, grounds and competitions being named after members of sectarian death squads, we inevitably suffer a pile on from deeply offended republicans.
Personally, I view the GAA like I view the Orange Order: they are both organisations that do great service to their respective communities, however they are both flawed, essentially sectarian organisations, with an objectionable acceptance of casual violence. I will have nothing to do with either.
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| Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports |
Peter, you are spot on about Ulster Rugby and its ban on transgender people. I am not in full possession of the full facts of the recent stabbing incident at Cookstown GAA grounds. I do follow Inter-County Championship games and am a Tyrone supporter. But, likewise Peter, there is no disagreement with me about the extent of violence at GAA matches. I have to say that as someone on Neurodiverse spectrums GAA and indeed any changing rooms filled me with terror as a young person not least because of my perception teaching in the "Maintained Sector" was only open to those with a proficiency in Gaelic games. On a wider scale, the recent damning report into the running of English cricket is further evidence that so many sports are run by racist kuntz.
ReplyDeleteThe equivalence between the Orange Order and the GAA is nonsense. While violence in any sport should be tackled and stopped, the author chooses to make it almost unique to the GAA. Warts and all, the GAA does not encourage sectarian marches etc. https://tomasoflatharta.com/2023/07/13/orange-order-july-12-hate-parades-in-2023-much-the-same-as-all-other-years-police-investigate-hate-crimes-after-bonfire-complaints/ I am not a GAA member, I am a sports free zone with two left feet.
ReplyDeleteBarry
ReplyDeleteCricket is dominated by the English upper-class so no surprise that they are deeply racist!
Jim
The GAA is renowned for its brawling and, certianly in the Ulster Branch, for its blood and soil republicanism. And while it doesn't encourage sectarian marches, it does encourage GAA competitions to named after sectarian murderers.