Protest at gates of Croke Park to presence of RUC/PSNI

Republican Sinn Féin held a very successful protest at the main entrance to Croke Park on November 25 against the presence of the RUC/PSNI in the stadium, defying an attempt by the 26-County police to close the road to any protests. Inside a team from the 26-County police were playing a team from the RUC/PSNI in a Gaelic football match.

Speaking at the protest the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said: “The protest today is about driving home the message that British occupation of any part of Ireland is neither normal nor acceptable. The presence of the British colonial police in Croke Park is a betrayal of the principles upon which Cumann Lúthchleas Gael was founded. Foremost amongst these principles is Ireland’s right to its essential unity as a nation. The GAA has never recognised the British-imposed border but today the leadership of the GAA has allowed the same British forces who deny that unity of Ireland on to the pitch at Croke Park.

“The GAA is being hijacked by the British and 26-County political establishments to bolster their campaign of normalising British rule and the partition of Ireland. The very fact that this game is being played behind closed doors and under tight security tells us that it is far from normal. If, as we are constantly told, that relations with the British State are now normal why all the secrecy and security? The truth is that British rule in Ireland will never be normal,” Des Dalton said.

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