Debate contribution: Casement Park: Non-GAA Events
Debate contribution by Mrs Sinéad Ennis on .
- MLA
- Mrs Sinéad Ennis
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 17 February 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Casement Park: Non-GAA Events
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5394463
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I suppose that I should declare an interest as a member of Saint Mary's GAC, Burren. Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, I tell you what: irony is well and truly dead. The motion comes from the TUV, which, by its own admission, could not care less if Casement was ever built, yet the Member comes to the Chamber demanding revenue from it. I had a whole speech written, but I thought, "You know what? To hell with that". Why would I stand here and waste my time trying to convince people — people who do not want to be convinced — of the value of the GAA?
I could stand here and try to educate Mr Gaston, political unionism and, by all accounts, People Before Profit on the immeasurable social, economic and sporting capital —
I will not. — that the GAA reinvests —
You will have time when you are making a winding-up speech on your amendment. — in communities, but that would be a waste of my time, because this is not a serious motion. It is yet another attempt by unionism to punish and debase the GAA and its members and to poke nationalism in the eye. Sinn Féin will not stand for that. This is not a serious debate, because we know that political unionism does not do the GAA. Political unionism does not do equality or fairness, because —
— there was no mention of clawback when it came to Windsor or Ravenhill. Political unionism does not do Irishness. Political unionism does not want any expression or promotion of Irish identity and culture, and that is what Casement would represent to them. However, the uncomfortable and inescapable truth for unionism is that the GAA has contributed more to the cultural, sporting, social and economic prosperity of this island and, indeed, the globe than its mean-spirited and insular world view ever could or will. The motion and the amendment should be treated with the contempt that they deserve, and shame on anybody who gives either any credibility.
340 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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