Rev. Dr Norman Hamilton shares some reflections on his experience of the GAA

My first real encounter with Ulster GAA came in my year as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church.  I was leading a group from the church to meet senior GAA officers in Armagh, and during our meeting the news came through of the death of Michaela McAreavey.

The date and the events of that day are forever embedded in my mind – 10 January 2011. The horror of what had happened was not immediately evident as we met, but I was able to do the only thing I could – lead everyone in the room in prayer for the family.  And so began what has been, and still is, a journey of increasing understanding and appreciation of the role of the GAA in our community, not only of course in Ulster, but across the whole island of Ireland.

Later that year I had the immense privilege of addressing the Ulster Council.  One of the strengths I mentioned then was the sense of place in the GAA – the emphasis on the local and the ‘parish’. I made the point that in so many localities the GAA is the glue which binds the community together and that in and through the GAA so much first-rate work is done at local level with young people as well as promoting community spirit and work through local clubs and local activities.

I am still amazed at the sheer scale and breadth of the volunteer ethos at the heart of the GAA.   No other local group comes near to having a quarter of a million volunteers and 150,000 active participants – to say nothing of the wider GAA having 3000 clubs spread across the world.   Yet I do understand something of the ethos, since Churches too operate at both a parish, national and international level.

Over the years I feel so privileged to have been treated so warmly by the Ulster GAA, and it is a continuing delight to try to keep the relationship with the Presbyterian Church in good repair.   Am I allowed to say that I still have an unrealised hope from back in 2011?  I suggested to the Ulster Council that it would be great to set up a forum for dialogue with elements of the Unionist community.

We could try to stand in each other’s shoes; we could learn to talk well together; we could address the perceptions of the other, share some hopes, work though some real fears, as well as build some substantial personal and some very much needed public relationships. In doing so we would be incrementally building a much better understanding of what a shared land looks like at parish level in Antrim, Armagh and Annalong.

While the cultural divisions have eased, not enough bridges have been built in our towns and villages.  We are certainly having to face coronavirus together, but can we harness that community ‘togetherness’ for our common good when the pandemic has largely passed and we are out of crisis mode?  I am still up for that challenge, not least because new societal divisions are opening up – as in the Brexit debate.  I have no clear idea as to how we might work this out, but yet the GAA and our churches have so much in common – local people and local parishes and place.

I’m tempted to be more than hopeful that, in the Providence of God, our corporate wisdom could lift our land higher.  And at a personal level, my understanding of the ways of the GAA would also be at a higher level!

Very Rev. Dr. Norman Hamilton.