GAA shows role sport can play for peace

It would have been unthinkable even a decade ago for a leading Unionist politician to salute the GAA. Even a “snaking regard” of the organisation and the sporting skills of its members would hesitate to heap praise on the organisation in private, let alone in the public eye.

It would have been unthinkable on two counts: Firstly, no elected unionist could be seen to endorse such an icon of Irish nationalism for fear of alienating his or her own constituency. Secondly, the GAA itself was, for decades, popul-ated by senior figures, openly hostile to unionism and unionists and would hardly welcome it.

That makes the scene at Queen’s University in Belfast on Thursday night all the more remarkable.