Protests against Allianz link expected at league games this weekend

Allianz on Thursday announced the launch of the 2026 Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues, marking the start of a new season and their 34th year as title sponsor of the inter-county competition.  Pictured at the launch are Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael Jarlath Burns and Geoff Sparling, Chief Customer Officer at Allianz plc, with Eoghan Frayne of Meath, left, and Aidan Corry of Laois. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

The GAA is bracing itself for a number of protests against its continuing relationship with Allianz across this opening weekend of the National Leagues.

“Drop Allianz” gatherings have been organised either before or during Saturday’s games in Newry and Omagh as well as in Enniskillen and Toome on Sunday.

Antrim, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone were among the 10 counties who passed motions in favour of the GAA ending its commercial relationship with the global insurance company.

However, the GAA’s Management Committee adopted the finding of its ethic and integrity commission that there was no direct link between Allianz plc and “the Israeli Defence Forces or corporate entities involved in the war in Gaza” and agreed to continue their partnership.

A gathering has been organised prior to the Down-Clare Division 3 football game in Newry’s Páirc Esler on Saturday at 6pm.

Down’s 1968 All-Ireland SFC winner and four-time Ulster SFC medallist Colm McAlarney is due to address the crowd. McAlarney has been outspoken in his condemnation of the decision by the GAA to retain Allianz despite its global company’s links to the genocide in Gaza.

A post on X by “Irish Sport For Palestine” read: “Down great, Colm McAlarney, will be speaking as we come together to protest GAA's continued sponsorship by Allianz: a funder of genocide. We refuse to allow our games to be associated with mass murder. There is no ceasefire.” 

The Tyrone-Kildare Division 2 NFL game in O’Neills Healy Park on Saturday evening is being shown on BBC’s iPlayer as well as GAA+. Another protest has been scheduled for 12.30pm on Sunday prior to the Division 3 Fermanagh-Wexford clash in Brewster Park and protesters are also expected at the Antrim-Carlow Division 4 game at Cargin’s GAA grounds.

Flyers are to be distributed at other games such as Saturday’s Dublin-Donegal, Meath-Derry Division 1 and 2 NFL double-header in Croke Park on Saturday as well as the Division 1 hurling meeting of Tipperary and Galway in Thurles later that day.

Allianz signage, which is present at all games as per their sponsorship of the competition, is also being watched carefully by officials to ensure there are no incidents.

On Thursday, Meath captain Eoghan Frayne and Laois’s Aidan Corry posed for photographs in Croke Park to promote the launch of Allianz’s sponsorship of the competition. However, they were not made available for interview. Instead, former Meath and Tipperary players Graham Geraghty and Pádraic Maher were but journalists were not invited to attend the event in person.

The Gaelic Players Association has requested that the GAA ensure players are not put “in situations that could expose them to negative attention, undue pressure, or a perception of endorsing positions that they may not personally support.” 

Outside the event on Jones’s Road on Thursday, protesters including Dublin’s three-time All-Ireland SFC winner Dr David Hickey gathered to express their opposition to Allianz remaining as a commercial partner of the GAA.

Earlier this week, it was reported Dublin players would not provide interviews with Allianz signage, although footballer Greg McEneaney later insisted it had not been discussed among his panel. However, it is understood players in Dublin and other counties are uneasy about the association.

Earlier this month, former Antrim hurler Neil McManus said he expected players to make their own feelings felt. “I definitely think that probably because of how politicised the North is, you will probably find more politically aware players in the North.” McManus was one of the 800 signatories whose petition last year prompted the GAA to review its relationship with Allianz.

In a newspaper column last month, former secondary school principal McAlarney slammed the continued commercial relationship between the GAA and the global insurance company.

Allianz is the title sponsor of our wonderful games and yet it contributes to the economy of genocide. It is an unconscionable position for our association to be in.”