Seamus Mallon, the former deputy leader of the SDLP, speaking in 1996 during all party talks said that whatever emerged would be “Sunningdale for slow learners”. 
What emerged two years later of course was the Good Friday Agreement, or Belfast Agreement depending on what you prefer to call it. I don’t know enough about 1970s politics to say if Mallon had a point regarding the ill fated Sunningdale Agreement; but his sentiment did resonate with me recently when the media were so exercised with positivity over the visit of the DUP Minister, Paul Givan, to a GAA club.
From the get go let me say it was great to see Mr Givan visit. 
It was great to see him loft points over the bar and run around with youngsters from the club. Great, great, great. But there is a part of me disappointed that in 2016 such a hullabaloo was being made of a story like this. 
It is not that big a deal. Honestly. 
Or at least it shouldn’t be.
Let me take you back 14 years. It is cold, it is dark and there are sparkly frocks as far as the eye can see. 
Taxis are hurtling out from town, only matched in alacrity by police cars going in the same direction. Enniskillen Gaels 75th Anniversary celebrations are in tatters. 
A bomb threat from a group calling themselves the Ulster Protestant Coalition had caused the evacuation of the Manor House, just as the soup was being placed on the table. 
One of those evacuated was Michael McGimpsey, the Ulster Unionist MLA and also the Minister for Culture Art and Leisure at the time. He had been seated at the top table chatting with Greg Kelly, the Gaels secretary, at the time.
Mr McGimpsey never got to make the speech he had prepared, more’s the pity.
I was part of the organising committee for that night and while I didn’t envisage us listening to the Copper Kettle Folk Group in the Ashberry Hotel I am still proud that we invited Mr McGimpsey to our celebration and also pleasantly surprised that he accepted. The Copper Kettle Folk Group were very good by the way.
So returning to Mr Givan’s point scoring, I have to say that when compared to Mr McGimpsey acceptance of our invitation back in 2002, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. The latter was a much bigger and bolder step given the time and the context. It’s a great pity that in 2016 Givan’s white flag raising has made such headline news and it leaves me to conclude that we haven’t made all that much progress since the night a few hundred tuxes descended onto the Killadeas Road.
But then I should not expect anything else really. 
Given we are dealing with Northern Ireland politics and the GAA, a slower than glacial change in positions should be the norm. They are the pot and kettle of bedfellows.
If living on this patch of earth has taught me one thing about the people who inhabit it, it is that we can be spectacularly adept at not seeing things from each others position while at the same time we can hold firm to antiquated views that were never correct in the first place. That blinkered intransigence would stop a runaway train in its tracks so it is perhaps no wonder we are still where we are. 
Four things need to happen if we are to see unionists play GAA in significant numbers: 1) the GAA has to realise that some of its rules stop some unionists from joining. 2) those unionists who see the GAA as the athletic wing of hard line republicanism need to accept that they are incorrect and always have been and they need to stop proliferating this notion in their community. 3) The GAA need to be more aggressive about getting youngsters from the unionist tradition to play the game. 4) More parents from the unionist community need to have the courage to send their kids to play the GAA.
On point number four I would say to parents that the GAA is a reflection of the community that it serves. If you are having doubts about sending your children to play look around your own community. Look at the people who you know who are involved in the GAA and ask yourself what sort of people they are. You will find if you do that you will have no problem sending your child to the local GAA club.
Moving on to point one and some of the GAA’s rules I want to go back in time again. 
In 2008 I wrote an article that appeared in the Irish Independent calling on the GAA to do more to reach out to unionists. It received mixed reviews. Many GAA people in the six counties disagreed with my assessment. I haven’t shifted my position. We don’t do enough and I feel we could change our rules without altering the original aims of the association one iota.
Last year Jarlath Burns said he would have no problem with the GAA not flying the flag or playing the anthem if it meant more unionists would join. He was lambasted by many. The GAA President echoed his words this week.
The fact is that our rule book has too many political rules for an organisation that purports to be non political. Some of those rules are very nationalistic, talking about the ‘strengthening of a 32 county Ireland’ and so on.
The GAA is about the preservation of Irish games and pastimes. There will be those who argue that those ideals are by their nature nationalistic. I don’t agree in the sense that the games and language and culture indigenous to this Island should not be the preserve of one political aspiration. 
Of course some unionists will always find this Irish cultural aspect a turn off but that is no reason not to reach out others.
The fact is that the GAA’s formation was greeted with approval by many leading unionists, with a good portion becoming members. 
Given the context of late 19th century Ireland it is very telling that the GAA took such trouble in distancing itself from constitutional politics when it was formed. Culture and games was all it concerned itself with.
This is why the flying of the flag and playing of the anthem along with the nationalistic rules came relatively late to the party. They were reactionary rules in essence and not rules or traditions that were rooted in GAA foundation.
Of course any change to GAA rule should only be arrived by the majority will of its members but I think it would be healthy as an organisation to have the debate about where we sit in 2016 and ask ourselves could we do more to be more welcoming to unionists and would such changes really alter the fabric of the association that we love so dearly.
The job of the GAA is to convince unionism that there is nothing to fear from our love of Irish games. And indeed convince them that they are their games too, if they want them to be.
As for Michael McGimpsey I wonder did he think of Enniskillen Gaels when he watched Paul Givan split the posts? Did he think of the Manor House as his own Sunningdale? And most importantly does he regret not coming along to listen to the Copper Kettle Folk Band?