Cullen "not aware" of GAA Grounds or Trophies Named After Terrorists - and Reveals £14 Million in DCAL Funding
10 February 2012
“I have long viewed Minister Cullen as unfit for office. Her first act was to appoint her former officer commander from prison, IRA murderer Mary McArdle, as her Special adviser. This pernicious act set the scene.
“Now her IRA dogma is shaping the very answers which she gives to Assembly questions. I had asked :
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure whether she is seeking to discourage the GAA from naming their grounds and trophies in honour of dead terrorists; and how such efforts are deployed.
“In her disingenuous answer she has the audacity to claim that she is not aware of any GAA ground or trophy named in honour of a terrorist. Yet a the list of clubs in receipt of funding from her Department includes Kevin Lynch Hurling Club which was named in honour of an INLA Hunger Striker who was sentenced to ten years for stealing shotguns, taking part in a punishment shooting and conspiring to take arms from the security forces in December 1977.
“Also listed as being in receipt of funding are a series of clubs named after rebels who took part in the 1916 Rising and other insurrections against British rule.
“One also needs to keep in mind that Galbally in Co Tyrone paid host to the Martin Hurson memorial trophy. Hurson was convicted for his part in three IRA landmine incidents – one of which was in Galbally. According to the Minister the club received £245,000 from DCAL in 2009 – part of the staggering £14,200,577 provided by DCAL to GAA clubs over the last five years.
“With perverted Provo logic she tries to dodge the issue by pretending someone is only a terrorist if recognised as such ‘by all sections of the community’. Sorry, a terrorist is someone, like herself, duly convicted of terrorist offences.
“Of course, such perversion is what comes from putting terrorists in government.
“How can Northern Ireland hope to “move forward” when government Ministers continue to defend such dreadful actions?
“The Pledge of Office which Cullen took on assuming office contains a “commitment to non-violence and exclusively peaceful and democratic means”. Additionally, the Ministerial Code states that Ministers must “operate in a way conducive to promoting good community relations and equality of treatment”. How can the Minister be in accordance with this and yet claim that people like Lynch and Hurson were not terrorists?”
