It is with absolute disregard and disrespect for the history, ethos and culture of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael that this divisive political decision has been taken by the leadership of the GAA to invite the British Monarch to Páirc an Chrócaigh with open arms.

In whose name was this decision made and with what consultation and/or approval of the national GAA community? Since when has an independent sporting and cultural organisation of over a hundred years standing been guided by needs of Irelands political classes and their attempt to rewrite history in order to disguise their own economic failings? For how long is the commendable aim of fostering participation in our games amongst all our people going to mean desecrating the very purpose of our existence?...

When Cumann Lúthcleas Gael was formed in 1884 by Michael Cusack and his visionary contempories, Ireland was on its knees as a result of the most thoroughgoing colonisation at the hands of the British Empire in the history of the European continent. The Great Hunger, which was facilitated, aided and abetted by the most ruthless of colonial regimes in Ireland, had claimed the lives of a million and half Gaels and saw nearly 2 and half million more emigrate in poverty and destitution. The Ireland of the 1880's was a place in the throes of a horrific population shift unparalleled in European history. The Irish language was on its last legs and our native games were but a distant memory, as a demoralised people had been brainwashed through 300 years of British colonisation to blame their hardship on their own barbarism and backwardness. The common and most popular narrative told the tale of how the British monarch, her military cronies and political elites were merely trying to 'civilise', educate the poor savages who couldn't do it for themselves.

Therefore, it was when Irish people were to embarrassed and ashamed to admit to speaking Irish and when rugby, soccer and lawn tennis when Irelands only sports, that Michael Cusack et al took the audacious step to form Cumann Lúthcleas Gael. It was the first step in a process of decolonisation; claiming back what was being lost, encouraging people to organise again and stand up on their own two feet, rebuilding the minds and bodies of a battered people. By 1890, there were a 1000 clubs in parishes throughout Ireland which made the CLG, the fastest growing sporting organisation in the world. People followed because they knew they weren't barbarians turned loyal British subjects. People followed because they hoped to revive their own native culture and build a sense of identity and hope. In 1893, Conradh na Gaeilge was formed to revive the Language and it became the fastest growing social movement in Western Europe with 800,000 members by the turn of the century. This cultural movement for decolonisation inspired the movement for Irish independence from British Rule. It inspired The Rising in 1916 and was an engine upon which the revolutionary movement depended.

This is why the British Government in Ireland, with the Blessing of its monarch as head of State attacked CLG headquarters on the notorious Bloody Sunday in November 1920, slaughtering our members. The same establishment had just denied the democratic wishes of the Irish people for self-determination and partitioned the country based on artificially gerrymandered boundaries that would cement their selfish colonial interests in Ireland.

This same British establishment would use our small island as a guinea pig for more horrific colonial practices throughout the world. At late as the 1950's, 1960's, 1970s places like Kenya, Indonesia, and Zimbabwe would suffer in even more brutal circumstances for daring to challenge their own undemocratic subjugation where millions would lose their lives. In more recent times as the British power and influence has waned slightly under the auspices of Neo-American imperialism and its newly named Anglo-American axis; this same establishment in sponsoring indiscriminate political violence on a massive scale in its search for more economic resources to bankroll its greedy empire. Millions have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and thousands die as we speak, as multi-million pound British fighter jets bomb indiscriminately in Libya. Unsurprisingly, this occurs multi-billion pound slaughter occurs as the working people of Britain are being driven to poverty by savage public service cuts. All this carried out in the name of royalty and Empire. In the words of James Connolly 'murder, treachery, adultery, incest, theft, perjury – every crime known to man has been committed by some one or other of the race of monarchs from whom' the current Royal crop are 'proud to trace their descent'.