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RSSKelly calls on GAA to honour Collins and de Valera
The GAA should jointly honour Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera to help banish the "bitterness and poison" of the Civil War, former GAA president Sean Kelly said.
Mr Kelly said naming trophies, clubs, grounds or stands after both men would be a powerful gesture of unity and maturity by today's society.
The Co Kerry native also told of how the memory of Collins helped inspire him as he steered the controversial Rule 42 through the GAA in 2005 to pave the way for soccer and rugby to be played at Croke Park.
Mr Kelly was speaking at the annual Beal na mBlath commemoration near Bandon in Co Cork.
Mr Kelly asked: "Why shouldn't the GAA honour Collins and Dev now? It would become a powerful symbol of unity, a statement like the opening of Croke Park, that we are an inclusive, open and mature society and that the hatchet of the Civil War which has pierced the heart of this nation and almost all its citizens for generations, has been buried forever.
"A gesture like this from the GAA would do far more than all the talk in the world to advance the cause of Ireland for which Collins and Dev and all our patriots fought to achieve."
Mr Kelly, who stepped down recently as executive chairman of the Irish Institute of Sport, was GAA president from 2003-2006.
He told today's commemoration: "We must consign to the scrapheap any semblance of bitterness and poison that might still remain after the Civil War.
"We must realise that Collins and Dev had far more in common than divided them and that the politics of meanness, begrudgery and division do not serve the free Ireland that our forefathers fought to achieve.
"Collins always sought to look at the bigger picture."
Mr Kelly said he hoped Croke Park will remain available to other sports even after Landsdowne Road is developed.
"I often took inspiration and spiritual guidance from the sacrifices of Collins and his colleagues. When the going got tough, Collins got going."
The GAA was worried that a split would develop in the organisation over Rule 42.
"That split never occurred. That speaks volumes for the sincerity and commitment of those against opening Croke Park.
"They accepted the verdict of the majority and the GAA now stands more powerful, more respected and more united than ever before as a result.
"Their respect for the democratic vote of the members, despite how unpalatable it was to many of them, was a shining example of our maturity as a nation."
