Thirty Three Palestinian children (aged between 9 and 16) and 14 adults were denied entry into Ireland for a Gaelic Athletics Association (GAA) tour scheduled to begin on the 18th of July, 2025. The group was set to play matches, attend the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship at Croke Park, and see the sea for the first time. Plans were also in place with over 150 Irish families prepared to host the children and facilitate the trip. The Irish Department of Justice (DOJ), according to The Journal, officially cited “insufficient documentation” as the reason for denying visas to the group.
GAA Palestine was founded by Stephen Redmond, an Irish national living in England, after a visit to Ramallah in January 2024. The purpose of the organisation is to connect young people from Palestine with hurling during the ongoing genocide in the country. Currently, the only official club in the region is Moataz Sarsour GAA Club in Ramallah. Other groups involved in creating access to Gaelic games in Palestine include Irish Sports for Palestine and Gaels against Genocide.
In a statement to The Journal, Redmond stated that the Irish embassy in Israel had assured the group they had sufficient documentation. Adding “We want as far as sending a volunteer to the West Bank to assist with additional documentation that was requested as part of our application.” Redmond also mentioned that the embassy in Tel Aviv insisted that flights be purchased before the visas were approved, and the trip had been planned months in advance. When the visas were rejected, the organisation lost €38,000 in nonrefundable costs associated with the trip, including flights.
In a statement from GAA Palestine on social media, the organisation wrote, “From our devastated and war-torn camps, we send this message filled with appreciation and heartfelt thanks to the entire Irish people. You overwhelmed us with your compassion, astonished us with your humanity, and reminded us that there are still nations in this world that believe in justice and actively pursue it.” On the Irish government’s decision to not issue the visas, the organisation wrote that it was “… deeply painful for children whose only dream was to board a plane for the first time, to learn a new sport, and to see the sea, something they have never experienced”. They added “We aren’t angry; we are wounded…We have grown used to our dreams colliding with the walls of politics”.
In a statement captured by the Irish Times, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said “the whole thing seems haphazardly organised”, continuing “normally what would happen is a sporting organisation would come to the Government and say ‘we want to organise’ well in advance”, adding “there’s something wrong here”. However, Tánaiste Simon Harris said he did not doubt the “good faith” of the organisers in a statement in the Dáil, though he ultimately defended the denial of the visas. The DOJ maintains that the visa refusals were based on a lack of proper documentation and concerns regarding the minors involved.
Multiple politicians have been outspoken against the DOJ decision, including Peadar Tóibín, the founder and leader of Aontú, who asked the Tánaiste directly to intervene with the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, on the matter. Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, the foreign affairs spokesperson for Sinn Féin, also stated that the visa denial occurred due to political reasons rather than procedural ones.
Broadly, the denial sparked outrage across the country. Famous figures like former Donegal GAA athlete Brendan Devenney called on the government to allow the organisation entry into the country. Devenney met with both the Taoiseach and the GAA president, Jarlath Burns, and in a statement to Donegal Live encouraged onlookers to “show solidarity with the 33 kids”. Furthermore, as reported by the Irish Independent, there was a protest at Croke Park involving the unfurling of a banner reading “Let Them Play”. In addition, there is a standing petition by the same name from MyUplift.ie that has garnered over 28,000 signatures. It states that “GAA Palestine is a symbol of hope for children who’ve been denied a proper childhood.”
The situation is reminiscent of sports-related protests over 30 years ago in Ireland during apartheid in South Africa. The Stop the Seventy Tour group organised protests at every match of the all-white South African rugby team’s tour of Britain and Ireland in 1969 and 1970. Furthermore, when the Irish Rugby Football Union defied an international sporting boycott of South Africa in 1981, players Hugo MacNeill, Tony Ward, Moss Keane, and Donal Spring refused to participate in solidarity with the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Ireland has a complicated history in reckoning with its legacy as a formerly colonised nation alongside its more recent status as a wealthy, privileged, and powerful country. The intersection of these two realities in sports raises a unique question about Ireland’s professed belief in Palestinian self-determination, set against its self-interested concerns with sovereignty and economic ties to Israel. One open response to the government’s stance on the recent visa refusal comes from GAA Palestine’s statement: “to the Irish government, we say; may the face of a child one day be placed above the stamp of rejection, and may hope, just once, be given a chance to live”.
