Angela Davison and Abdullah Sabri
Today at 11:00
An Alliance MLA has slammed the cancellation of a children’s summer camp in Comber and hit out at the idea that “children playing cricket… is going to erode anyone’s culture”.
The criticism comes amid the growing controversy after the cross-community camp was scrapped following opposition from a local Orange lodge over the involvement of “a small group of children from a GAA club.”
The First Minister Michelle O’Neill described the situation as “deeply worrying” and “unacceptable” as East Belfast GAA – who were planning on sending a number of children from their club to take part – also expressed “disappointment”.
Speaking about the row on BBC NI’s Nolan Show, Strangford politician Kellie Armstrong said the cancellation is a “missed opportunity”.
“I’m very disappointed that a minority in Comber has decided to take away an opportunity for children to play together outside,” she said.
“Unfortunately the club had to take the decision to cancel which is letting down children from the local area and wider beyond.
"I really don’t understand how children playing cricket in a playing field and learn about cricket is going to erode anyone’s culture.
“This was an opportunity. North Down Cricket Club had seen an opportunity to bring children together but that has been stopped because of some really outdated comments by self-proclaimed loyalists and the Orange Order in the area have decided that a small number of children who happen to play Gaelic games are not to be there.
"They seem to have taken upon themselves who can come into Comber and who can’t.”
She added: “Here we have a group of adults who should know better, who have come out and stopped a summer scheme from happening because of their own prejudices.”
TUV Councillor Ron McDowell said on the programme that the statement from Comber Orange Lodge has been “read into” and that the lodge’s complaint is not in opposition to sport.
In his comments he argued the lodge hadn’t prevented the event from taking place or made a threat of “protest, action or militancy” and claimed there were concerns over other controversies surrounding the GAA including children and youth tournaments being named after IRA leaders.
Raising her own concerns on social media, Ms O’Neill said: “Children should be allowed to play together at summer camp without facing intolerance.”
“These developments are deeply worrying and unacceptable. Sport has the power to unify.
“Political representatives must call this out. We need to send a clear message that we will continue moving forward together to build a brighter society and overcome such unacceptable intolerance.”
East Belfast GAA – which has faced a number of bomb threats over recent years – have also spoken out about the controversy in a statement this morning.
The club called it a “regrettable cancellation” and said it would have involved “a great opportunity to engage with those who share our values of respect, togetherness, and inclusion”.
“The regrettable cancellation won’t stop any of the organisations involved from continuing their great work in building bridges, promoting peace, and sharing spaces for sport,” they added.
“We look forward to future opportunities to collaborate with like-minded groups from Belfast and beyond so that everyone can enjoy a healthy lifestyle through sport and community.”
North Down Cricket Club had planned to host the kids summer camp at their Comber site on Friday but it was scrapped as Goldsprings LOL stated that a number of residents in the area “expressed significant concerns” on the GAA aspect of the event.
The cricket club had set out to involve 10 different local sports and community groups, including GAA games, in order to help the “building of friendships through shared activity”.
"As reaction to the event grew, we felt the spirit of the camp was at risk of being lost. With regret — and out of respect for all involved — we chose not to proceed”
A spokesperson from North Down Cricket Club said last night that it has been “an important part of Comber since 1857 — the oldest sporting club in the town, with deep roots, proud traditions, and a strong sense of identity”.
“We reflect the best of our community and our Ulster-British heritage — confident, welcoming, and grounded in respect. This club wasn’t just built by Comber families — it’s still made up of them.
"For generations, people from this town have given their time and care to something bigger than themselves. What they passed on wasn’t just facilities — it was a culture of decency, community and quiet pride. That’s the tradition we’re proud to continue.
“It’s often been sport that’s brought people together when little else could: shared pride, shared joy, shared ground.
“The Sport Summer Camp was created to give young people from different backgrounds a chance to enjoy cricket, try something new, and simply have fun."
The spokesperson added: “The plan was to involve 10 different local sports and community groups — including organisations supporting ethnic minority communities — with the aim of building friendships through shared activity. A small group of children from a GAA club was just one part of that broader mix.
“As reaction to the event grew, we felt the spirit of the camp was at risk of being lost. With regret — and out of respect for all involved — we chose not to proceed.
“But let’s be clear: openness is not a threat. Respect is not surrender. And our culture is not so fragile that it can’t be shared.
“We are a strong club, in a strong town. That’s why our gates will always remain open — and why we’ll keep showing others what we’re about: sport, community, and quiet confidence in who we are. That’s what this was about."
In a social media post, the area’s local Orange lodge, Goldsprings LOL, said the club’s presence “would be viewed with regret and opposition by many in the Comber area”.
“While the promotion of sport and youth engagement is widely supported across all sectors of society, many local residents have raised reservations about the GAA’s cultural and historical affiliations.
“Specifically there is unease regarding aspects of the organisation that have, in the past, celebrated or commemorated individuals associated with paramilitary activity.
“For a shared and peaceful future, such actions are viewed by some as divisive and incompatible with a truly inclusive society.”
The spokesman added: “Residents have made it clear that until the GAA takes meaningful steps to ensure it is fully inclusive and sensitive to the history and identity of the Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist (PUL) community, its presence in Comber would be viewed with regret and opposition by many in the Comber area.
“This issue is not about about opposition to sport, but about ensuring that all organisations operating in shared spaces demonstrate respect for all traditions and work proactively towards reconciliation and mutual understanding.”
by pickneyboy3000
18 comments
These stories always have those opening aspect of realisation of how shit everything is until people settle down to what side theirs are on
It’ll be blow up to no GAA! Murderers! And all sense of it being over 7 year old kids will be lost in the noise
This country has lost the run of itself. This is what we are teaching our kids now?
Truely fucking pathetic.
Fucking pathetic. You almost feel sorry for Unionists, their institutions seem to have all the PR and media instincts of a brain damaged ferret. I mean honestly how did they think this was going to play in the media?
Think about it, it’s just a couple of dozen kids going to a summer camp for a few days in the summer. How did they think their opposition would be characterised? No one in their right mind would see this and think a GAA club trying to ‘infiltrate’ their area, however they spin it. All they have done is expose themselves as nakedly sectarian and thoroughly bigoted. Fucking mindless.
I’m so fucking sick of this country, compared to the rest of Europe we’re a total fucking joke
every time i read articles like this i just want to catapult myself over to denmark or something
Is it worth contacting the PSNI on non-emergency and reporting a hate crime?
Remember, the Orange Order were complicit in the murder of three boys in 1998. They will not tolerate a Catholic about the place.
“Another allegation made against the Government and which was untrue, was that, of 31 porters at Stormont, 28 were Roman Catholics. I have investigated the matter, and I find that there are 30 Protestants, and only one Roman Catholic there temporarily.”
**J. M. Andrews**, Unionist Party, Minister of Labour, Stormont, **1933**
“When I made that declaration last twelfth I did so after careful consideration. What I said was justified. I recommended people not to employ Roman Catholics, who were 99 per cent disloyal.”
**Sir Basil Brooke**, Unionist Party, then Minister of Agriculture, 19 March **1934**
“The hon. Member for South Fermanagh (Mr. Healy) has raised the question of what is the Government’s policy [in relation to the employment of Catholics]. My right hon. Friend (Sir Basil Brooke) spoke [on 12 July 1933 and 19 March 1934] as a Member of His Majesty’s Government. He spoke entirely on his own when he made the speech to which the hon. Member refers, but there is not one of my colleagues who does not entirely agree with him, and I would not ask him to withdraw one word he said.”
**Sir James Craig**, Unionist Party, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, 20 March **1934**
“I suppose I am about as high up in the Orange Institution as anybody else. I am very proud indeed to be Grand Master of the loyal County of Down. I have filled that office many years, and I prize that far more than I do being Prime Minister. I have always said I am an Orangeman first and a politician and Member of this Parliament afterwards. … The Hon. Member must remember that in the South they boasted of a Catholic State. They still boast of Sourthern Ireland being a Catholic State. All I boast is that we are a Protestant Parliament and Protestant State.”
**Sir James Craig**, Unionist Party, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, 24 April **1934**
“The PRIME MINISTER [Sir James Craig]: The hon. Member says that all our appointments are carried out on a religious basis. I would like to go into this somewhat fully. The appointments made by the Government are made as far as we can possibly manage it of loyal men and women. Why not? And what objection can there possibly be to those who are upholding Ulster as part of the great British Empire and the United Kingdom, seeing that we have not got saturated through the place those who acquiesce in the policy of the hon. Members opposite, of endeavouring to break down the machinery of government given to us by the British people? Surely nothing could be clearer than that. If a man is a Roman Catholic, if he is fitted for the job, provided he is loyal to the core, he has as good a chance of appointment as anybody else; and if a Protestant is not loyal to the core he has no more chance than a similar Roman Catholic.
Mr. O’NEILL: How do you test their loyalty?
The PRIME MINISTER: There are ways of finding that out. The hon. Member knows just as well as I do there are ways of discovering whether a man is heart and soul in carrying out the intention of the Act of 1920, which was given to the Ulster people in order to save them from being swallowed up in a Dublin Parliament. Therefore, it is undoubtedly our duty and our privilege, and always will be, to see that those appointed by us possess the most unimpeachable loyalty to the King and Constitution. That is my whole object in carrying on a Protestant Government for a Protestant people. I repeat it in this House.”
**Sir James Craig**, Unionist Party, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, 21 November **1934**
‘At a meeting in Derry to select candidates for the Corporation Mr. H. McLaughlin said that for the past forty-eight years since the foundation of his firm there had been only one Roman Catholic employed – and that was a case of mistaken identity.’
**Mr. H. McLaughlin**, Unionist Party, September **1946**
In 1946 at a meeting of the City of Derry and Foyle Unionists Association the then NI Prime Minister Basil Brooke praised the members for setting up a fund to prevent Catholics from buying Protestant owned land.
The Newsletter reported – ***”The Prime Minster said that for the past ten years there had been a similar fund in Fermanagh, which had worked well and saved many Loyalist farms. They in Londonderry could do similar work by their trust fund”***
It’s weird how the actual issue is pushed to the very bottom of the article, no?
These “leaders'” legacy will be to ensure that their communities remain dismal shitholes for the foreseeable future.
Problem: Don’t like GAA.
Solution: Don’t play/watch GAA.
What a shame (and most of that is shame on the orange lodge). Cricket is a great sport and relatively free of any “ownership” for a cross-community project.
As a cricket loving immigrant who lives in NI this is terrible to see
Yer da’s feared of children.
I like cricket. I like Gaa..
Grew up in a nationalist household and the only English team my father wasn’t bothered about winning was the cricket team.. in fact, I’d go as far to say he was a fan of them.. Guys like Devon Maccolm, Graham Gooch and Ian Botham.. he thought they were fantastic sportsmen..
He had a lot of respect for cricket and the players.. thought it was a vastly under appreciated sport l too..
THIS is why we in the Republic don’t want anything to with the North.
Here, any person with half an ounce of sense can see this for what it is; brainless sectarianism, with a hefty dose of contempt for ‘anything that isn’t them’.
flip it around, I would LOVE to hear their thoughts if a GAA club cancelled a group of cricket kids coming over to learn some new sports (except that would never happen, because nobody else would be that utterly backward except the OO).
Let them fucking choke on the bad press they get from this (of which they will learn nothing from).
Move the event to a more welcoming town, comber obviously doesn’t want to live in the 21st century.
I assume that grant they got to be more inclusive will be clawed back?
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