Deputy first minister ‘deeply saddened’ by summer camp cancellation

The deputy first minister has said she is “deeply saddened” that the organisers of a cross-community sports summer camp felt the need to cancel an event after an Orange lodge opposed the involvement of a “small group of children from a GAA club”.

Emma Little-Pengelly said there was “legitimate discussion to be had” about the GAA’s levels of inclusivity – but that this was not “the time or the place”.

North Down Cricket Club had planned to host the event for young people from varied backgrounds, including some from East Belfast GAA, on Friday.

The lodge said there were concerns about the “perceived move of the GAA into the local community”, which it said had come from some local residents.

North Down Cricket Club then decided not to go ahead with the original event after it said the “spirit of the camp was at risk of being lost”.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme, Little-Pengelly said “cricket is a sport that brings people together” and summer camps like the one planned were for “children to get to know each other and work with each other.”

She said she had spoken to the club, which is based in Comber in County Down.

Cricket Ireland said on Wednesday it hoped to move the event to Stormont in July.

Also speaking to Good Morning Ulster the First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the cancellation was “so disappointing”.

“I am actually quite dismayed that anyone would think that young people coming together through the medium of sport, just because they come from a GAA background, that that is not appropriate,” she said.

“I just think that is just totally unacceptable by anybody’s standards.”

She added “sport should be something that unifies people, no one should be excluded that they come from a Gaelic background.”