Casement Park: Spending Review

Lord Caine Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I absolutely do agree with the noble Lord. Sport is incredibly important to each and every one of us—in different ways with different sports—but we need to make sure that delivery of both funding and our commitment to sport is based on the sport and people’s engagement with it.

[Lord Caine (Con)]

My Lords, having attended a GAA match at Celtic Park in the Bogside in Londonderry last April, I am fully aware of the importance of Gaelic games for large numbers in the community in Northern Ireland. I also understand the strong emotions generated by Casement Park for others, not least given what happened there in March 1988. Further to the question by my noble friend Lady Foster of Aghadrumsee, on this side we share the dismay expressed about the naming of GAA stadiums, stands and even competitions after terrorists such as Joe Cahill, an IRA godfather of many decades who was convicted for murder and who undoubtedly oversaw the murder of many others. What assessment have the Government made of the impact that this has on community relations across Northern Ireland and on impressionable young children? Does the Minister agree that if Northern Ireland is to have a genuinely shared future in which all parts of the community have a stake, this kind of thing really has to stop?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes a genuinely important point about how sport should be used as a vehicle for bringing people together. There is a responsibility for the UK Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, and all local politicians and local community activists to make sure that is true.