Palestinian GAA kids were due to visit Carlow

DESPERATE, last-ditch attempts were made on Monday to get a group of children from war-torn Palestine to go on a tour of Ireland, including the village of Rathvilly, after the Irish government refused their visas last week.

GAA Palestine was set up by Stephen Redmond, whose family are from Rathvilly, in a bid to teach youngsters in Palestine how to play hurling. His organisation had arranged for a group of 33 children and their guardians to come to Ireland for a two-week holiday playing with GAA clubs around the country.

They were due to visit Rathvilly on Tuesday 22 July before going on a tour of the rest of Ireland, with local volunteers organising events to raise funds for the youngsters’ visit.

“We’re really, really disappointed. There was so much work put into this. We had so many things organised for the children,” said Rathvilly volunteer Ken Gahan, who had organised a motorbike run to raise funds for the event.

The Artane Boys’ Band was to come to the village, goodie bags including hurls and other sports equipment had been planned, a bouncy castle was donated to the cause, while a local pub and a café were all set to cater for the visit when it was announced last Wednesday that the Department of Justice had refused to grant visas for the Palestinian contingent to travel here on the grounds that there was insufficient information provided, while also raising concerns about volunteers being garda-vetted.

Stephen told The Nationalist that he and two other executives from GAA Palestine had requested a meeting with minister for justice Jim O’Callaghan or “any senior civil servant” who could resolve the situation. 

He is adamant that GAA Palestine provided the Irish embassy in Tel Aviv with the accurate documentation to secure the group’s visit to Ireland and that there must have been some error made when the documents were being transferred from the Tel Aviv embassy to the Department of Justice.

“To say that we were devastated is an understatement. There was a lot of tears and sadness. The children are devastated. One child said to his mother ‘if the Irish stand with us, why don’t they want us to visit?’” said Stephen.

“We want to have a constructive meeting with the minister or someone from the department who has decision-making powers to remedy this situation,” said Stephen. 

“We just want the facts on the table.

“There’s been an error when the documents were transferred. The embassy sent on the documents to the Department of Justice when they were satisfied with them. Something has gone wrong somewhere. 

"We’re not here to point fingers; we want to meet up with the government and to build up a good relationship with them for the coming years. We want to work in collaboration with the government; we’re not looking for special treatment or favours.” 

 Stephen continued that GAA Palestine had spent $38,000 on return tickets for the children and their guardians, that the Irish volunteers involved in the tour were already vetted through the GAA and that there would be a doctor and trained welfare staff to ensure the children’s welfare throughout their time here.

He also said that his organisation would not advocate for any of their visitors to apply for asylum while they’re here because it could jeopardise their relationship with the Department of Justice, and, indeed, any future trips that they might plan.

The children are from the Motaz Sarsour GAA Club in Ramallah, with many of them never having had the pleasure of any sort of holiday or even the chance to swim in the sea.

“These children need a two-week respite from the war. They’ve been training for 12 months for this visit. They love the Irish and they do appreciate what the Irish are doing for them. Our coaches are very brave going there,” continued Stephen.

It’s now a matter of urgency for GAA Palestine to get the go-ahead for the children’s visit to Ireland because it’s such a dangerous and volatile situation getting the children out of Palestine on time.

Stephen said he’s hopeful that they would get to talk to someone from the Department of Justice and get the whole situation resolved so that the children can come to Ireland.

“In the greatness of time, our children can look back and see that we’ve done the right thing,” said Stephen.