A hurling first at Stormont

A NEW GAA event has taken its name from an unlikely source — the founding father of Ulster unionism.

Competitors in the first ever hurling event in the Stormont estate in Belfast — itself steeped in the colonial trappings of British rule in the North — will be playing for the Edward Carson trophy.

The event, sponsored by M Donnelly & Co Ltd Dublin, is in aid of The City Of The Angels Foundation — a charity that works in the major shanty town of Favela in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.

Carson was the Dublin-born barrister who prosecuted Oscar Wilde in a celebrated case which led to the writer’s incarceration.

However, in the North Carson’s name is revered in the unionist community for leading the campaign against Irish independence a century ago.

But Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, who has helped organise the inaugural ‘Poc ar an Cnoc’ which will take place below Carson’s famous statute in Stormont next month, believes it is a positive step.

“I discovered, much to my surprise, that Carson was a hurler in his days at Trinity College,” he said at the launch of the event at Parliament Buildings “So this man, who is arguably the father of unionism, was also a Gael — and I thought that was an interesting concept.

“When Carson was playing for this hurling club at Trinity he got an honourable mention in the Irish Sportsman as having distinguished himself on the field, so we thought it would be a great idea to have an Edward Carson trophy.”

The event will see hurlers aim their sliotars up the mile-long Prince of Wales Avenue that leads to the impressive edifice of Parliament Buildings in north Belfast.

Mr Adams said he had detected some recent thawing in the attitude of unionists to Gaelic games, adding that he would be inviting Parliamentary colleagues in other parties at Stormont to participate in the event on Saturday, August 7.

“Hopefully, we will see somebody from the unionist community up here,” said the Sinn Féin president.

“I want to challenge Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Finance Minister) to compete here with us and hope that he will.”