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Michael Cusacks <MichaelCusacks>

"Celebrating 20 years in Sydney 1988 - 2008"

	Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and Amnesty International	169 jours il y a
	Following is Sean Og O hAilpin's article from Amnesty International's new book about Ireland's relationship with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO REST AND LEISURE, INCLUDING REASONABLE LIMITATION OF WORKING HOURS AND PERIODIC HOLIDAYS WITH PAY. ARTICLE 24 By Seán Óg Ó hAilpín For me, Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights means that I have the right to pick up a hurley. In Article 24, I see the right to stand in a field, frozen, in lashing rain with a bunch of other lads. I see the right to sport and am reminded again of the importance it has played in my life. As a young boy, I grew up in Australia with my Fijian mother, Emilie, and my father, Seán, a native of County Fermanagh. At the age of eleven, we left our home to move right across the world to the land of my father. To be honest, before then, I was never quite sure if Ireland even really existed. My dad had given me a hurley when I was younger and, every September, we were woken in the middle of the night to gather around the radio to listen to reports of a game called hurling in a place called Croke Park, but it didn't feel real to me. When I arrived into Cork city in 1988, I realised that my life had changed suddenly, and completely. I remember my first day in school. There I stood in front of my new classmates, a half-Fijian, half-Irish boy, straight from Australia. My new teacher introduced me to my classmates, 'We have a new boy his name is Seán Óg and he comes from Australia.' One of my new classmates turned to our class map of Europe and pointed at Austria, 'Is that it sir? Is that where he is from?' I knew then that I was far from my old home. But I was to find a new home in 'the Mon', North Monastery CBS, where I was introduced to hurling properly. We were probably, though I'm not sure, the first Fijian-Irish family on arrive to Cork's northside, but I am very sure that we were the first Fijian-Irish boys to stand on the hurling pitch. It didn't matter to the lads I played with in the Mon, or went on to play with for my club Na Piarsaigh, that my brothers and I were born in Fiji or Australia. It wasn't about the colour of our skin, it was about the game. Regardless of my colour or that I was from a different place, I was free to step onto the pitch and pick up a hurl and sliotar like anyone else. Nobody cared where I was from. They didn't care what I looked like or how I sounded. It was about the team. It was about lifting the sliotar, passing it on, playing with the team. That's sport. It's a universal language. It's something that you can play with complete strangers who don't speak your language or know your culture or it's something you can spend a lifetime trying to perfect with your closest friends. When I first arrived in Ireland, I was an outsider and a stranger. But, through playing hurling, I became as much a part of the community as a boy or girl born and raised on the northside. The freedom that afforded me, the idea that a foreigner can come into a community and play a sport that is the essence of this country, had a huge impact upon the way my life turned out. After a while, I wasn't 'Seán Óg the Fijian'. I was known by my name, Seán Óg. I was fortunate enough to go on to have the opportunity to represent my county, to wear the same colours as Christy Ring, to stand on the steps of the Hogan Stand and to hold the Liam McCarthy Cup aloft in front of tens of thousands of my county men and women and thank them in our own language. And I got to bring the trophy home to the Mon, for the next generation. The self-belief that playing GAA instilled in me has brought me to a very privileged place. My story demonstrates the opportunity sport, or any form of leisure activity, can afford people to integrate into a community. For me, it was the GAA and hurling. For other children in Ireland today, it could be soccer or rugby or swimming or tennis. It's easy for people who are not into sports to miss out on how important a role it has to play. Participation in sport and leisure activities can help break down artificial barriers of race and class. For me, it opened doors to my community. It integrated me in a new culture. I see in Article 24 the right to participate like anyone else in rest and leisure activities, the exact same opportunity that I took when I arrived in Cork. Last November, I read in the newspaper about a talented sixteen year-old hurler playing at corner-forward with Lucan Sarsfields. Sujon Alamgir is from Bangladesh. The article ended with him saying, 'I've played at Croke Park before for my school and I'd love to play there for Dublin at senior level.' I can't wait for that to happen. I can't wait to see players from Nigeria or Russia, Poland or the Philippines turning out at Croke Park in their county colours. And you can be sure it's going to happen. One in ten people living here today was born outside Ireland. Increasingly, sporting organisations like the GAA, the FAI, the IRFU and others are working to ensure that integration and anti-racism are not just set out in worthy policy documents, but that they have a reality at national and local level. That they exist on playing fields and in sports centres. Sadly, the role of sporting organisations in doing this looks like it will become more and more important. In 2007, the gardaí received 180 reports of racism up from a figure of sixty-six incidents in 2004. These included damage to property, assaults, harassment and incitement to hatred. Yet funding for the Office of the Minister for Integration was cut by 26 per cent in the 2008 budget and the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) has been abolished. For decades, the GAA played a role in supporting and developing communities in rural and deprived parts of the country where the state had failed. Now, with the GAA, the people working hardest in your community to ensure our new communities are not left behind or isolated could be your local soccer coach or the people running swimming lessons. Through that kind of participation, I believe the real promise of Article 24 in Ireland will be realised by ensuring that we all have access to rest and leisure activities with people new to our country.
	posté par Michael Cusacks