Aontú leader joins Derry calls for visas for GAA Palestine children

It is looking increasingly unlikely the GAA Palestine Summer Tour of Ireland 2025 will go ahead due to the refusal of Irish immigration officials to grant visas for the 47 Palestinian participants - including 33 children aged between nine and 16.. 

More than 100 families had volunteered to host the group which was due to arrive in Dublin on July 18, with GAA clubs all over Ireland fundraising for the tour.

According to its organisers, the aim of the “inspiring cultural and sporting exchange” was to “foster friendship, solidarity, cultural understanding, and athletic development among young athletes from Tulkarm, Ramallah, Jenin, Beit, Lahm, and Al Khalil”.

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Subject to British Government approvals the Tour was due to visit Derry and Belfast before returning to Dublin and flying back to Palestine on August 1. 

The refusal of visas was raised in Dáil Éireann on Thursday morning by Aontu leader Peadar Tóibín TD.

Challenging Tánaiste Simon Harris TD, Mr Tobin said: “We have 33 Palestinian children from the GAA Palestine Project, and it is very obvious there is a two tier approach, because those two groups of individuals have a completely materially different experience in relation to this. I would ask that he could formally ask the Minster for Justice to intervene in relation to this and to see that the visas could be provided for these children.”

Derry City and Strabane District councillors, Emma McGinley, who is also PRO of Sean Dolan’s GAC in the city, and Shaun Harkin (People Before Profit) expressed “disgust” at the “refusal of visas for 47 young people to travel to Ireland to participate in Gaelic Games.

Along with scores of Gaels across Derry, both councillors wrote to Ireland’s Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan TD; the letter described the refusal as “undoubtedly a political decision”.

They said: The “Irish Embassy in Israel [is] causing continued delays in the processing of the applications, which were submitted in May, with an expected turnaround of four weeks.

“This was recently changed to a four to eight week turnaround, meaning plans for the trip had to be changed as not enough time would be given to apply for the visas required for the delegation to travel to the North,” they added.

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“Statistics show that in February 2025, there were 112,189 Ukrainians in the 26 Counties under refugee status," they added.

"The decision to refuse short term visas to a group of Palestinian children is a political decision, no doubt made to appease the Israeli lobby and further censor Palestinian voices,” said the councillors, who urged the Justice Minister to “review” the visa situation “as a matter of urgency, and not to be the reason these children are denied some respite from the trauma they have endured under the Israeli regime." 

Commenting on the visa controversy in a social media post, Maeve McLaughlin, director at the Bloody Sunday Trust branded the refusal of Irish immigration officials to grant the visas as “shocking”.

She added: “We at Bloody Sunday Trust were looking forward to hosting these children and young people in Derry. 

“Every effort should have been made to process the visas for these Palestinian children. This isn’t over.”