GAA action to return in Northern Ireland first as club activity gets green light from April 12
The GAA's Covid Advisory group has cleared the way for GAA club activity to resume in Northern Ireland from April 12.
Following last week's decision by the Northern Ireland executive to permit non-contact training for groups of 15 for outdoor sports, the Covid Advisory group has given the green light for adult and underage club team to start back training.
It will, in all probability, create a divergence between clubs north and south of the border as it's not expected that the same liberty will be afforded to adult club teams in the south until May.
There had been some calls to retain a 32-county approach but the Covid Advisory Group feels it is right to allow activity when the opportunity for some has arisen.
The Government is due to outline some of their plans to relax restrictions on Tuesday of next week and the hope is that inter-county and underage teams will get clearance to return, despite the rise in Covid cases over the last week.
Inter-county teams in the six counties have clearance to train from the authorities at present but not the GAA.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin suggested in an interview that the focus would be outdoors for any restrictions lifted, pointing to a potential policy change for sport.
If inter-county does get the go-ahead from April 5 or April 12, the most probable scenario is for the leagues, over four to five weekends from early May until early to mid June, being followed by a knock-out championship in football and a championship with qualifiers in hurling, like 2020, concluding in early to mid August.
The news for the 180 Ulster club and county units came on a day when they were notified that they would be in receipt of almost €6m in grants from the Northern Ireland's Sports Sustainability fund to help offset some of the financial impact of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the death has occurred of PJ McGrath, the referee in charge of the 1982 All-Ireland final that saw Offaly halt Kerry's bid for five-in-row with a controversial late goal from Seamus Darby. The Mayo man served as his county board's chairman and president of the Connacht Council in the past.
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