Speech by Causeway council candidate Allister Kyle.
It’s a pleasure to have been asked to give a short address to you all with reference to sport within Northern Ireland. May I start by apologising to those of you who may not be football fans but unfortunately a lot my knowledge and background with Sport and its impact within the community is based on Irish League Football.
Modern society faces many challenges as the social fabric of our communities are breaking down, however, sport, whether its football, rugby, rowing, golf or motorcycling brings us together with civic pride and contribute to social integration as well as health and wellbeing. Sport is the key part of our DNA which brings us together as a community.
Firstly I believe that there is a lack of parity within public funding towards sports. This was highlighted in a deal made in 2011 between the DUP and Sinn Fein, that saw Football get £25m for the redevelopment of Windsor Park, £14.7m for Rugby at Ravenhill, and a massive £61.4m for Casement Park, a figure which the GAA plan in lobbying Stormont to get increased to closer to £110m. This for a Stadium that local nationalist neighbours don’t even want built so close to their homes.
Sinn Féin’s motto for the last few years has been respect, equality & integrity, yet the sport they so often champion is based on none of these points and indeed encourage division.
Sport should never be used as a political football, pardon the pun, sports teams, grounds & competitions should never be named after terrorists or terror campaigns, all public funding to these organisations need to be stopped immediately until they withdraw their blinkered views and become more inclusive for all of society this includes rewriting their constitution to address the same.
Speaking on Irish League Football, I believe Football, during the Troubles and since, has done more to unite different communities and traditions than any other organisation, within or outside of sport, with most clubs in Northern Ireland having players, coaches and most importantly supporters from all sections of life in our country. These people play together, coach each other, laugh together and cry together. Many local football clubs are indeed a community within themselves. We at Coleraine have 43 employees, 99 volunteers and 589 players including our ladies team, and had a combined total attendance of 42,600 people over the course of our 19 home league matches last season.
Our newly elected and re elected councillors need to do all within their powers to encourage and insure our councils support applications towards the third trunch of Westminsters levelling up fund for sports within their council areas. The positive impact on commerce linked to sports is massive, for our club alone a recent independent report, Social Return on Investment by UEFA, Europe’s football governing body, states Coleraine FC contribute over £5.53 million into the local economy annually through community benefit.
We should be proud of our Councillors elect who are deeply involved and regularly attend local sport, be it Norman Boyd and Glenn Moore at their beloved Linfield, Matthew Armstrong as Chairman of my clubs fiercest rivals Ballymena United, and also not to forget the many of you who are involved at sport at grassroots level, such as Stewart McDonald at Ahoghill Thistle. Perhaps too many times the party is viewed by many on ‘The Single Important Issues’ and many people forget our members care greatly for sport within Northern Ireland at all levels, I believe it’s the job of our incoming councillors to show that as a party, not only do we feel strongly about our constitutional position but for the evolution of sports and sports facilities within our community.