A Fermanagh priest, who is a key figure in the Gaels Against Genocide campaign, has called on the Roman Catholic Church to end its connection with insurance giant Allianz.
Aghadrumsee-based Fr Gabriel Dolan claimed that the Church was spending an estimated £20m with the company.
This call follows several calls for the GAA to end its association with Allianz in a six-month campaign that has seen major protests at grounds all over the country as well as an ‘incursion’ by protestors to the GAA’s Annual Congress in February.
Fermanagh County Board are one of eleven counties who have called on the GAA to end the connection, but this was rejected by GAA bosses.
Fr. Dolan told The Impartial Reporter that he was calling on his own church to end the association with the company.
“Father Joe McVeigh and I have been working on a scenario to get the church to drop its commitments to Allianz, who are the main insurer of our property in Ireland.
“We thought the GAA would have been the most suitable organisation with its nationwide reach and they could have been an incentive for others to follow.
“But that hasn’t happened, but maybe when the season is over the GAA might get out of it and this protest is not going away, and it will only be a bigger embarrassment for them.
He claimed: "“The church has been giving £20m to Allianz every year.
“We are setting up an organisation in tandem with a global organisation called “Priests Against Genocide”, and the Association of Catholic Priests are on to it.
“We want to build that up, but we also want to provide them with alternatives if they are viable.
‘We plan to talk to bishops and other church leaders, and by January they could be in a position to switch to a new insurer.
Meanwhile, last Sunday (June 21), protestors were perched high on a hill at the O’Duffy Terrace end of the pitch in Clones during the Monaghan V Westmeath All-Ireland Round Three tie on a sweltering day in the Monaghan town.
They were forbidden from gaining entrance via a narrow strip of land that is owned by Monaghan County Council adjacent to the private field they occupied with the consent of the owner.
The Council had earlier sent a number of warning letters to protestors, thretening arrest by Gardai.
However, a number of activists did manage to gain entry to the private property and stood with the banner.
Activists handed out leaflets to fans attending the game, and a Palestinian flag also flew from the site where they gathered around a huge banner called ‘Allianz Amach’ looked down on the frantic action on the pitch.
There was a minimal Garda presence while the protest lasted on the hill looking over the pitch.
Fr Dolan said the turnout for Clones was small and claimed that a few may have been put off by the explicit threat of arrest if they tried to access the field to a tiny strip of land that was owned by the council.
“But the gardai did not bother us, but I would say that the pre-publicity and stir raised could be an embarrassment to them if they got heavy-handed.
But he vowed to continue to keep up the protest and said there would be a demonstration in Croke Park when Tyrone would be playing next weekend.
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