A DUBLIN GAA club that raised around €9,000 to help cover the costs of 47 Palestinians from the West Bank on a GAA tour of Ireland has said it is devastated that the group has had their visas refused.

Irish immigration officials in Ireland’s embassy in Tel Aviv, which was handling the visa applications for 33 children and 14 accompanying mentors, informed the group yesterday that they were being refused on the grounds of “insufficient documentation”.

The trip was being organised by GAA Palestine, an organisation which works with GAA clubs that have been established in the West Bank.

As part of their tour here, the Palestinian children were to play friendly hurling games against clubs in different counties, as well as visits to the beach and Dublin Zoo, and an exclusive tour of Croke Park given by GAA President Jarlath Burns.

Sinead Lupton, the coaching officer with Good Counsel Liffey Gaels GAA & Camogie Club in Dublin 8, had been organising for the children to stay with club members on the nights of 20 and 21 July. 

She said that every host family had gone through the usual Garda vetting process for each person over the age of 16 in the hosting households, and that a detailed itinerary for those dates of the trip was provided as part of the visa application process.

“We’ve been fundraising and preparing for weeks. We had a pub quiz that raised over €2,000 and we had a sponsored run on our pitch where volunteers ran the equivalent of the length of Gaza. In total, our club raised €9,000,” she said.

Lupton said that the club’s members are devastated, but still hopeful that something can be done to facilitate the trip doing ahead.

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“These children have been let down again and again. This is about having them here to play sports and experience Irish culture, and it’s also about a cultural exchange – we had activities planned involving Palestinian culture for our kids too,” she said.

“We’re angry that we couldn’t make this happen as a country after clubs like ours put in so much effort, as well as the group in the West Bank, and we hope a solution can be found,” she said.

GAA Palestine had said that it had a team of volunteers ready to supply the Irish Immigration Service with whatever documentation it may need.

The organisation is asking the Irish Government to work with them to ensure the GAA tour can go ahead.