The 42

ACCORDING TO figures provided last month by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 45,000 people have now died as a result of the conflict with Israel.

That number included 17,000 children and as the conflict enters its 15th month, there appears to be no end in sight.

Given the experience of bloodshed under British colonial rule, it is a conflict that has resonated with Irish citizens.

Inevitably, many people prefer not to speak on this issue – several individuals approached for this article either declined or did not respond to requests for comment.

But some within the Irish sporting community have refused to stay silent.

Shelbourne assistant boss and former Irish international footballer Joey O’Brien is one man who has consistently protested the treatment of Palestinians in recent months, wearing t-shirts, hats and badges to show solidarity with the oppressed nation.

“It’s a personal thing,” he tells The 42. “It’s not tied in with anyone else at the football club.” 

O’Brien says he understands why many within Irish football and beyond are reluctant to speak about this controversial issue.

“When you start getting into the politics of it, if you take yourself down that road, it can open yourself up to being labelled with certain things and taking certain sides.

“But I’ve never gone into the politics side of it, I just see the humanitarian side of things, and what’s going on to a people, what’s going on to men, women and children.

I just see what’s going on. It’s an absolute disgrace, they’re trying to wipe out a population.”

The former West Ham and Bolton player has been following the conflict for years but one story in particular hit home.

It concerned a husband whose wife had recently given birth to twins. He left home to get their birth certificates and while travelling, got a phone call to say his apartment had been bombed, resulting in the death of these babies.

O’Brien is also a parent to twins and can vividly recall the joy he felt in the days after their birth.

“I’m sure that chap probably had that same feeling to me,” he says. “[That story] just really touched me.

“At that stage, I didn’t care what people thought. Whether people thought: ‘Jaysus, he shouldn’t be talking about this. He’s involved in sport. He shouldn’t get involved in that.’

“For me, it was more important than anything at that moment.”

O’Brien is aware that the war has produced countless similarly tragic stories and is grateful to have been able to have avoided such hardship in his life.

Without wanting to pressure others in football to follow suit, he is hopeful his voice can make a small difference.

“I wouldn’t say: ‘People should be doing this and that.’ Everyone has their own opinion on it or no opinion on it — it doesn’t affect [some] people at all.

“But it’s important to me. And luckily, I have a small platform. So it allowed me to do something, to raise awareness and keep it out there.

“And I think it’s important to keep out there because it hasn’t stopped and hasn’t changed and it’s still going on into the winter months. And there’s a feeling that they’re being left to die.

“What can I do? Not a lot. But if we keep it out there, maybe one or two more people might get on board, and [increase] the attention on it.”

Shelbourne manager Damien Duff and assistant manager Joey O’Brien, wearing his Palestinian hat, bring the League of Ireland trophy into the changing room after the Derry game. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

O’Brien is far from the only sports personality unwilling to stay silent.

It is just under a year since an open letter was published declaring solidarity with the Palestinian people and calling for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza”.

It was signed by over 200 athletes including All-Ireland winners, as well as rugby and soccer internationals.

Twelve months on, over 350 sports personalities have signed this letter as the crisis deepens.

Irish Sport for Palestine, established a little over a year ago, were the organisation behind this initiative.

“It is essentially a group of athletes present and past who came together and said they can’t be silent on what’s going on and need to speak out, use a platform, basically put pressure on Israel wherever we can,” says ex-Irish basketball international Rebecca O’Keeffe who has also played in the Superleague with Trinity Meteors.

O’Keeffe has similarly played GAA to a high level, winning county and provincial club football titles plus reaching an All-Ireland semi-final with Na Fianna of Meath, and getting to the same stage in camogie in 2023.

In addition to regularly competing in amateur sports, O’Keeffe is an author, researcher, and activist specialising in feminism, civil resistance movements and transitional justice.

“Essentially, organisations or individuals will hire me to carry out various work,” she explains.

“I think being a woman in sports, you are exposed to a lot of injustices and unfairness. But even just being a woman in society, I always had kind of a social justice head.”

After undertaking an English and Sociology degree at undergraduate level, O’Keeffe also completed a master’s in International Peace Studies at Trinity College.

While activism and sport might not appear a neat fit, these two passions intersected for the Meath native in November 2023.

Initially, she called on the International Basketball Federation [FIBA] to suspend Israel from competing – citing a similar punishment previously enforced on Russia and Belarus owing to their roles in the war in Ukraine.

Then, she called on Basketball Ireland not to fulfil a EuroBasket qualifier, which took place last February in Riga, Latvia, after they took a similar stand for a match against Belarus.

Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan publicly defended the decision to proceed with the fixture, claiming a boycott would not “make a blind bit of difference”.

Israel eventually won the controversial clash 87-57, which was played behind closed doors amid security concerns.

Ireland were subsequently issued an official warning by FIBA Europe for “unsportsmanlike conduct”.

It had been a tense occasion. After Israeli player Dor Saar accused the Irish side of being “quite anti-Semitic,” Ireland refused handshakes with their opponents and stood by their bench during the national anthems.

The Ireland and Israel teams pictured before their game last February.

O’Keeffe initially felt her calls to boycott the fixture were being largely ignored. However, when groups such as Irish Sport for Palestine and IPSC (Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign) got involved, the situation attracted substantial publicity.

“And so I became more involved in Irish Sport for Palestine [as a result],” she adds.

Her close ties to the Irish basketball community made it tough for O’Keeffe to challenge the decision to persist with the Israel fixture.

“Morally, it wasn’t difficult,” she says. “I could speak out, but I also was not on the international team, so I had less to lose by speaking out because I wasn’t on the team. But it is a small community, and I felt a bit isolated. I mean, some people did support [me] but were quite private in some of their support.

“I got a lot of abuse for it. But I will say this, whatever I go through, or whatever anyone else goes through is nothing compared to people in Palestine, nothing compared to people in Lebanon. 

“I would do everything all over again if it meant it raised some awareness or moved the dial even a little bit because I don’t think we can be silent and we need to do something, and that’s just what I believe in.”

O’Keeffe says she has been met with silence any time she has tried to communicate with the sport’s authority figures.

Still, she has been heartened by the response from some within the game — five Irish stars refused to participate in the Israel fixture.

“Those players who boycotted were amazing, and there was a return fixture in November, and that was fulfilled. Again, certain players were not playing, which, we can commend if it was for the political reasons of the boycott.

“I also don’t want to judge the players who did play, because they were in an awful position. And I’ve always said it should have been the organisations who should have acted decisively.

“But we did contact FIBA based on the behaviour that Israel had displayed because it violated so many different regulations and rules of sporting charters. But we were met with silence again because the player who falsely accused us of being anti-semitic was rostered — she was playing. So where was the procedure? Where was the sanctioning there?”

Aside from the open letter, O’Keeffe and her colleagues at Irish Sport for Palestine are working on several other initiatives.

They have helped organise cycles in Dublin, Cork and Belfast with the Gaza Sunbirds, a Palestinian para-cycling team.

Last month, they arranged a Run for Gaza with Right to Movement Palestine, a social running group.

A Palestine flag at the Derry vs Armagh All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Round 2 fixture at Celtic Park earlier this year. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO

There is also a push to rename Rathgar-based Herzog Park to Hind Rajab Park — after a five-year-old girl killed by the Israeli military on 29 January last year along with several of her relatives.

The plan also encompasses using the name Bakr Family Football Pitch after four young boys killed by the Israeli military as they played football on a beach in Gaza in 2014.

As the petition explains: “The park is currently named after Chaim Herzog who grew up in Dublin and later emigrated to Mandatory Palestine where he joined the Haganah Zionist Paramilitary Group in 1935. Herzog played a role in suppressing the Palestinian Revolution and served in the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) after the Nakba where he rose to the rank of Major-General. He was the president of Israel from 1983-1993.”

The proposal has attracted significant support, including thousands of signatories.

Meanwhile, Lajee Celtic, a football academy based in Palestine, and the Green Brigade fans’ group have been hosting public talks around Ireland.

In addition, GAA Palestine set up various clubs across the West Bank, while Gaels Against Genocide in Gaza last month hosted a hurling match. 

While the situation in Palestine remains bleak, O’Keeffe is optimistic that meaningful change can be enacted, and like O’Brien, hopes to play a small part in this growing movement.

“Of course, we’re despairing. Of course, we’re angry and upset, we’re every single emotion.

“But we also have to keep showing up, because Palestinians don’t get that luxury. If someone is despondent, there’s a whole community around you to bring you up again. We all lean on each other.

“And I guess that’s what we learn from sport. Sport is such a lovely community of people working together. Dedication, values and principles — that’s what community is. And we need to lean into that more than ever.

“We need to double down on our efforts more than ever, because this isn’t ending anytime soon, and we can see blatantly the hypocrisy of all these leaders and organisations, and if we don’t demand change, nothing is going to happen.”

Written by Paul Fennessy and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.