'But the Irish stand with us, why don't they want us to visit?'

The Chairperson of GAA Palestine arrived in Dublin this morning to lead his appeal against the Department of Justice's decision to deny 33 Palestinian children a visa to play the national sports here in Ireland.

Due to arrive on July 18, the children and 14 mentors had planned to tour Ireland and its GAA clubs. But last Wednesday the group received an email saying their application to enter Ireland had been denied, an update which left the committee “devastated”.

Speaking to the Celt this afternoon, GAA Palestine Chairperson Stephen Redmond shared “there was lots of tears” and “disappointment”.

The group has however since “picked themselves up” and are now determined to “fight this to the very end” in the hopes of successfully campaigning to have the decision overturned.

GAA Palestine are asking the government officials to meet with them “to look at” the paperwork they first submitted to the Irish Embassy in Israel on May 19, at which time “it was accepted”.

Three weeks later after that initial submission, Mr Redmond was informed they hadn't looked at the papers “due to procedural issues around the number of children” concerned.

“The next day we were told we had to present further information in order to proceed with the visa application. We did so, we met all that criteria and the Irish embassy in Israel was then satisfied with our application bundle.”

The documents were then transferred to the Department of Justice.

“Then last Wednesday we get the email to say that they had refused all applicants. We're not pointing fingers at anyone, what we're saying here is that there is an obvious breakdown in communication. There is an error in transmission somewhere,” claims Mr Redmond.

The GAA Palestine chairperson is currently in the capital with all documentation on a hard drive with the intention of presenting it to the Department of Justice.

“We believe there is miscommunication here. We're not asking for any special privileges here, we support the government in applying the law.”

He says the group “want to work with the government departments" along with the GAA “in a constructive manner to resolve this today or tomorrow, which will then allow the children to come.”

One child from the West Bank due to come to Ireland but told their visa had been denied said to Mr Redmond: “'But the Irish stand with us, why don't they want us to visit?' How do you explain this to a child?” he asked.

Meanwhile, months of campaigning has gone into raising funds for the trip.

Bailieborough man John Donnellan visited the Moataz Sarsour GAA Club in the Al-Amari refugee camp in April where he coached the young players and showed them how to play hurling in preparation for their visit.

While there, he also helped with their visa applications.

Updates to follow.