The controversy that has erupted around plans for a new stadium at the Casement Park site in west Belfast has exposed the degree to which a system of community patronage regulates every aspect of politics in the north.  It also shows how this system has become more entrenched as the peace process has progressed. The very fact that there are plans for a separate Gaelic sports stadium shows this to be the case.  

It should be remembered that the original vision was for the development of a new stadium at the former Maze site that would be the shared home of northern Gaelic games, soccer and rugby. This project was to be one of the pillars of the shared future strategy.   However, political wrangling around a peace centre (or “shrine to terrorism” from the unionist viewpoint) on the site saw this project abandoned and replaced with a plan for the upgrading of three already existing stadiums (Ravenhill, Windsor and Casement) – one for each sport.   The redevelopment funds were split between the three stadium projects, with £70m being allocated for Casement.  

What the demise of the Maze plan highlights is the the decay of the political settlement. As this advances further - and the executive fails to function as a government in any meaningful way - its management has become more dependent on these type of carve ups.  The token gestures towards integration and equality (such as the shared sports stadium) have been abandoned. Within this framework a stadium is not primarily about sport but rather the patronage that flows to the community that most identifies with the sport it hosts.  So Casement Park - as a venue for Gaelic games - becomes part of the patronage that is reserved for nationalism.  The imperative of accessing that patronage for “our community” overrides everything else.   It is only with reference to the dynamics of the broader political settlement that the drive by Sinn Fein, its sports minister Carál Ní Chuilín and the GAA to push ahead with plans for a new stadium at Casement Park - despite the concerns over economic sustainability and even public safety - can be understood.   In this it resembles the Red Sky case where the DUP was prepared to ignore evidence of fraud on the basis that an east Belfast company with a mainly Protestant workforce was being denied its slice of procurement contracts.  A similar dynamic is at work in each. In both cases whistleblowers are sidelined or punished. The ministers have absolute impunity no matter what their behaviour and corruption continues unchecked.

Casement Park plans

The most glaring aspect of the plans for the new Casement Park stadium is how out of proportion they are - not only for what can be accommodated at the site but also for the needs of Ulster Gaelic games.  The proposal is for a “provincial” stadium that can accommodate 38,000 spectators.   Yet there is only one game in the season - Ulster Football Championship (UFC) final - that would be seen by crowds exceeding 30,000.   Average attendance at UFC semi-finals was less than 17,000 while UFC quarter-final fixtures generated crowds of less than 13,000.  Outside of these games the stadium would struggle to attract crowds of anywhere close to 5,000.  So on face of it the GAA appears to be proposing the construction of a stadium that will only be fully utilised once a season.   When we consider that there is already a provincial stadium in Ulster (St Tiernach's Park in Clones) that has a capacity of 36,000 the plan for another one in Belfast seems completely unnecessary.  

From the perspective of sports developmental the £70m available to the GAA could be much more effectively used in the refurbishment of club facilities across the north rather than being poured into a stadium in Belfast.   However, when seen in terms of community patronage, the Casement Park project makes perfect sense - drawing down the maximum amount of finance into the constituency in the north that has the highest level of support for Sinn Fein.   As a large scale building project it would also tend to favour that significant section of the nationalist business class whose interests are bound up with construction and property development.  It is this alignment of political and economic interests that is pushing hardest for the Casement Park plans. 

The project also reflects the increasingly corporate orientation of the GAA which is seen in such things as the Sky Sports deal and the increasing use of facilities for commercial purposes.  Given the expected underuse of the new stadium as a sporting venue there was an expectation that it would regularly host other events such as music concerts.   

Flawed plans

The problem for Sinn Fein and the GAA is that there is significant opposition to the Casement project in west Belfast, particularly from those who would be living closest to the new stadium.   This has been spearheaded by the local Mooreland and Owenvarragh Residents’ Association (Mora).  It scored a significant legal victory when planning permission for the stadium was overturned in December 2014.  

The Belfast High Court ruled that the decision to grant planning permission was “fundamentally flawed”.  These flaws included - using a 32,600 capacity baseline analysis at the current ground where attendances have been far lower; not properly examining the effect of bigger crowds on the surrounding roads network; a failure to inform the Environment Minister about safety concerns; no assessment being made of the impact on local residents of extra stadium facilities; and a failure to engage with home owners about the risk of asbestos escaping from the site during demolition and building work.

Safety concerns

The degree  to which safety concerns have been disregarded in relation the Casement Park project came to light earlier this year when the BBC obtained minutes from a meeting of the Safety Technical Group (STG) from November 2014.  This body had been put together to supervise various safety issues around the new stadium.  The minutes revealed that advisers were concerned at the amount of time it could take to exit the ground in the event of an emergency.  Reference was made to claim by the GAA that it had conducted studies to show that 38,000 spectators could get to a place of safety within eight minutes.   However, it produced no evidence for such a claim and was unable to identify “any stadium in Great Britain with similar exiting arrangements".  The view of the STG was that the plans submitted by the GAA “did not comply” which the safety industry's standard recommendations.  Despite not having safety approval for its plans the GAA went ahead with a planning application and appointed a contractor. 

The pressures that were being exerted on officials over safety issues was revealed most dramatically when a number of civil servants who had been part of the STG gave evidence to Stormont’s Culture Committee in April and July of this year.  Paul Scott from Sport NI told the committee that that he had put under "undue pressure" to approve plans for the new ground by officials from the sports minister's department despite an assessment that a 38,000-capacity stadium could not be evacuated safely, and that there was the potential for a disaster like the Hillsborough stadium tragedy.  He claimed that an email was received from the department that made it clear “our comments were at odds with the requirements." Paul Scott believed that his view on the safety issues surrounding the stadium had resulted in him being   “sidelined and gagged”.  He also claimed that the GAA had "made a number of accusations about Sport NI officers on the STG" including that the group had treated the Casement Park project differently to the development at Windsor Park and Ravenhill.  Although unstated the clear insinuation by the GAA is that the officials who rejected their plans were motivated by sectarianism.   

In a second appearance before the Culture Committee Paul Scott claimed that he was told by GAA and DCAL officials that they would use their access to high-ranking police officers to have a police safety report changed.   The gist of the argument put to Sport NI officials was that “if we get the police to change their views, then the other emergency services will follow suit. You guys are going to be left on your own and you will look very foolish.”  Scott’s claims of pressure being exerted by officials was supported by second Sport NI safety officer.  Laura Strong said she was left feeling “quite shaken” after a meeting at a Belfast hotel last year with officials from the GAA, the stadium design team and civil servants from DCAL.  According to her she and her Sport NI colleague faced a “barrage of abuse” when they outlined their concerns about emergency exiting arrangements at the proposed stadium.

The GAA response to these serious claims was contemptuous, dismissing them as nothing more than “HR grievance matter within Sport NI”.  Sinn Fein’s sports minister Carál Ní Chuilín was full of bluster saying that she “didn't sit in a room with potential developers and contractors scheming up a grubby scheme with millions of pounds” and accusing critics of the Casement project of pursuing an “anti-GAA” agenda.  She denied that safety advice had been ignored or suppressed and claimed that she had only became aware of safety concerns in April of 2015.   This claim is utterly risible.  The minister’s former permanent secretary admitted at another Culture Committee meeting, that the department was aware of concerns regarding emergency exiting arrangements as far back as late 2013. In June last year Sport NI's chief executive spoke publicly of issues with emergency exiting.  Safety issues were also part of the judgement in the planning permission case in November 2014 (a case to which the Department of Culture had attached itself as an interested party).     

Push

Despite the serious safety concerns surrounding the Casement Park project the Sinn Fein and the GAA are determined to press ahead. NíChuilín has declared that construction on the stadium will commence during her period as sports minister, while GAA president Paráic Duffy has stated that “whatever it takes, we're going to get it done."

One element of this is to counter the opposition to the stadium plan from local residents.   To this end a new residents' group supporting plans to redevelop Casement Park has been set up.  Chaired by Bridghídín Heenan, a recent chairwoman of Ulster Camogie, the Andersonstown Regeneration Committee (ARC) claims to be "totally separate" from the GAA.   Among those also involved in ARC is prominent republican Séanna Walsh, the man who in 2005 read the IRA statement announcing the end of its armed campaign.   Addressing doubts over its authenticity Bridghídín  Heenan emphasised that the new residents' group had not been "orchestrated" by anyone, and that while she had "personal friends" in Sinn Féin she was not involved in any political party.

The second element in the renewed push for a new stadium was a political fix provided by the British government.  In the wake of the revelations over safety issues Carál Ní Chuilín brought in the Cabinet Office to conduct a review.   It found that relations behind the scenes on the project were "broken" and recommended the replacement of senior officials from key posts in the project.  Those to be replaced included Sport NI’s Paul Scott. The Cabinet Office review also suggested that plans for Casement Park were compliant with safety regulations.  However, this was shot down when a safety authority referred to in the review distanced itself from some of its claims.   In a letter sent to Stormont's Culture committee the Sports Ground Safety Authority said that they had been asked general questions and were not asked to comment in detail on the specifics of the Casement plans.  It reiterated the standard guideline that in the new stadium, the exit routes should "allow all spectators to exit the stadium in an emergency without having to exit onto the pitch".

However, the questioning of the Cabinet Office review, has not deterred the DCAL in pressing ahead with its recommendations.   In October, Paul Scott was replaced as chair of the safety technical group (STG) by former Strabane council chief executive Danny McSorley.   This was justified by the minister on the basis that the “skill-set” of the chair had been “redefined”.   In November, it was announced that senior DCAL official, Rory Miskelly, would be taking up a full time paid post with the GAA to oversee the Casement Park redevelopment project.  At the same time it was reported that the GAA was prepared to scale back on the capacity of the new stadium.  All these manoeuvres point to the high level of co-ordination between the Stormont bureaucracy and the GAA in the renewed effort to push through the Casement Park project.   

Opposition 

One of the welcome developments during the controversy over Casement Park has been the emergence of opposition to Sinn Fein in its west Belfast stronghold.   While has included challenges by disgruntled residents and GAA members its clearest manifestation has been the electoral successes of People Before Profit’s Gerry Carroll.  His election to Belfast Council undoubtedly owed much to his support for the residents.  It also fed into his strong showing in the general election - though the size of his vote (7,000) also indicated a broader disillusionment with Sinn Fein.  With the austerity drive being racked up in the north this disillusionment likely to grow.  The problem, just as it is in other parts of Europe, is that this support for an alternative is attaching itself to political vehicles that can’t pose a real challenge. 

People Before Profit (PB4P) is an electoral front for the SWP and holds to that group’s perspective of building a broad left platform.   But as this platform has Sinn Fein as its main element how can PB4P really challenge them?  In practice it doesn’t.   We see this from the Gerry Carroll campaigns in west Belfast in which he has opposed austerity in general without highlighting the complicity of Sinn Fein.  They are still viewed as a party that socialists can work with.   It is notable that Carroll had little to say around the most recent revelations relating to Casement Park despite being so closely identified with the issue.   

This is just one example of a broader problem that extends across much of the socialist movement. Their lack of understanding of the political dynamics of the northern statelet means that they accept the peace process and its institutions and set themselves the task of moving it to the left by winning seats in the Stormont assembly. Sectarianism is seen as a problem of individual attitudes rather than a characteristic of the state and its structures.   Building a broad movement means an uncritical relationship with Sinn Fein and sections of the trade union bureaucracy. This policy breaks down on the small scale when faced with the determination of the state to sanctify corruption. It breaks down on the grand scale with the acceptance of the Fresh Start agreement by their erstwhile allies – the living standards of the workers play second fiddle to maintaining Stormont and the system of sectarian privileges. A socialist challenge to austerity and sectarianism therefore can only be based on opposition to the political settlement as a whole, not just elements of it.