GAA president Jarlath Burns has criticised protesters who disrupted the association's annual congress at Croke Park over its sponsorship deal with Allianz.
Congress was briefly adjourned on Saturday after protesters entered the Hogan Stand. The interruption followed an earlier demonstration outside Croke Park calling for the GAA to end its relationship with Allianz over alleged links between its parent company and Israel. In recent months several county boards have passed motions urging Croke Park to sever ties with the insurer, indicating that the issue has moved beyond fringe activism into mainstream association politics.
Allianz has been title partner of the GAA National Leagues since the early 1990s and, in January 2025, agreed a five-year extension taking the deal through to the 2030 season. The agreement will bring the partnership to at least 33 years of duration.
Alongside naming rights to the Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues, the insurer's Irish operation sponsors the Camogie Association, post-primary schools competitions and the Allianz Cumann na mBunscol primary schools programme. It also runs an affinity scheme offering discounted motor and home insurance to GAA members and supporters.
The Gaelic games provide a central platform for brand visibility and customer acquisition. The company writes several hundred million euro of non‑life premium annually across motor, property and liability lines, according to recent market filings, and its GAA portfolio forms part of a wider global sports sponsorship strategy that includes Olympic TOP partner status and naming rights for major stadiums and teams.
The latest flashpoint followed an internal review of the Allianz deal triggered in 2024 after 100s of current and former players signed an open letter calling on the GAA to drop the sponsor. The letter referred to Albanese’s UN report, which names Allianz SE among a number of financial institutions it says are linked through investments or services to Israeli defence companies and activities in the occupied territories.
In response, the GAA’s Coiste Bainistíochta asked its Ethics and Integrity Commission (EIC) to examine the relationship. After several months of work, the EIC recommended that the GAA retain Allianz as a commercial partner. The management committee accepted that recommendation at the end of 2025 and confirmed that the sponsorship would continue.
The GAA has argued that Allianz’s Irish business is separately regulated, compliant with domestic and EU law and not directly involved in arms production or the Israeli military. Allianz, citing its group‑wide policies, has stressed adherence to applicable legal and ESG frameworks but has not commented in detail on specific investments.
When Congress resumed after the interruption, Burns delivered a strongly worded response to those who had entered the building.
“It's a bit ironic that people who are protesting against illegal occupation will come in and illegally occupy our building,” he said.
Referring to the 1975 UVF Glenanne Gang attack on Donnelly’s Bar in his home village of Silverbridge, Co Armagh, in which his friend was murdered, Burns told delegates he did not “need any lectures” on life under threat.
“Fifty years on, justice still hasn't been served for the 120 innocent Catholics who were murdered by the Glenanne Gang in a four‑year period in my area, in my community. “I don't need any lectures about what it's like to feel the pressure of illegal occupation," Burns said.
Burns added that the association had followed its internal governance process via the EIC review and should not, in his view, be “bullied or intimidated” into changing course.
The GAA president also addressed members who have aligned themselves with groups campaigning against Allianz.
“I would urge people within our own association who might have aligned ourselves with some of the people who have come in and illegally occupied our building today and tried to disrupt Congress by assaulting our staff members and the people who are here to protect us, just to examine their own consciences and to work out, are they doing the right thing?" he said. “Because we went through a process, we have our Congress to go through, and I would not be bullied or intimidated by anybody who would come in here and try and do so... We have made our decision and Congress goes on."
