OVER 200 IRISH athletes have signed an open letter declaring their solidarity with the Palestinian people and calling for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza”.

More than 23,000 people have been killed, and more than 59,000 injured, by Israel’s military campaign in response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, according to the health ministry in the Gaza Strip.

The letter comes in advance of an Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign march due to take place in Dublin on Saturday. 

The signatories are drawn from across Irish sport with household names including GAA, LGFA and Camogie All-Ireland winners, former Ireland soccer and rugby internationals, and representatives from horse racing, athletics, boxing, swimming, MMA and tennis.

“We have come together as members of the Irish sporting community to show our solidarity with the Palestinian people and to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” the letter from Irish Sport for Palestine begins.

Among the signatories from the world of Gaelic games are a host of All-Ireland winners from all four codes, including Dublin’s Michael Darragh Macauley, Bernard Brogan, Paul Flynn, Mick Fitzsimons, Philly McMahon and Rory O’Carroll, and Derry’s Joe Brolly; Limerick hurling four-in-a-row winners Sean Finn and Darragh O’Donovan; Dublin ladies footballer Sarah McCaffrey; and 2015 All-Ireland winning Cork camogie captain Ashling Thompson.

Former Ireland soccer manager Brian Kerr is joined by former internationals Kevin Moran and James McClean, while the list also includes former Ireland rugby internationals Keith Earls, Jerry Flannery and Tony Ward among others.

As well as encouraging Irish sports people, clubs, and the Irish government to take action in support of Palestine, the group has also urged Sport Ireland, the Olympic Federation of Ireland, and other Irish governing bodies to call for an international investigation with a view to imposing sporting sanctions on Israel.