Yvonne McQuillan

My first port of call would always be the athlete-centric narrative.

So I don't believe that we should be asking athletes who have worked their whole lives, some of them from the age of six, eight, 10, 12, depending on whether they're in an early specialisation sport, they've been building towards competing for Ireland,

for their whole lives.

And they're getting this chance to compete for Ireland, no matter what sport it is.

And I don't think that we should be putting the onus on athletes for taking a stand politically.

If they do, that is absolutely their prerogative.

But we shouldn't be doing that.

And the other thing we shouldn't be doing is denying them the chance that they have been building towards their whole lives.

When this first erupted earlier this year, when the fixtures were announced, Ireland were actually competing against Israel a few days later and nothing was said.

But we didn't ask Rhys McLennigan or Eamonn Montgomery or James Hickey not to go and compete against the Israeli gymnast.

They all went and won medals at that World Cup event and they build up qualification points for the LA Olympics.

it would have been absolutely terrible to deny them that opportunity.

So that's my own personal view.

And my own personal view will always be informed by the athlete-centric approach.

And the other thing that informs it is the governance piece.

Sport Ireland don't have any remit here over, you know, what athletes from Ireland compete at international events.

The government also, by the way, don't have any remit there.

UEFA really is, you know, who should be making the call.

And in fairness to the FAI, they did...

put a vote out to their members and they voted in favour of bringing a motion to UEFA.