WELL-KNOWNwriter JJ Barrett is to withdraw his father's significant medal collection from the GAA museum as a mark of protest over the playing of 'God Save the Queen' in Croke Park at the Ireland-England rugby international next Saturday.

Barrett, whose famous father Joe won six All Ireland medals in the 1920s and '30s, has written to the director general of the GAA, Liam Mulvihill, asking that the 23-strong medal display, which also includes National League, Munster, Kerry county medals and a War of Independence medal, be sent back to him before the match takes place.

JJ Barrett, who himself won an All Ireland medal playing for Kerry against Roscommon in the 1962 final, told the Sunday Tribune it was with "great sadness" that he had arrived at his decision.

"I cannot reconcile the provocative words of 'God Save The Queen' being sung in the very stadium where Michael Hogan and others died at the hands of crown forces on Bloody Sunday. The words run contrary to our constitution and I believe the GAA should have foreseen this problem when they rented out Croke Park and instead insisted on an 'England's Call' type of musical prelude - the sort we are confined to now when we play away from home, " he pointed out.

"If we accept this alternative anthem, 'Ireland's Call', as a mark of reconciliation, then surely the English followers could forego the playing of 'God Save the Queen' as a reciprocal gesture, " he added.

In his letter to Mulvihill, Barrett writes: "I believe that you as DG and the executive of the GAA also have a duty of care and a responsibility to all GAA members past and present to protect the ethos of the association to which so many have contributed down the decades.

"The arrogant war-mongering words of 'God Save the Queen' ringing out over Croke Park is surely pushing the boundaries of tolerance and common sense beyond what is expected in any republic on earth, " he stated.

Joe Barrett senior was one of the first GAA superstars, and is widely considered to be the best Gaelic football fullback of all time. The Austin Stacks clubman won All Irelands in 1924 and 1926 and again starred as captain in 1929 on the Kerry team which won four in a row between 1929 and 1932. He landed himself in trouble with his IRA comrades and his club when he handed over the Kerry captaincy in 1931 to Con Brosnan, who at that time was a captain in the Free State army.

"It caused him all sorts of trouble but he was prepared to take the consequences. Although on the other side of the Civil War divide, he felt it was right to offer the captaincy to Brosnan, whom he saw as a great Irishman."

Asked how he could reconcile his father's gesture of goodwill in that instance, he stressed:

"Both were strong republicans. That is the difference."

The plight of the two men - and another great Kerry player and IRA man, John Joe Sheehy - was recalled in JJ Barrett's best selling book In The Name Of The Game, about how former comrades in the fight against the British were brought together by their love of Gaelic football while aligned on opposite sides of the Civil War.

Barrett said it was his intention to return the medal collection to the GAA museum when the arrangement of playing rugby and soccer internationals at Croke Park was over and the possibility of such an inappropriate anthem being played there ended.

"I know from talking to people over the past while that there is a serious concern and a disbelief about what is about to happen there next weekend. I believe the GAA has scored an own goal by allowing this anthem to be sung and I hope my protest can change things even at this late stage."

DIABOLICAL DIRGES: WHICH IS MORE BLOODTHIRSTY?

God save our gracious queen, Long live our noble queen, God save the queen.

Send her victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us;

God save the queen.

O Lord, our God, arise, Scatter thine enemies And make them fall;

Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks, On thee our hopes we fix, God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store, On her be pleased to pour;

Long may she reign;

May she defend our laws, And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice, God save the queen.

Soldiers are we Whose lives are pledged to Ireland;

Some have come From a land beyond the wave Sworn to be free;

No more our ancient sire land Shall shelter the despot or the slave;

Tonight we man the gap of danger In Erin's cause, come woe or weal;

'Mid cannon's roar and rifle's peal We'll chant a soldier's song