Donegal forward Oisín Gallen stars in new Game Changer campaign

Donegal and Seán MacCumhaill's  Oisín Gallen is starring in a new public awareness campaign launched this week for the Game Changer programme, spotlighting how male allyship and positive role modelling can help tackle the problem of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV).

The Game Changer programme is delivered by the GAA, in partnership with Ruhama and White Ribbon Ireland, supported by the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) and the Camogie Association.

Game Changer aims to use the positive influence of Gaelic Games to challenge the social and cultural norms and the behaviours that contribute to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) by promoting alternative behaviours, attitudes and role models, and providing people with tools and knowledge. These norms and behaviours can range from catcalling, harassment and victim-blaming, to sharing of pornography, intimate image abuse, coercive control, sexual exploitation and violence.

Game Changer ambassador Gallen stars in a series of promotional video and audio adverts now running on out-of-home, digital and social media channels throughout July, targeting 18-35-year-old men in particular as part of the new Game Changer public awareness campaign.

As part of the campaign launch, an innovative programme of events took place during the All-Ireland Football semi-final and Junior Championship Final in Croke Park on Sunday.

A 30-second video ad starring Gallen was shown on the stadium’s jumbo screens during the match to fans and invited guests, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin; Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O’Callaghan; the Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee; and Ruhama Ambassador, former Tánaiste, Minister for Justice and MEP Frances Fitzgerald.

Gallen says: “There’s incredible encouragement in the GAA on the pitch to back up your teammate and to leave no man behind. That should be the same when you’re calling out gender-based violence. If it was racism or if it was any other type of abuse, I’m sure there’d be a lot of people who’d be standing up to call out what’s wrong, so it shouldn’t be any different when it comes to gender-based violence.”

Announcing the new public awareness campaign, Jarlath Burns, Uachtarán CLG, thanked Oisín Gallen’s home club, Seán MacCumhaills in Ballybofey, for its leadership in participating in the Game Changer initiative.

The new Game Changer public awareness campaign links the GAA’s values of respect, leadership and community to the values of a Game Changer that speaks out against gender-based violence.