Special Olympics athletes have been refused permission by the GAA to carry a flag promoting the European Year of the Disabled at this year's All-Ireland finals.
The decision comes just weeks after thousands of disabled athletes competed in Croke Park during the internationally-lauded Special Olympic Games.
The decision by the GAA's management committee has infuriated the campaign's organisers: "We were really surprised by it," Ms Angela Kerins said.
The European Year of People with Disabilities flag has already been paraded at half-time during this year's European Cup rugby final in Lansdowne Road.
On that occasion, the flag was carried by 10 students from Belvedere College in Dublin and 10 members of the Irish Special Olympics team.
The large flag will again be displayed on Saturday week at the Republic of Ireland's European Championship qualifying match against Russia at the same ground.
"We are trying to create awareness about disability in any way that we can," said Ms Kerins, the chairwoman of the national co-ordinating committee of the campaign.
"The IRFU and the FAI have really supported this all the way. The FAI are not only allowing us to carry the flag out at half-time, but they are also including a piece in the match programme."
The request was made to the GAA's director general, Mr Liam Mulvihill, who brought the matter before the association's management committee in early August.
In a letter to Ms Kerins, Mr Mulvihill said: "They [the management committee] decided that they wouldn't allow any displays within Croke Park by outside bodies, since they couldn't accommodate all of the requests and they didn't feel competent to adjudicate on the merits of the various requests. I am sorry that I don't have better news for you." The decision was greeted with disappointment by the campaign's organisers.
Following this, Mr Mulvihill once again raised the matter, but the management committee would not change its mind.
The GAA's spokesman, Mr Danny Lynch, said the Tricolour, the association's own flag and the flags of competing teams are the only ones allowed on final days.This, he said, is a matter of policy. "It's done for the very simple reason that we are faced with requests like this on a daily basis," he said.
Mr Lynch said Croke Park now offers some of the best facilities in Europe for disabled sports lovers. The GAA had made Croke Park available to the Special Olympics "at huge cost" to itself since construction had to be accelerated to make sure the work was ready in time, he said.