Dromid question timing of picture

By John Fogarty

Friday, February 10, 2012

Dromid Pearses chairman Mike Sheehan has questioned the timing of a published photograph from last month’s All-Ireland club JFC semi-final against Derrytresk.

The photograph, believed to be taken by Derrytresk club member Eddie O’Neill, was carried in a national newspaper yesterday.

It shows Pearses’ Kerry centre-forward Declan O’Sullivan involved in an altercation with what appears to be a Derrytresk substitute at the end of the game.
"It’s three weeks now since the game," said Sheehan. "Why is this photograph only appearing now? That’s the only thing I’d wonder about."

Sheehan refused to make any further comment in light of the club’s upcoming Central Hearing Committee meeting.

The Kerry club are contesting their €2,500 fine as well as the proposed suspensions for two of their three cited players.

The Tyrone club believe Dromid Pearses contributed to the "media onslaught", as described by Tyrone chairman Ciaran McLaughlin, against them in the wake of the controversial game in Portlaoise.

Last month, Derrytresk player Kevin Campbell, who was later handed a four-week suspension for behaving "in any way which is dangerous to an opponent, said Pearses had "got their story out first and people jumped to conclusions.

"Automatically, because we’re from Tyrone and it’s happened here before [people blame us]."

On the basis of the photograph alone, it’s unlikely O’Sullivan will face any disciplinary action.

Speaking last year about another incident caught in a photograph, GAA communications manager Alan Milton said: "A photograph is an instant moment and there is the possibility it could be misrepresentative of what exactly happened.
"I’ve never known it to be used as primary evidence. Maybe it could be to support video evidence, but certainly not on its own."

Any photograph used as evidence would also have to be unedited.

Earlier this week, it emerged that a female who had struck O’Sullivan with a handbag had been banned from the GAA for 48 weeks.

Meanwhile, as anticipated, Derrytresk have decided to appeal their five-year ban from provincial and All-Ireland club competitions.

Their appeal will be heard by the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, February 10, 2012