Footballer found guilty over airport bomb joke

A LEITRIM footballer who joked about having a bomb in his luggage has been found guilty of disorderly conduct by a New York court.

Ciaran Murray, 27, was ordered to do 70 hours community service and fined $250 by Queens Criminal Court.

Although he works as a sales rep in Dublin, the community service must be done in the United States.

Mr Murray had originally been charged with filing a false incident and faced a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.

The Leitrim player made his unfortunate remarks two weeks ago while leaving John F Kennedy Airport after his team’s Connacht Championship victory over New York. When a piece of luggage fell out, Mr Murray told a security officer there was a bomb in the bag.

The officer did not appreciate the joke and Mr Murray was detained and later charged over the incident. After missing his scheduled flight, he came home on the next available flight.

He later apologised for the remarks, saying that his comments were “downright silly and wrong” and “a foolish attempt at humour”.

Murray is from the Sean O Heslin’s club and is an established member of the Leitrim team, having played at centre-back in last year’s championship.

Injury kept him out of the starting 15 in the match against New York, but he came in as a substitute at centre-forward.

The Leitrim County Board has already stated that it sees no reason to take any further action against him.

“There will be no sanction of the player from the board. The attitude of people who say he should be dropped off the panel is not the attitude of those on the inside. It was an innocent comment and Ciaran did publish a contrite apology,” county chairman Michael McGowan said last week.

He added: “As a nation, we tend to pass semi-smart comments, but having spoke with the policeman involved, he was not prepared to listen to the idea that it was an innocent remark.”