Jack Anderson: Time to give the refs a break, and stand up for them when abuse is hurled

Particularly at underage games, if there is a parent or even a coach, who is being obnoxious towards the misfortunate ref, then don’t take the easy way out and say nothing.

Hurlers are now so fit and skilful that the game is almost impossible to referee. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Irish novelists are a global phenomenon. Crime, literary, popular fiction; you name it, Irish authors are everywhere. Sport however doesn’t feature much in modern Irish fiction. One exception is in the sublime Niall Williams novel This is Happiness. 

Williams recounts a Gaelic football match in Clare in the 1950s; a local derby, featuring violence not seen since the Vandals sacked Rome. Williams says of the referee that he was “a martyr called Tuohy, who came by bicycle and hoped to depart that way.”