Kerry star Galvin hit with six-month ban

ALLSTAR Paul Galvin will miss Kerry’s NFL campaign and the start of the Munster championship after receiving a six-month ban arising from an incident in a club game.

All-Ireland medal winners Galvin, and Eamonn Breen, received 24 week suspensions after an ill-tempered North Kerry championship tie between their club, Finuge, and Ballylongford on Saturday November 12. Another Finuge player, Raymond Galvin, was suspended for 16 weeks.

Paul Galvin was charged with 'conduct which discredited the association' and for verbal abuse towards the referee. He received 24 and 12 week bans with the punishments to run concurrently.

His suspension ends in early June ruling him out for the entire League campaign and the Munster championship opener against Waterford on May 21. No decision has been taken yet on whether to appeal the bans.

Galvin made his championship debut against Clare last year, went onto win an All-Ireland SFC medal in his debut year and became the 1,000th player honoured by the Allstars.

This year he won his second Munster SFC medal and also captured a Kerry SHC title with Lixnaw, scoring five points in their replayed win over Abbeydorney.

PRO Jack Hennessy issued a statement on behalf of the North Kerry Board, who issued the bans. "A GPC meeting of the North Kerry Board took place on Friday, December 16 at the Listowel Arms Hotel. Following an investigation by the GPC into the Bernard O'Callaghan memorial SFC quarter-final between Ballylongford and Finuge played at Stack Park Ballybunion on November 12, it was established that Paul Galvin was guilty of 'conduct which discredited the association' and he was charged accordingly.

"He appeared before the meeting on December 16 and the recommendation from the GPC meeting was that Paul Galvin of Finuge be suspended for 24 weeks from 21/12/05 (the date of a full delegate Board meeting) for conduct which discredited the Association.

"At a full delegate meeting of the North Kerry football board held in Listowel last evening (Wednesday) details arising out of the Bernard O'Callaghan memorial SFC quarter-final between Ballylongford and Finuge played at Stack Park Ballybunion, November 12 were presented by the chairman of the GPC of the Board, Liam Dennehy.

"Following that meeting Galvin was also suspended for 12 weeks from the date of the game (12/11/05) for verbal abuse of the referee with the suspensions to run concurrently.

"The Board also suspended Eamon Breen for 24 weeks from the date of the match for 'minor physical interference', Raymond Galvin was suspended for 16 weeks for verbal abuse of the referee while the Finuge club were severely warned as to the future conduct of players and supporters towards match officials."

Ironically, the hefty sentence was agreed upon just hours after Galvin had visited a number of Irish emigrants in London.

Galvin and recently retired All-Ireland winning Tyrone defender Chris Lawn visited a number of homeless centres in London with the Sam Maguire Cup on Wednesday. The trip was organised by Mayor of Kerry, Teresa Ferris, daughter of Sinn Fein TD Martin Ferris.

"There were quite a few homeless people from Kerry who really took to Paul and seeing the Sam Maguire Cup literally made Christmas for them," said Cricklewood's spokesman Danny Maher.

"Paul and Chris were both lovely lads and they talked football and posed for pictures with the people who turned up.

"They even reminisced about old games and for a while they were all just people sitting together talking about football.

"We even had a few East Africans who got their hands on the Sam Maguire Cup. I'm sure you don't see that every day."