GAA hits out at judge’s ‘over the top’ comments

GAA president Sean Kelly has criticised a district court judge’s claim that the organisation had done nothing to control violence in the sport.

Mr Justice John Nealon’s comments were made during a trial involving Offaly GAA player Declan Kelly. He also said the GAA president had failed to speak out against the violence witnessed in the recent international rules game between Australia and Ireland.

Yesterday, GAA violence flared again in a Co Clare minor football final between Wolfe Tones and Kilmurry Ibricane.

Opposing players and officials exchanged blows in a fracas which resulted in some spectators running onto the pitch.

A spokesman for the GAA said on a weekend when very many games were played throughout the country, the free for all at the Clare match was an unfortunate exception which had to be taken in the context of the number of games played.

The GAA had taken very definite steps towards “cleaning up” the game, and firm initiatives towards meeting this goal were in place, the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday Sean Kelly said Mr Justice Nealon’s comments were “over the top”.

“I think they were inaccurate and certainly unjustified. I was commending the football that had been played in terms of the quality of the football.

I wasn’t condoning any violence that took place in it,” he said.

Mr Kelly maintained that the GAA would be in contact with the Australian side to analyse what had taken place, and that the series would be in jeopardy if things could “not be worked out”.

“It would be very wrong for anybody to suggest that I was ignoring the violence. I was not. I certainly am not. I wanted to get my full facts before I would rush to make statements nationally and internationally.

“Now that we have the benefit of being able to analyse it, it is quite clear that events took place that cannot be tolerated,” he said.

Mr Kelly said Justice Nealon had made “sweeping statements” about the GAA, and that the organisation was working hard to eliminate violence from the sport.

He said that violent incidents would continue as society in general was becoming more violent, but that GAA players were penalised more effectively than ever before.

“We have a fine, clean game overall at the moment,” he added.