Mayo fork out €3,000 more for ‘spoon’ spat

THE Mayo County Board has had further reason to rue the Kieran Donaghy ‘wooden spoon’ incident this week with the installation of temporary CCTV cameras costing them €3,000.

The cost of the surveillance equipment now brings to €8,000 the amount of money the incident has cost the county, after the imposition of a €5,000 fine last week.

Mayo officials met with the company responsible for the CCTV installation yesterday morning and county secretary Sean Feeney revealed that they will be in place for the weekend’s tie against Galway.

Had the cameras not been in place Mayo would not have been allowed play that tie in McHale Park, Castlebar by order of the Central Competitions Control Committee.

A crowd of approximately 3,000 turned out for the Mayo-Kerry game and that is expected to rise by two-thirds for the encounter against their local rivals, especially with both counties enjoying a good run of recent form.

Another of the CCCC’s recommendations was that Mayo draw up an event management plan in time for this weekend’s fixture and that went before a Croke Park committee for approval yesterday.

The cost of the cameras is a particularly hard blow to take as they will only be fitted on a temporary basis as McHale Park is due for redevelopment in the summer when the main stand will be razed raised to the ground.

That means that the new equipment will be in place for only two league games, a Connacht semi-final and possibly a Connacht final before being taken down and replaced by permanent fittings in the new stand.

The design for the new stadium, which has already been drawn up, will see the main stand replaced by a state-of-the-art structure boasting medical facilities as well as space for the county board offices. The process is currently out to tender.

Meanwhile, it seems highly unlikely that Mayo will not be able to identify the culprit who threw the wooden spoon at Donaghy during the NFL tie in Castlebar two weekends ago, even if the owner of the implement has been pinpointed.

John Durcan, who attends county games dressed as St Patrick and carries a bodhran, lost the wooden spoon at some stage of the proceedings against Kerry and was apparently distraught to discover where it ended up.

“We have had a good look at the TG4 tapes but it is impossible to identify who was responsible for it,” said PRO Noelle Horan. “I don’t know how else we can find out. You are relying on the goodwill of someone who might have seen it coming forward. It is unfortunate because that could have been out of character for the person responsible.”