Spillane: Donegal fans assaulted me

Kerry football pundit Pat Spillane has confirmed he was assaulted by a number of Donegal fans after he left Croke Park following Donegal’s All-Ireland semi-final victory over Cork two weeks ago.

The nine-time All-Star told how, as he departed Croke Park minutes after the game, he was surrounded by a number of Donegal fans where he was subjected to a number of ‘belts’ in the stomach.

Spillane confirmed also that he did not report the incident to the gardaí.

“Once the game was over, as I always do, I left Croke Park immediately because I have over a four and a half hour journey ahead of me back to Kerry,” Spillane told the Donegal Democrat.

“As I was headed out of Croke Park and walking up Clonliffe Road, there must have been 10,000 Donegal supporters on the road.

“Many of them were shouting at me and most of the comment was good-humoured banter. But I just kept my head down and carried on about my business before the next thing I knew was that a flag was dropped in front of me and I was surrounded by a number of supporters and I received a couple of belts to the stomach.”

The RTÉ pundit previously stated that Donegal football was “shi’ite football” and described their loss to Dublin in last year’s semi-final as “a victory for Dublin and a victory for Gaelic football”.

“Gaelic football as Donegal wanted to reduce it to would degenerate it into a shambles,” he said last year.

“Since finishing the TV on Sunday, people have been agreeing with me and that’s unusual because usually when I wake up the following morning there’s more than x amount of people taking a different viewpoint.”

However after being surrounded and assaulted by Donegal supporters he admitted it wouldn’t go down as the best 15 minutes in his life and added that he did not feel safe until he was in Urlingford on the way home.

The assault was condemned by the Donegal GAA chairman, PJ McGowan, who said he was shocked to hear of the incident and apologised to the Kerryman.

“I’m really shocked to hear of the assault and I want to condemn it in the strongest possible way and I want to apologise to Pat on behalf of the decent and genuine Donegal supporters,” said the chairman.