Duffy: Limerick attack matter for gardaí

GAA Director General Paraic Duffy says he’d have no issues with a criminal investigation into the attack on Limerick club footballer James Kelly last weekend.

Martin Stokes was handed a proposed 96-week ban by the GAA for running onto the Gaelic Grounds field during last Sunday’s drawn county football final and clashing with Newcastle West forward Kelly.

Ahead of tomorrow evening’s county final replay at the Gaelic Grounds, where measures have been put in place to avoid another security breach, Duffy admitted he wouldn’t be against a garda probe into the attack.

“That is a matter for the gardaí and if the gardaí decide to go that way, we don’t have any issue with that,” said Duffy.

“All we can do is to ensure that, number one, issues around our grounds, around people on the pitch, that those issues are looked at.

“If there are lessons to be learned around that, we have to take them on board. As for the other question, that is a matter for the gardaí.

“We don’t have any influence on that. We don’t get involved in that.

“What we have to do is deal with our own rules and ensure that we look at the issue of security around playing pitches, around numbers on the sideline and so on. That is the question we have to address.”

Duffy’s comments could equally be applied to an incident in Cavan last weekend where a large bin was hurled dangerously in a crowded area. Again, that incident took place at a club game, between Tyrone champions Errigal Ciaran and Cavan’s Mullahoran.

“It does seem unique to the club scene,” continued Duffy.

“At inter-county level, it doesn’t appear to be a problem any more. We are going to look at the [club] issue before the end of the year. One of the issues is that, and I’m not saying it was the cause of incidents at the weekend, but the numbers of people on the sideline are certainly a factor and that is something that is going to be addressed before the end of the year.”

Duffy was speaking at Government buildings on Dublin’s Kildare Street where an update on work at the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown was delivered.

Sports Minister Leo Varadkar confirmed that lease agreements have been put in place for training facilities at the sprawling venue with the GAA as well as the FAI, IRFU and Irish Hockey Association. The campus will also develop facilities for Horse Sport Ireland and Pentathlon Ireland.

Site clearance and infrastructure works are underway and work on multi-sport pitches and a pavilion is expected to commence in January. The GAA have been afforded 30 acres at the West Dublin venue and hope to begin construction work on four pitches — one to the same dimensions as Croke Park — in January.

It will be a national training centre though Duffy wants Dublin to take particular use of the venue, revealing that separate Dublin plans for a centre of excellence in South Dublin at Rathcoole have been shelved indefinitely.

“In the next five or 10 years I wouldn’t see Rathcoole being developed. The resources of the association and Dublin should go to Abbotstown. Rathcoole will have to wait, the money isn’t there to develop both.”

Meanwhile, Duffy said likely development work on GAA stadia in Killarney, Galway and Limerick would be a welcome bonus in the event of a successful application by the IRFU to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.