Carr in war of words with McEntee

Tommy Carr has hit back at the Meath minor manager who claimed Westmeath fabricated a racial slur during their Leinster MFC semi-final in Navan last month and damaged the anti-racism movement.

Andy McEntee, whose side lost to the Carr-managed Westmeath, had stated his players’ had been wrongly accused of racially abusing Israel Illunga.

A GAA investigation cleared Meath of any wrongdoing but Carr labelled the decision “gutless”.

McEntee responded on LMFM: “It’s no secret to anyone that Tommy Carr likes to hear himself talk on the radio and see his name splashed on the paper and I’m not at all surprised. I’m disappointed but not surprised.

“Alan Milton who is the GAA’s media correspondent commented yesterday [Saturday] how this was the most extensive investigation carried out ever by the GAA. I was involved in it. There was a couple of things very clear from the video evidence Tommy talked about. The Westmeath player threw a punch. Number two the Meath player involved made a reaction and his reaction was to put his hands in the air.

“Now for Westmeath and Tommy Carr to suggest for one minute that this was a monkey like gesture is an insult to the player and an insult to the [anti] racism movement. For anyone to think this is going to help the [anti] racism cause is also an insult. They do more damage than good because they create a bigger gap between the different groups of players playing.

“The gesture could in no way be determined as racist.

“This is very important too that no one else came forward with evidence from Westmeath or independently. It’s very easy to make an allegation of racism and once it’s out there it sticks. It can’t be taken back.

“I have to ask the question: who is the victim in this? Is it the Meath player who got the box in the mouth and did nothing about it? He’s the guy who’s had his name splashed all over the paper. He applied for a sports scholarship. Do you think he’ll get it? I suspect not.

“When he goes for a job in a couple of years time and someone does a background check and finds this they’ll say, ‘I see you were involved in a racist case’. Whereas the guy who threw the punch gets to play in a Leinster final and walks away scot free.”

However Carr rebuked the allegations and called on McEntee to review the findings again.

“He needs to check his facts. The racist abuse and striking never overlapped,” he said.

“He needs to be sure about that and it’s clear he’s not. We were told quite conclusively these incidents were not related. He was cleared because there was no evidence of a strike.

“My quotes were not given to every radio station. The only quotes I gave to a paper were to Cliona Foley [Irish Independent]. If he checks what was said in the interview I never specified a player. I talked about racism in the game. My quote was to one paper and not a number of radio stations. It was on purpose too because we did not want our Leinster final overshadowed.

“Does he seriously think a black player would make these allegations up to get attention? Does he think there were no shouts from the crowd? He’s totally mistaken. I’d use stronger language than that if I could. But I’d welcome him to look at the video we have and argue his case then.”