Opinion oneills comments have hung mckiernan out to dry

Paul Fitzpatrick

The GAA President, Liam O’Neill, said a strange thing this week. The Laois man was quoted in The Irish News yesterday (Tuesday) talking about Gearoid McKiernan’s suspension for comments made to Monaghan footballer Drew Wylie.

McKiernan was sent off and suspended for two matches, the maximum ban, as a result of the incident.

“We had the rule in place, it was applied correctly. We find out now that the rule wasn’t adequate... Nobody wants this and we accept our responsibility that, as it stands, even though we thought we had it covered, we hadn’t and we’re prepared to take immediate action,” he said.

I’d love to know what the President thought the outcome, under rule, would be. Is he suggesting that he did not think the rule would result in a two-game suspension, which has been described by the likes of Crossmaglen footballer Aaron Cunningham as being too lenient?

If not, and the President is in fact aware of the rules, why did it take one case of the rule being imposed for the GAA (“we”) to “find out now the rule wasn’t adequate”?

What a bizarre statement it was. It would be shocking to think that the figurehead of the association was merely responding to pressure and back-tracking after the fact to appease the critics.

By “finding out now” - in other words, after gauging the reaction - does he mean that the mob is dictating how the game is governed? The rule was there, it was applied – end of story. It is difficult to see what exactly makes the rule inadequate now that it has been applied that didn’t render it so beforehand.

The player did wrong – in the heat of battle, he said something he immediately regretted. Nobody is condoning that. He was punished under the rules, and accepted the punishment, without commenting or appealing or drawing the issue out any further.

The suggestion by an Uachtaráin that “when a player says something of this nature, he should have to go on some sort of a programme, a racial relations programme or whatever you might call it, where you’d have to learn how to behave towards other people” is simply staggering.

Treatment of that nature is reserved for those with serious issues – seeing as this is the only case to be dealt with under the rules, it strikes me that McKiernan is being labelled as an unreconstructed bigot who cannot relate to others and needs help.

What’s next? Will the GAA begin to hand down community service, or even judicial sentences, to those who break one of their rules and serve their punishment?

O’Neill’s peculiar comments came after Ulster Council President Martin McAviney felt moved to issue a press release giving his thoughts on the matter.

“I have been informed today that there will be no request for a hearing regarding the proposed penalty by the player involved,” read the statement on behalf of McAviney, a clubmate of Drew Wylie’s, last Saturday night.

“I have also been informed that a personal apology was given to Drew Wylie by the player for his comments which has been accepted. I welcome this outcome and I complement [sic] Drew for his generosity in accepting the apology.

“I want to also acknowledge the action of the player against whom the disciplinary sanction was initiated for his response in dealing with the matter.

“The GAA applies its disciplinary code on the clear understanding that respect for both players and officials is the best manner in which to play our games. I am pleased that this matter has now been concluded.”

I’m not sure if the great unwashed of the GAA public needed to know whether or not the Ulster President was “pleased”. Perhaps he felt he needed to be seen to take personal action; obviously, he believed his statement was the final say on the matter, thus “concluding” it.

The whole thing smacks of a PR offensive, with Gearoid McKiernan the one hung out to dry.

And whither the GPA in all this? Their silence has been deafening. Wylie was wronged in the first place, certainly, but McKiernan has been wronged since, with the highest-ranking official in the association effectively stating that a two-match ban is not sufficient and that offenders should have to attend some sort of therapy.

In their race to come out of it looking well, the GAA leaders have abandoned a young man who devotes his life to the game. McKiernan, an amateur player, was wrong and nobody for a second is suggesting otherwise - he did the crime, and the time, though, and that should have been the end of the matter.