We must bring an end to violence on GAA fields
GAA supporters are in a familiar place this January. The game they love and nurture is once again being hauled head over heels through the mud. It is, unfortunately for the sport, an all too familiar situation.
The fall-out from the Dromid Pearses – Derrytresk game in Portlaoise last Sunday is depressing.
It has descended into a 'who threw the first punch' argument and in some cases, especially in the poisonous environment of internet forums, an anti-tyrone or antiUlster bias. This is so far from the reality that it doesn't necessitate further attention.
The outstanding problem with what happened on Sunday is that people, among them some substitutes and officials, entered the field of play from the stand and got involved in a serious incident. Their entry from the stands was stunning in its quickness and its menace.
The Dromid Pearses club have been exonerated by an independent source – the Laois County Board chairman who was responsible for stewarding at the game. Dromid have behaved admirably. They lost the game, they accept this. But there is a bigger issue and they have merely tried to highlight what actually happened in Portlaoise. There is video evidence available and they have supplied the GAA with same.
On the other hand Derrytresk have been too silent. They have issued a statement which does not address the issue of individuals in Derrytresk colours entering the field from the stand. This is part of the problem with violence in the GAA: the culprits are rarely admonished from within.
Most commentators have called on the GAA to take a strong lead on this issue. They would be helped enourmously if the Derrytresk club, no matter how hard it is for them, identified and discilplined any club members who entered the field from the stand last Sunday.
We all want to see an end to this type of violence on the playing fields of Ireland but to take a step towards this end those who were responsible must be punished.
And those who are punished must know that by being up front and honest they are helping heal the cancer of GAA violence.
If they do not see this then the game itself will have to rest in peace.
