More Thuggery on the GAA field

[Mayo4Sam]

  I believe we are looking at a short and nasty incident which has happened many times before it from  which people are prepared to tarnish a small rural club who have been exemplary servants to the gaa over the years.  I think these incidents which will be in the referrees report aside. Those who have allowed the spin and pr brigade of the kerry gaa brigade to influece their objectivity should be ashamed of themselves.

I thought I was reading the Sean Quinn thread there for a minute.

[trileacman]

Lads there are rules for a reason. If  the Derrytresk and Dromid clubs are going to behave like that then they cannot cry foul when the CCC comes down on them.

Alot of posters here playing a mass brawl down, "sure it happens every week with the U-12's". Fighting and infringing on the pitch by supporters/fans/officals is against the association rules. Unless you want to see it happen every time you go to a match then the GAA are going to administer the rules.

If this was a inter county championship match and a legitimate score was waved wide there would be yards of threads on here calling for a replay and rules and all that shite. It seems though that a mass brawl and injured players are less important than that. 

[Maroon1]

Hi ogshead, been a long time my friend:-)  who rattled your cage anyway....I  was merely making a comparison between the events of the weekend to those of nab v stewartsown and how all the brawls in gaa these days involve a team from Tyrone....but derrytresk need not worry about being thrown out of the championship all they have to do is hire 'loophole logan' and they will get off with any punishment that may be handed out!!:-)

[Whishtup]

Dromid Pearses should look long and hard at the following footage and and ask themselves, "Do I see anything in this that I can learn from"

http://youtu.be/UNZMtfY0iX4

[Lecale2]

The Healy-Raes are demanding that Derrytresk are thrown out of the competition in return for their support of the Govt.

They aren't happy. Michael was on Radio Kerry earlier. He said "I'm not happy".

[ONeill]

There are a lot of red herrings being thrown into this debate, many of which are serving only to muddy the waters in terms of what actually happened.

(1) Kerry vs Tyrone - utterly irrelevant. The history of the two counties, or either county individually, is nothing to do with this incident. What matters is what happened.
(2) The card count - makes no odds. Lads commit offences on the field of play, refs deal with them. If the issue here was stuff that happened in the course of the game, this wouldn't be a ten page thread.

Totally disagree with both points and not sure how you can empathise with either county on point 1.

I will not speak for the Kerry brigade and their impression of, and antagonism towards, Tyrone. I can only speak for my own county, or rather the attitude towards the Kingdom for a minority I know. I know from interacting with some of those a lot closer to the coalface than I am that there seems to have developed an unhealthy vibe towards Kerry. It stems back to the 2003 game and even the comments I've heard from the Kerry commentators purports to have referenced 2003, Canavan hauling down Gooch and McConnell supposedly poking the eye off Cooper - all in the second half commentary of the Derrytresk/Dromid game which also suggests they harbour a few grievances towards Tyrone.

When it spilled over in Omagh a few years ago the venom on the faces of both sides/supporters (esp in the stand) was frightening. When have you ever seen Jack O'Connor react like that? What I'm saying is - and in no way am I saying it was premeditated by Derrytresk on the day or used as a motivational tactic - there's a relatively new disdain between a fraction of both sets of supporters and it added to the mix. I know - i've seen it and heard it on a regular basis.

As for point two - it was all part of the unfortunate ingredients that day. They may play 100 times and that was the only time the menace was perfectly formed for the regrettable reactions afterwards.

[cornafean]

I can't help and feel that the GAA should have been onto both clubs on Sunday evening and told both not to make any public comments whatsoever and to instruct all officers and players to do likewise.

If the people behind either team had any common sense, they would have remained silent, and they shouldn't have needed anyone in the GAA to tell them that.  Instead they have created a media circus that reflects very badly on the GAA, but also on the two clubs and their respective officials and supporters.

[tonesfirstandlast]

Dromid Pearses should look long and hard at the following footage and and ask themselves, "Do I see anything in this that I can learn from"

http://youtu.be/UNZMtfY0iX4

Keep Lavey out of this. For once they had nothing to do with this row. 

[NaomhBridAbú]

fair play young O'Neill - well argued second point

[tonesfirstandlast]

All joking apart, Cornafean is absolutely right. Dromid by highlighting this incident have disgraced themselves.

[Hardy]

We're only a few generations on from this. Tyrone is just a little slower in letting go, that's all.

FACTION FIGHTING
"They fought for the sheer love of fighting"
"Off go the hats and the coats, the fight begins, Some strike the heads, while others strike the shins. The winching codgels around their fore heads play They need no leaders to begin the fray Where e'ere the brave O'Donoghues engage".

Organised fights between opposing factions was a general feature of early 19th century Ireland. These fights usually took place at fairs or other meeting places when drink was in abundance and the main topics of conversation were the price of cattle, the weather and the fight that was about to commence. This tradition of fighting is reputed to have began in Tipperary in 1805 and quickly spread all over the country. One of the most famous of all factions was in the Doon area. The establishment of the day tended to ignore faction fighting - even to encourage it, believing it to be a good thing to see the Irish fighting among themselves and not against the system of government.

The factions had colourful names - "The Cravats and the Shanavests".The three year olds and the four year olds, The Black Hens and the Magpies. The local Doon faction was made up of the Ryan Clan (who else) and were known as the Reaskawallahs, after a townsland in the parish. They were involved in many a skirmish against the Coffeys of Newport.

The weapons used were long sticks of oak, ash, holly or blackthorn. These sticks were carefully prepared and after a fight were greased and polished ready for the next encounter. It was believed that a wound from a blackthorn stick would heal quickly - the whitethorn was a much more dangerous weapon as a blow from this could result in blood poisoning. A particularly vicious weapon was the "loaden butt" in which the stump at the end was hollowed out and filled with lead. The ash "sucker" (an offshoot) was regarded as much tougher and more durable than the ash plant.

In close combat a short stick was used "the alpeen" or "kippen". These were tempered in dung heaps, rubbed with butter and placed up the chimney, where they were left to season. The intentions of the fighters can be guaged by the names given to their sticks, common ones being "bas gan sagart" (death without the priest) or "leagadh gan Eiri" (down with no hope of rising).

As the fair day came to close members of two opposing factions began to gather. The cause of quarrel between the two was unimportant, maybe an insult passed fifty years before, or as was the case in one region, a row between two small boys over a game of marbles. As the factions squared up to each other the opposing captains advanced. Then followed a ritual of insulting, mocking, teasing - one captain would "wheel" his stick over his head as he challenged his oponent -"Here is a Coffey abu against a Reaskawallagh, here is a Coffey abu - who dare strike a Coffey?"

The answer "I dare" followed fast from a Ryan and was accompanied by a murderous blow to Coffey's head. This was a signal for a free for all, as fighters from both sides rushed into the fray and numerous heads were opened and some people killed before the fighting ceased. Many colourful battle cries of the factions could still be heard at fairs up to recent times.

"Doon, Toom, Carnahalla - Cappawhite and Gurtavalla" or "Here's a Doon garsoon - who'll bate him?"
Some famous local leaders were Ryan Bawn and Allis, Maurice Fitzgerald, Pat Leddan and The Russian Buckley, so called because he was "as big as a Russian". He had the dubious distinction of being the last man killed in a faction fight. This final fight took place in Cappawhite in 1887.

W.R. Le Fanu, rector in Abington in his book "70 Years of Irish Life" describes one fight at Annagh Bog near Murroe when the Reaskawallahs led by John Ryan (Luke) (Shawn Lucas) marched from Doon to engage the Coffeys. "In an instant hundreds of sticks were up - hundreds of heads were broken. In vain the parish priest and his curate rode through the crowd, striking right and left with their whips, in vain a few policemen tried to quell the riot...." In this particular battle the Coffeys were the victors. A few were killed and many seriously wounded.

Daniel O'Connell's campaign to win Catholic Emancipation, in which he held monster meetings throughout the country, helped to bring the faction fighters to their senses. His message to the people he addressed was to unite as one in the face of a common enemy. It was in this spirit of peace that the Reaskawallahs marched to meet the Coffeys at Newport to patch up their differences in 1829. Le Fanu describes the procession thus: "They marched six deep in military order with music and banners, each man carrying as an emblem of peace, a green bough, the procession nearly two miles long. On its arrival in Newport in the presence of much joy and whiskey and in the presence of the priests a perpetual peace was established and never from that day did those factions meet again in battle".

However, even though the faction fights declined considerably from 1830, the following years often saw old scores flaring up and faction fighting continued right up to that last recorded fight at Cappawhite in 1887. It may be that the G.A.A. from here on provided a platform to vent parish rivalry and filled a void created by the demise of the faction fights.

[AQMP]

Hardy we're only a few years on from this...fractious behaviour (I love it) and handbags in the news again

Meath tie abandoned over 'handbags'
By Paddy Hickey
Friday June 15 2007

THE GAA'S Hall of Shame on the disciplinary front has racked up yet another notch with the abandonment of a club match in Meath.

The latest outbreak of violence erupted in a senior football 'B' clash between St Patrick's Stamullen and Dunsany on Tuesday at Stamullen, which was called off with 20 minutes to go.

After a prolonged period of fractious behaviour involving a number of players from both sides, referee Ronan Carry decided to end the contest and abandoned the match. Despite the match official obviously feeling he had no option but to take decisive action, a representative from each club - Dunsany secretary Mary Smyth and St Patrick's counterpart Pat Ryan - argued that what transpired between the players was merely of the "handbags" variety.

[AZOffaly]

Hardy we're only a few years on from this...fractious behaviour (I love it) and handbags in the news again

Meath tie abandoned over 'handbags'
By Paddy Hickey
Friday June 15 2007

THE GAA'S Hall of Shame on the disciplinary front has racked up yet another notch with the abandonment of a club match in Meath.

The latest outbreak of violence erupted in a senior football 'B' clash between St Patrick's Stamullen and Dunsany on Tuesday at Stamullen, which was called off with 20 minutes to go.

After a prolonged period of fractious behaviour involving a number of players from both sides, referee Ronan Carry decided to end the contest and abandoned the match. Despite the match official obviously feeling he had no option but to take decisive action, a representative from each club - Dunsany secretary Mary Smyth and St Patrick's counterpart Pat Ryan - argued that what transpired between the players was merely of the "handbags" variety.

Possibly what should have happened on Sunday.

[CavanCola]

just watched this... how about that Physio/First aid guy? I don't think any occupational first aid course covers that behaviour!! Can't believe that he stood up and started throwing his weight around instead of attending to the guy on the ground. He is no florence nightingale.

Also the guy with the clipboard shouldn't have been on the sideline in the first place... No bib then he should have being in the dugout or more likely the stand. The GAA officials on the day are at fault here for not controlling the line.

[lenny]

Dromid Pearses should look long and hard at the following footage and and ask themselves, "Do I see anything in this that I can learn from"

http://youtu.be/UNZMtfY0iX4

Typical tyrone reaction. You don't seem to realise how badly this reflects on the GAA. Of course if this happened within tyrone your county board would probably give both teams a 100 euro fine or some tame punishment like that. Because this was an all ireland game I cant see youse getting off so lightly. My honest opinion is that derrytresk should be thrown out. That would send out a message to clubs that this sort of behaviour is just not on.