Money, Dublin and the GAA

[Armagh18]

https://www.dublingaa.ie/news/dublin-gaa-statement-on-behalf-of-management-committee

Dublin GAA acknowledge that, following an investigation this afternoon, there was a breach of Covid-19 guidelines yesterday morning.

The County Management Committee have suspended Dublin Senior Football manager Dessie Farrell for 12 weeks with immediate effect.

The Dublin senior football management and players recognise that this was a serious error of judgement and apologise unreservedly for their actions.

Dublin GAA Management Committee

At least Dessie is taking his medicine and isn't brazen enough to appeal the punishment. They must have been training for a while (like other counties) to have a photographer out there at that hour morning of the morning to catch them. Can't have any complaints and at least they dealt with it quickly and decisively

There could well be issues with regards to Dublin's GAA right to suspend him and whether due process was followed by acting so quickly.

Be some disaster for Dublin GAA if Farrell appeals his suspension.

Also could be a bit of a tactical mistake as the CCC will surely ask for the copies of the evidence and the arguments Dublin GAA made to suspend Dessie and will use the same in their case against him.

You can hardly get another 8/12 week suspension for the same crime under the same rule? If that's the case why would Dublin issue any suspension at all

The CCC will most likely punish him as well.  There's close to zero chance they don't. The offence they will be charging him under will be bringing the association (the GAA) into disrepute.

I would say the reason Dublin would issue a suspension is in the hope that it would make things go away on the PR front/try and mitigate the severity of any punishment handed down by the CCC. 

Also handing down an immediate suspension means the clock starts running now. A 12 week suspension starting immediately would expire on the 24th of June. In the Cork and Down cases it was something like 6 weeks between the offence occurring and the clock starting on the suspensions.

This feels like a mis-step by Dublin GAA to me.

If Dessie gets a 2nd ban he'll probably appeal that. GAA HQ have set a precedent when they suspended the other county managers. I don't see how they charge him with anything they didn't charge the other managers with and if it's the same offence as what the dubs punished him for he'll appeal on those grounds.

It says alot about the farcical nature of the GAA disciplinary system that people think Dublin county board somehow made a mistake in acting so quickly and decisively. If they hadn't done anything they'd have been criticized for that.

I'm not a lawyer but I very much think it would be a situation similar to being punished for state and federal crimes in the USA.
The fact that you are charged at one level doesn't give you protection from being charged at the other level.
Think of it this way - if it was the case that being punished by the DCB offered protection from the CCC punishing him, the DCB could simply suspend Farrell for a day, suspend the players for 15 minutes and thumb their noses at the CCC.

The reason I mentioned the speed of the punishment is that the GAA disciplinary system (and pretty much every justice system) have rules and procedure about the accused having time to prepare a defence/make their case/seek advice/ bring along an advocate. If Dessie challenges his DCB punishment, the speed with which the punishment was handed down (less than 24 hours after the story broke) will look very bad. I agree if they hadn't done anything they would have been criticized but if they had issued a statement expressing regret and that they were going to conduct an investigation (similar to the GAA statement)  I don't think most people would have an issue with it.

I wonder were other groups of players training together elsewhere?

There's no way that the other Dublin players weren't training together elsewhere.

There's no logical case you can make that it was only these 9 players who decided to break the rules.

Also someone had to have spotted at least one previous session and tipped off the Independent, they weren't just wandering about North Dublin and stumbled upon the story.

It's three weeks until training is allowed and I don't think anyone is going to try and make the case that Dublin were just going to have this single training session with a third of the squad and they pack away their gear for three weeks - so Dublin were planning on breaking the rules multiple times.

This means that multiple training sessions occurred and more were planned.

The big question is whether the CCC will take this into account in determing  Dublin's punishment.

hopefully sense prevails and sanctioning 30 healthy young men for kicking a ball around and doing some exercise will be a non runner , was dessie there or was it an off the cuff thing . What should happen is the other teams should start training and let the gaa ban them all if they want , they should be encouraging players to get back training and setting up the championship so people have something to look forward to ,

Agreed. Anyone looking lads to be punished for playing football would want to give their heads a wobble.

[Baile Brigín 2]

https://www.dublingaa.ie/news/dublin-gaa-statement-on-behalf-of-management-committee

Dublin GAA acknowledge that, following an investigation this afternoon, there was a breach of Covid-19 guidelines yesterday morning.

The County Management Committee have suspended Dublin Senior Football manager Dessie Farrell for 12 weeks with immediate effect.

The Dublin senior football management and players recognise that this was a serious error of judgement and apologise unreservedly for their actions.

Dublin GAA Management Committee

At least Dessie is taking his medicine and isn't brazen enough to appeal the punishment. They must have been training for a while (like other counties) to have a photographer out there at that hour morning of the morning to catch them. Can't have any complaints and at least they dealt with it quickly and decisively

There could well be issues with regards to Dublin's GAA right to suspend him and whether due process was followed by acting so quickly.

Be some disaster for Dublin GAA if Farrell appeals his suspension.

Also could be a bit of a tactical mistake as the CCC will surely ask for the copies of the evidence and the arguments Dublin GAA made to suspend Dessie and will use the same in their case against him.

You can hardly get another 8/12 week suspension for the same crime under the same rule? If that's the case why would Dublin issue any suspension at all

The CCC will most likely punish him as well.  There's close to zero chance they don't. The offence they will be charging him under will be bringing the association (the GAA) into disrepute.

I would say the reason Dublin would issue a suspension is in the hope that it would make things go away on the PR front/try and mitigate the severity of any punishment handed down by the CCC. 

Also handing down an immediate suspension means the clock starts running now. A 12 week suspension starting immediately would expire on the 24th of June. In the Cork and Down cases it was something like 6 weeks between the offence occurring and the clock starting on the suspensions.

This feels like a mis-step by Dublin GAA to me.

If Dessie gets a 2nd ban he'll probably appeal that. GAA HQ have set a precedent when they suspended the other county managers. I don't see how they charge him with anything they didn't charge the other managers with and if it's the same offence as what the dubs punished him for he'll appeal on those grounds.

It says alot about the farcical nature of the GAA disciplinary system that people think Dublin county board somehow made a mistake in acting so quickly and decisively. If they hadn't done anything they'd have been criticized for that.

I'm not a lawyer but I very much think it would be a situation similar to being punished for state and federal crimes in the USA.
The fact that you are charged at one level doesn't give you protection from being charged at the other level.
Think of it this way - if it was the case that being punished by the DCB offered protection from the CCC punishing him, the DCB could simply suspend Farrell for a day, suspend the players for 15 minutes and thumb their noses at the CCC.

The reason I mentioned the speed of the punishment is that the GAA disciplinary system (and pretty much every justice system) have rules and procedure about the accused having time to prepare a defence/make their case/seek advice/ bring along an advocate. If Dessie challenges his DCB punishment, the speed with which the punishment was handed down (less than 24 hours after the story broke) will look very bad. I agree if they hadn't done anything they would have been criticized but if they had issued a statement expressing regret and that they were going to conduct an investigation (similar to the GAA statement)  I don't think most people would have an issue with it.

I wonder were other groups of players training together elsewhere?

There's no way that the other Dublin players weren't training together elsewhere.

There's no logical case you can make that it was only these 9 players who decided to break the rules.

Also someone had to have spotted at least one previous session and tipped off the Independent, they weren't just wandering about North Dublin and stumbled upon the story.

It's three weeks until training is allowed and I don't think anyone is going to try and make the case that Dublin were just going to have this single training session with a third of the squad and they pack away their gear for three weeks - so Dublin were planning on breaking the rules multiple times.

This means that multiple training sessions occurred and more were planned.

The big question is whether the CCC will take this into account in determing  Dublin's punishment.

hopefully sense prevails and sanctioning 30 healthy young men for kicking a ball around and doing some exercise will be a non runner , was dessie there or was it an off the cuff thing . What should happen is the other teams should start training and let the gaa ban them all if they want , they should be encouraging players to get back training and setting up the championship so people have something to look forward to ,

If you can't see the reputational damage that will create for the GAA...

You have a choice of sports to start the kid in. One is the sport that claims to be community based but literally didn't care if people lived and died. The rest put safety of players and the community first.

[sid waddell]

This is not a group of lads having an impromptu game of ball on a green

This is six in a row All-Ireland champions Dublin, the institution of the Dublin football team and Dublin GAA, training away at their usual training venue at the usual time, driving there in their branded Dublin GAA cars, as if there's no pandemic and no rules

It's a two fingers to Covid bereaved like myself, and especially Covid bereaved Dublin supporters like myself, my father was a Dublin supporter for well over 60 years, he could recite to you in minute detail about the 1955 championship, about the time Wexford beat Dublin in Carlow in '56, and every year since then

Is it any wonder other people are breaking the rules more and more when this is the example of prominent people in the public eye - and this team has set itself up as role models

And still people deflect about what this is about

This is not about the risk of the Dublin team spreading Covid as a result of the meeting up yesterday morning, which is minute

It's about the entirety of the rules that every person on this island is asked to adhere to, the millions upon millions of individual and institutional decisions to either adhere to the rules or give two fingers to them

The Dublin team as an institution, through their actions, are giving the two fingers to the efforts of everybody to control and get rid of this pandemic - and it doesn't stop at the Dublin team, it reflects terribly on the whole GAA because far more in the GAA are at it and far more have been at it

That's what its about

[Armagh18]

https://www.dublingaa.ie/news/dublin-gaa-statement-on-behalf-of-management-committee

Dublin GAA acknowledge that, following an investigation this afternoon, there was a breach of Covid-19 guidelines yesterday morning.

The County Management Committee have suspended Dublin Senior Football manager Dessie Farrell for 12 weeks with immediate effect.

The Dublin senior football management and players recognise that this was a serious error of judgement and apologise unreservedly for their actions.

Dublin GAA Management Committee

At least Dessie is taking his medicine and isn't brazen enough to appeal the punishment. They must have been training for a while (like other counties) to have a photographer out there at that hour morning of the morning to catch them. Can't have any complaints and at least they dealt with it quickly and decisively

There could well be issues with regards to Dublin's GAA right to suspend him and whether due process was followed by acting so quickly.

Be some disaster for Dublin GAA if Farrell appeals his suspension.

Also could be a bit of a tactical mistake as the CCC will surely ask for the copies of the evidence and the arguments Dublin GAA made to suspend Dessie and will use the same in their case against him.

You can hardly get another 8/12 week suspension for the same crime under the same rule? If that's the case why would Dublin issue any suspension at all

The CCC will most likely punish him as well.  There's close to zero chance they don't. The offence they will be charging him under will be bringing the association (the GAA) into disrepute.

I would say the reason Dublin would issue a suspension is in the hope that it would make things go away on the PR front/try and mitigate the severity of any punishment handed down by the CCC. 

Also handing down an immediate suspension means the clock starts running now. A 12 week suspension starting immediately would expire on the 24th of June. In the Cork and Down cases it was something like 6 weeks between the offence occurring and the clock starting on the suspensions.

This feels like a mis-step by Dublin GAA to me.

If Dessie gets a 2nd ban he'll probably appeal that. GAA HQ have set a precedent when they suspended the other county managers. I don't see how they charge him with anything they didn't charge the other managers with and if it's the same offence as what the dubs punished him for he'll appeal on those grounds.

It says alot about the farcical nature of the GAA disciplinary system that people think Dublin county board somehow made a mistake in acting so quickly and decisively. If they hadn't done anything they'd have been criticized for that.

I'm not a lawyer but I very much think it would be a situation similar to being punished for state and federal crimes in the USA.
The fact that you are charged at one level doesn't give you protection from being charged at the other level.
Think of it this way - if it was the case that being punished by the DCB offered protection from the CCC punishing him, the DCB could simply suspend Farrell for a day, suspend the players for 15 minutes and thumb their noses at the CCC.

The reason I mentioned the speed of the punishment is that the GAA disciplinary system (and pretty much every justice system) have rules and procedure about the accused having time to prepare a defence/make their case/seek advice/ bring along an advocate. If Dessie challenges his DCB punishment, the speed with which the punishment was handed down (less than 24 hours after the story broke) will look very bad. I agree if they hadn't done anything they would have been criticized but if they had issued a statement expressing regret and that they were going to conduct an investigation (similar to the GAA statement)  I don't think most people would have an issue with it.

I wonder were other groups of players training together elsewhere?

There's no way that the other Dublin players weren't training together elsewhere.

There's no logical case you can make that it was only these 9 players who decided to break the rules.

Also someone had to have spotted at least one previous session and tipped off the Independent, they weren't just wandering about North Dublin and stumbled upon the story.

It's three weeks until training is allowed and I don't think anyone is going to try and make the case that Dublin were just going to have this single training session with a third of the squad and they pack away their gear for three weeks - so Dublin were planning on breaking the rules multiple times.

This means that multiple training sessions occurred and more were planned.

The big question is whether the CCC will take this into account in determing  Dublin's punishment.

hopefully sense prevails and sanctioning 30 healthy young men for kicking a ball around and doing some exercise will be a non runner , was dessie there or was it an off the cuff thing . What should happen is the other teams should start training and let the gaa ban them all if they want , they should be encouraging players to get back training and setting up the championship so people have something to look forward to ,

If you can't see the reputational damage that will create for the GAA...

You have a choice of sports to start the kid in. One is the sport that claims to be community based but literally didn't care if people lived and died. The rest put safety of players and the community first.

What are you on about

[mup]

When Down and Cork were caught training the GAA also announced that a 3rd Leinster county had been caught. Why were they never named🙄🙄🙄🙄

The 3rd Leinster county wasn't Laois or Dublin and are well known for pissing away all their advantages and blaming others.

Touching and emotional that Kildare are uppermost in your thoughts at times like this. 

[Baile Brigín 2]

https://www.dublingaa.ie/news/dublin-gaa-statement-on-behalf-of-management-committee

Dublin GAA acknowledge that, following an investigation this afternoon, there was a breach of Covid-19 guidelines yesterday morning.

The County Management Committee have suspended Dublin Senior Football manager Dessie Farrell for 12 weeks with immediate effect.

The Dublin senior football management and players recognise that this was a serious error of judgement and apologise unreservedly for their actions.

Dublin GAA Management Committee

At least Dessie is taking his medicine and isn't brazen enough to appeal the punishment. They must have been training for a while (like other counties) to have a photographer out there at that hour morning of the morning to catch them. Can't have any complaints and at least they dealt with it quickly and decisively

There could well be issues with regards to Dublin's GAA right to suspend him and whether due process was followed by acting so quickly.

Be some disaster for Dublin GAA if Farrell appeals his suspension.

Also could be a bit of a tactical mistake as the CCC will surely ask for the copies of the evidence and the arguments Dublin GAA made to suspend Dessie and will use the same in their case against him.

You can hardly get another 8/12 week suspension for the same crime under the same rule? If that's the case why would Dublin issue any suspension at all

The CCC will most likely punish him as well.  There's close to zero chance they don't. The offence they will be charging him under will be bringing the association (the GAA) into disrepute.

I would say the reason Dublin would issue a suspension is in the hope that it would make things go away on the PR front/try and mitigate the severity of any punishment handed down by the CCC. 

Also handing down an immediate suspension means the clock starts running now. A 12 week suspension starting immediately would expire on the 24th of June. In the Cork and Down cases it was something like 6 weeks between the offence occurring and the clock starting on the suspensions.

This feels like a mis-step by Dublin GAA to me.

If Dessie gets a 2nd ban he'll probably appeal that. GAA HQ have set a precedent when they suspended the other county managers. I don't see how they charge him with anything they didn't charge the other managers with and if it's the same offence as what the dubs punished him for he'll appeal on those grounds.

It says alot about the farcical nature of the GAA disciplinary system that people think Dublin county board somehow made a mistake in acting so quickly and decisively. If they hadn't done anything they'd have been criticized for that.

I'm not a lawyer but I very much think it would be a situation similar to being punished for state and federal crimes in the USA.
The fact that you are charged at one level doesn't give you protection from being charged at the other level.
Think of it this way - if it was the case that being punished by the DCB offered protection from the CCC punishing him, the DCB could simply suspend Farrell for a day, suspend the players for 15 minutes and thumb their noses at the CCC.

The reason I mentioned the speed of the punishment is that the GAA disciplinary system (and pretty much every justice system) have rules and procedure about the accused having time to prepare a defence/make their case/seek advice/ bring along an advocate. If Dessie challenges his DCB punishment, the speed with which the punishment was handed down (less than 24 hours after the story broke) will look very bad. I agree if they hadn't done anything they would have been criticized but if they had issued a statement expressing regret and that they were going to conduct an investigation (similar to the GAA statement)  I don't think most people would have an issue with it.

I wonder were other groups of players training together elsewhere?

There's no way that the other Dublin players weren't training together elsewhere.

There's no logical case you can make that it was only these 9 players who decided to break the rules.

Also someone had to have spotted at least one previous session and tipped off the Independent, they weren't just wandering about North Dublin and stumbled upon the story.

It's three weeks until training is allowed and I don't think anyone is going to try and make the case that Dublin were just going to have this single training session with a third of the squad and they pack away their gear for three weeks - so Dublin were planning on breaking the rules multiple times.

This means that multiple training sessions occurred and more were planned.

The big question is whether the CCC will take this into account in determing  Dublin's punishment.

hopefully sense prevails and sanctioning 30 healthy young men for kicking a ball around and doing some exercise will be a non runner , was dessie there or was it an off the cuff thing . What should happen is the other teams should start training and let the gaa ban them all if they want , they should be encouraging players to get back training and setting up the championship so people have something to look forward to ,

If you can't see the reputational damage that will create for the GAA...

You have a choice of sports to start the kid in. One is the sport that claims to be community based but literally didn't care if people lived and died. The rest put safety of players and the community first.

What are you on about

You are arguing that the GAA as an organisation should ignore and flout the public health guidelines.

Thats two fingers to the community we claim to be a core part of. It will be as popular as cancer. Parents who aren't Gaels but just want their kids playing sport will clearly factor in that lack of adherence to rules (if Covid rules are being ignored are other rules like child protection also being ignored) and go to sports that don't publically not give a shit.

The GAA's reputation is already taking a hit. You are arguing to double down.

[Lar Naparka]

This is not a group of lads having an impromptu game of ball on a green

This is six in a row All-Ireland champions Dublin, the institution of the Dublin football team and Dublin GAA, training away at their usual training venue at the usual time, driving there in their branded Dublin GAA cars, as if there's no pandemic and no rules

It's a two fingers to Covid bereaved like myself, and especially Covid bereaved Dublin supporters like myself, my father was a Dublin supporter for well over 60 years, he could recite to you in minute detail about the 1955 championship, about the time Wexford beat Dublin in Carlow in '56, and every year since then

Is it any wonder other people are breaking the rules more and more when this is the example of prominent people in the public eye - and this team has set itself up as role models

And still people deflect about what this is about

This is not about the risk of the Dublin team spreading Covid as a result of the meeting up yesterday morning, which is minute

It's about the entirety of the rules that every person on this island is asked to adhere to, the millions upon millions of individual and institutional decisions to either adhere to the rules or give two fingers to them

The Dublin team as an institution, through their actions, are giving the two fingers to the efforts of everybody to control and get rid of this pandemic - and it doesn't stop at the Dublin team, it reflects terribly on the whole GAA because far more in the GAA are at it and far more have been at it

That's what its about

+1
Extremely well put sid. You can turn eloquence into an art form- most of the time anyway.

[Armagh18]

https://www.dublingaa.ie/news/dublin-gaa-statement-on-behalf-of-management-committee

Dublin GAA acknowledge that, following an investigation this afternoon, there was a breach of Covid-19 guidelines yesterday morning.

The County Management Committee have suspended Dublin Senior Football manager Dessie Farrell for 12 weeks with immediate effect.

The Dublin senior football management and players recognise that this was a serious error of judgement and apologise unreservedly for their actions.

Dublin GAA Management Committee

At least Dessie is taking his medicine and isn't brazen enough to appeal the punishment. They must have been training for a while (like other counties) to have a photographer out there at that hour morning of the morning to catch them. Can't have any complaints and at least they dealt with it quickly and decisively

There could well be issues with regards to Dublin's GAA right to suspend him and whether due process was followed by acting so quickly.

Be some disaster for Dublin GAA if Farrell appeals his suspension.

Also could be a bit of a tactical mistake as the CCC will surely ask for the copies of the evidence and the arguments Dublin GAA made to suspend Dessie and will use the same in their case against him.

You can hardly get another 8/12 week suspension for the same crime under the same rule? If that's the case why would Dublin issue any suspension at all

The CCC will most likely punish him as well.  There's close to zero chance they don't. The offence they will be charging him under will be bringing the association (the GAA) into disrepute.

I would say the reason Dublin would issue a suspension is in the hope that it would make things go away on the PR front/try and mitigate the severity of any punishment handed down by the CCC. 

Also handing down an immediate suspension means the clock starts running now. A 12 week suspension starting immediately would expire on the 24th of June. In the Cork and Down cases it was something like 6 weeks between the offence occurring and the clock starting on the suspensions.

This feels like a mis-step by Dublin GAA to me.

If Dessie gets a 2nd ban he'll probably appeal that. GAA HQ have set a precedent when they suspended the other county managers. I don't see how they charge him with anything they didn't charge the other managers with and if it's the same offence as what the dubs punished him for he'll appeal on those grounds.

It says alot about the farcical nature of the GAA disciplinary system that people think Dublin county board somehow made a mistake in acting so quickly and decisively. If they hadn't done anything they'd have been criticized for that.

I'm not a lawyer but I very much think it would be a situation similar to being punished for state and federal crimes in the USA.
The fact that you are charged at one level doesn't give you protection from being charged at the other level.
Think of it this way - if it was the case that being punished by the DCB offered protection from the CCC punishing him, the DCB could simply suspend Farrell for a day, suspend the players for 15 minutes and thumb their noses at the CCC.

The reason I mentioned the speed of the punishment is that the GAA disciplinary system (and pretty much every justice system) have rules and procedure about the accused having time to prepare a defence/make their case/seek advice/ bring along an advocate. If Dessie challenges his DCB punishment, the speed with which the punishment was handed down (less than 24 hours after the story broke) will look very bad. I agree if they hadn't done anything they would have been criticized but if they had issued a statement expressing regret and that they were going to conduct an investigation (similar to the GAA statement)  I don't think most people would have an issue with it.

I wonder were other groups of players training together elsewhere?

There's no way that the other Dublin players weren't training together elsewhere.

There's no logical case you can make that it was only these 9 players who decided to break the rules.

Also someone had to have spotted at least one previous session and tipped off the Independent, they weren't just wandering about North Dublin and stumbled upon the story.

It's three weeks until training is allowed and I don't think anyone is going to try and make the case that Dublin were just going to have this single training session with a third of the squad and they pack away their gear for three weeks - so Dublin were planning on breaking the rules multiple times.

This means that multiple training sessions occurred and more were planned.

The big question is whether the CCC will take this into account in determing  Dublin's punishment.

hopefully sense prevails and sanctioning 30 healthy young men for kicking a ball around and doing some exercise will be a non runner , was dessie there or was it an off the cuff thing . What should happen is the other teams should start training and let the gaa ban them all if they want , they should be encouraging players to get back training and setting up the championship so people have something to look forward to ,

If you can't see the reputational damage that will create for the GAA...

You have a choice of sports to start the kid in. One is the sport that claims to be community based but literally didn't care if people lived and died. The rest put safety of players and the community first.

What are you on about

You are arguing that the GAA as an organisation should ignore and flout the public health guidelines.

Thats two fingers to the community we claim to be a core part of. It will be as popular as cancer. Parents who aren't Gaels but just want their kids playing sport will clearly factor in that lack of adherence to rules (if Covid rules are being ignored are other rules like child protection also being ignored) and go to sports that don't publically not give a shit.

The GAA's reputation is already taking a hit. You are arguing to double down.

Yes as they are absolutely pathetic.

[macker15]

Wonder will any of the "Official partners" decamp?
Wonder will Central GAA have the balls to put manners on Dublin or will they hide behind the DCB suspension?

You need a lie down  son..Your drinking too much of that Lilt. Get out for walk

[StephenC]

This is not a group of lads having an impromptu game of ball on a green

This is six in a row All-Ireland champions Dublin, the institution of the Dublin football team and Dublin GAA, training away at their usual training venue at the usual time, driving there in their branded Dublin GAA cars, as if there's no pandemic and no rules

It's a two fingers to Covid bereaved like myself, and especially Covid bereaved Dublin supporters like myself, my father was a Dublin supporter for well over 60 years, he could recite to you in minute detail about the 1955 championship, about the time Wexford beat Dublin in Carlow in '56, and every year since then

Is it any wonder other people are breaking the rules more and more when this is the example of prominent people in the public eye - and this team has set itself up as role models

And still people deflect about what this is about

This is not about the risk of the Dublin team spreading Covid as a result of the meeting up yesterday morning, which is minute

It's about the entirety of the rules that every person on this island is asked to adhere to, the millions upon millions of individual and institutional decisions to either adhere to the rules or give two fingers to them

The Dublin team as an institution, through their actions, are giving the two fingers to the efforts of everybody to control and get rid of this pandemic - and it doesn't stop at the Dublin team, it reflects terribly on the whole GAA because far more in the GAA are at it and far more have been at it

That's what its about

+1
Extremely well put sid. You can turn eloquence into an art form- most of the time anyway.

Agreed. Sums up my feelings on this.

[Rossfan]

+3.
No more than that arrogant ape of a Priest in Cavan the Law applies to the GAA as well as the rest of us.

[DuffleKing]

Saying mass is indoor and a serious risk of the transmission of covid.

Playing football outdoors has virtually no risk of transmitting covid.

These are indisputable facts borne out by science.

Because our environment has been warped so far away from following science and best practice doesn't change any of the actual logic.

[Rossfan]

Did Dublin break Government public health restrictions?
Did Dublin break GAA rules?
Is the GAA above the Law?

[DuffleKing]

They broke both of those sets of rules and I'm sure will be punished accordingly.

However, to not mention that both sets of rules are inanely idiotic is to contribute to the dumb silence in this country that has created a society left behind.

With all due respect to those affected by covid - like my own family - prohibiting outdoor sport adds nothing to the battle against this virus.

[GetOverTheBar]

Finally a stick to beat this great Dublin team.

Were they in the wrong? Yes

Was it the biggest crime in the world? No

Will anyone remember this in 6 months when they win another all ireland? No

Is it front page news, considering other events? Absolutely not.