*Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
LISSYCASEY GAA club will accept whatever sanctions are imposed on them following Monday’s U15A game whereby referee John O’Connell was assaulted by a member of their club.
Scenes which have circulated from the incident on social media have caused shock and disgust.
A Garda investigation continues while Clare GAA are expected to issue a lengthy ban for the responsible parties.
Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting of the Clare County Board, Lissycasey GAA Chairman Eamonn Finnucane stated, “We were as shocked as anybody to see what has come out. I spoke to John today and he was thankful for the call. What happened would not be in our nature at all. We would not condone what happened. We apologise to John and his family, to Clare GAA and to all the referees. We will accept whatever sanctions will come from this”.
Chairman of Clare GAA, Kieran Keating stated that they will not be waiting for any civil action to be completed before imposing any sanction.
Cooraclare delegate, PJ McGuane queried, “in the event that John O’Connell goes down the legal route, where do we stand. I spent 20 years as chairman of Bord na nÓg and it is one of the things we were always very careful of. You don’t want to issue a penalty to an individual who might end up in court and he will use that as an indication of finding him guilty and might prejudice his case of getting a fair trial. It’s a disgrace that something like what happened at this game happens in this day and age”.
McGuane recalled being assaulted when taking charge of an U21 final over six decades ago. “The ‘My Johnnie syndrome’ has been prevelant in this county for many many years. If my Johnnie or my Bridget is playing and I as his or her parent claim they are not getting fair play the first port of call is to attack the ref. The ref is there to do a job which is a thankless job. I wouldn’t handle a whistle in a million years. I did it 60 years ago and I was assaulted in an under 21 final and I know what it is to be assaulted. In that incident the wagons were circled and even people in my own club didn’t want me to report it but I did report it and the three men involved got 6 months each and they lost the 21 final which had ended in a draw the first day. Social media takes control of everything now and that’s the problem. In my view the minimum sanction for these things is not enough. This is a bad headline for our game based on what I saw”.
Keating stated in response, “We can’t be concerned could there be civil action down the line. It could take a long time to get there. We have to deal with what has happened. We have our rules. Everyone involved in the games are bound by our rules and we have to deal with it, if there is an infraction reported we have to deal with it. The minimums are quite high. There is enough of a penalty there to send out a very strong signal. We can’t park it and wait for a civil action, we would be waiting for years”.
Clare GAA referees administrator, Rory Hickey described the behaviour at Monday’s game as “atrocious”. He told The Clare Echo, “Like everyone else I was sitting on the couch when the videos were circulating, shock was my first reaction to see it happen to a referee in the county. I had to watch it a couple of times and then I was shocked and concerned for John. There were a lot of kids at the game, it is terrible for them to see what unfolded, the behaviour from some people at the game was atrocious, I really thought we moved on from something like this happening and I had thought it was a thing of the past”.
Hickey spoke with O’Connell on Tuesday morning and admitted the Cooraclare man was “struggling” and “in shock”. He admitted the incident will impact referee recruitment in the county. “You never expect that to happen when out refereeing a match. It doesn’t help anyone in this county or all over Ireland, such is power of social media that it is gone all over the world, it is just another referee to the cynics but to the real GAA people it is a travesty and it shouldn’t happen”.
In 2025, Clare had 48 active referees, 19 that are hurling only, 16 that are gaelic football only and 13 dual referees. The amount of referees increased by fourteen during Seanie McMahon’s two and a half year term as administrator prior to his removal from the post by Clare GAA Chairman Kieran Keating and ex Head of Operations, Deirdre Murphy in January 2025.
Éire Óg clubman Hickey said the CCCC will await O’Connell’s match report but expected a strong punishment would be issued. “We’ll await the report and firm action will be taken after that. It can’t be tolerated, what signal does it send out if the County Board don’t take action on this”.
Abuse was received by Rory during his refereeing career from 2001 to 2019 including getting abusive letters after officiating the 2009 Munster senior football final. “I was lucky enough that nothing like this every happened in my 20 years, I went nose to nose with a couple of fellas on the field and again off it but we’d be able to meet afterwards and there was nothing this serious”.
Supports will be extended to O’Connell, Rory confirmed. The referee will make his return to action on Wednesday evening as the man in the middle for the Cusack Cup semi-final between St Joseph’s Miltown and St Breckans. “Former Galway hurler, Justin Campbell is a trained psychologist, he is available to every GAA referee in the country, they have been in contact with Justin today (Tuesday), our PRO Aaron Carroll has put them in contact and John will be able to speak to him if he wishes”.
Referees in the county have been left very disappointed with what happened to O’Connell. “We’re 100 percent behind John, we have a good loyal band of referees in the county, we’d hate to see someone step away, as a County Board we need to look and see can we improve things at venues, such is the volume of games I don’t know how we can stop it with people getting onto the field but we are 100 percent behind John,” the Ennis native added.
