THE TYRONE GAA county board is to examine video footage to try to identify who was involved in a “shocking” brawl involving up to 40 people during a game between Carrickmore and Dromore at Dunmoyle, near Ballygawley, Co Tyrone, on Sunday.
Several people were left bloodied and hurt following violent clashes that erupted among fans to the front of the stand after trouble on the field in which two players from the Carrickmore team were sent off.
Eyewitnesses said the trouble first broke out between a number of players and then spilled over to the crowd, with dozens of spectators getting involved.
A number of rival supporters fought in the stand while other spectators tried to pacify them, and others, including young children, looked on in fear.
Damian Harvey, press officer for the Tyrone GAA board, said the board would examine video footage from the game to identify who was involved in the trouble both on and off the pitch.
Mr Harvey said a “small core” of people was involved.
He said the scenes did not make “pleasant viewing” but after the referee’s report was received in the coming days the violence would be fully investigated at county board level.
Carrickmore in a statement condemned the violence at the division one league final, which was won by Dromore.
Barry McElduff, a Sinn Féin Assembly member for Mid-Ulster and a member and former player with the Carrickmore club, said he had never witnessed such trouble at a GAA game.
“I am somebody who only wants to do the GAA reputational good but I have to say what I saw was shocking,” he said.
Mr McElduff said lessons needed to be learned from the incident.
“I think there needs to be a big discussion inside the world of sport and the GAA about the respect agenda – respect for referees, for rules and for opponents within the heat of battle,” he said.
“Very often passion is the GAA’s strength and also local rivalry and local commitment but sometimes it becomes its weakness,” added Mr McElduff.
The trouble at Dunmoyle followed an incident earlier this year when a referee was seriously assaulted at a ladies’ Gaelic game in Tyrone. This resulted in two men, one of them from the Carrickmore club, being issued with lifetime bans by the GAA.
Last week the Antrim county board also imposed lifetime bans on a player and an official from St Mary’s Club in Rasharkin after an attack on a referee during an under-21 game.