Dublin and Offaly U-21s reinstated

The Dublin and Offaly Under-21 football teams have been allowed back into the Leinster Championship for 1998. But both sides have been banned from playing at home for three years.

The counties had been suspended from the 1997 and 1998 competitions following a serious outbreak of violence in the Leinster quarter-final match last March at Parnell Park.

Last night's meeting of the Leinster Council in Portlaoise voted 19 to one to lift the suspensions it had imposed.

The matter was addressed by a notice of motion, rather than by appeal. The motion was proposed by the former Offaly team manager, Andy Gallagher, who said that the decision to ban the two teams from the 1998 competition would mean that players who were not involved in the fracas which brought about the suspension would be innocent victims of something over which they had no control.

"I accept that the decision handed down by the Leinster Council was just in the sense that nobody could make any excuses for what happened on that day," Gallagher said.

"However, young players who were not even at the match have been barred from the 1998 competition and I believe that is unjust to them. I therefore propose that both counties be allowed take part in the Under-21 championship next season," he said.

The motion was seconded by the chairman of the Dublin County Board, John Bailey. "I agree with what Andy has said. I accept the punishments that have been meted out to the Dublin people involved and I have no problem with that. But I think it would be wrong to punish players or anybody else not involved with what happened," he said.

Jim Dunne, from the Wicklow County Board, supported the motion. "This was a very serious occasion and it could not be allowed to pass without serious repercussions for those involved. But we have to take into account the fact that we are dealing with a new batch of young players who had nothing to do with what happened, and I don't think it would be right for them to be punished," he said.

The motion was then put to the meeting by the chairman, Jim Berry, from Wexford, and was passed on a show of hands.

The Leinster Council also decided, after a protracted, two-and-a-half-hour meeting, that Meath hurling clubs Kilmessan and Rathmolyon will be allowed to play their county semi-final.

The teams had refused to play the match because it clashed with the All-Ireland hurling final in Croke Park. Representatives of both clubs expressed satisfaction with the decision.