High Court order frees O'Connell for Sunday

Leinster SF Final Laois v WestmeathWestmeath midfielder Rory O'Connell has won a High Court order which makes him available for selection for Sunday's Leinster senior football final against Laois in Croke Park.

The court decision was welcomed afterwards by the team manager, Mr Páidí Ó Sé, who professed himself "just delighted".

An All-Star in 2001, Mr O'Connell had been sent off in the Leinster championship first round game against Offaly on May 23rd and was later banned for three months for allegedly stamping on an opponent, which had left him still under suspension for Sunday's game. He claimed he was "completely innocent" of the stamping accusation.

Late last evening, Mr Justice O'Leary granted an interlocutory injunction restraining the GAA authorities from imposing the suspension pending the full trial of the action. The judge said there was no court imposition on Mr O'Connell not to play on Sunday.

The judge referred to a letter from Co Offaly player Paschal Kelleghan in which Mr Kellaghan had said he got a blow to the head but could not identify the offender.

While the letter was admissible in the consideration of Mr O'Connell's position by the Games Administration Committee (GAC) and the Management Committee, it was not admitted in the court, the judge ruled, stating that fair procedures had not been followed.

He did not believe the GAA rules required that such a letter come through particular official channels.

However, the judge stressed this was an interlocutory hearing (one pending the trial of the action) and he was not adjudicating on what should happen to Mr O'Connell in the future.

In an affidavit, Mr O'Connell said that when he was shown a red card in the game against Offaly, he did not know why he was being sent off.

He was aware the referee had received a report from the linesman at the time. Following the match, he asked the referee why he had been sent off and he said the referee replied that he did not know yet.

That evening, he got official word that he had been sent off and reported for stamping on an opponent. There was no indication that the referee's report was based on a linesman's report, he said. This was a very serious allegation against him and one of which he was "completely innocent," Mr O'Connell said.

He believed the linesman had misinterpreted what was an innocent entanglement after a tussle for the ball. He believed this had been confirmed by the account of the opposing player involved in the tussle, which account, he was presuming, was the basis of the allegation against him.

Mr O'Connell told a meeting of the Games Administration Committee (GAC) he made contact with the player who was allegedly the subject of the stamping incident, Paschal Kellaghan.

Mr Kellaghan had informed him he could not say it was Mr O'Connell who had stamped on him. He asked Mr Kellaghan if he would write to him confirming this and Mr Kellaghan had said he would.

He attended a GAC meeting, with Mr Páidí Ó Sé, team manager, and Mr Séamus Whelan, Westmeath GAA chairman. During that meeting, the GAC never read out the letter or explained why they did not do so. The letter revealed that the only incident which Mr Kellaghan had complained of was a blow to the head while he was standing and which caused him to fall. This could, in no way, be construed as an incident of stamping, Mr O'Connell said.

An appeal against his suspension was heard at a Management Committee meeting on June 19th. He had found out then that Mr Kellaghan's letter had not been taken into account at the GAC hearing.

The reasons stated were that it had not got Mr Kellaghan's address on it and that it did not come through the Offaly County Board and therefore, anybody could have written it and they could not accept it. Later, he was advised his appeal was unsuccessful.

Liam Mulvihill, director general of the GAA, in an affidavit, said Mr O'Connell was not, in his proceedings, challenging the referee's decision to send him off the field of play. Mr O'Connell acknowledged he was involved in "an entanglement after a tussle for the ball."

It was clear the entanglement involved Mr O'Connell.

Notwithstanding Mr O'Connell's contention that he did not stamp on Mr Kelleghan, it was evident that a serious incident occurred which led the referee to immediately issue a red card and to send off Mr O'Connell.

The referee stated in his report the sending off was due to Mr O'Connell having "stamped on an opponent." The disciplinary structures and committees of the GAA were premised on treating the referee's report as conclusive with regard to matters referred to in the report.

Mr Mulvihill said Mr O'Connell was not challenging the competence and jurisdiction of the Management Committee. As a voluntary member of the GAA who had agreed to be bound by its rules, Mr O'Connell could not invoke the court's jurisdiction to effectively create a further right of appeal when he had no such entitlement under GAA rules, Mr Mulvihill added.

At the Management Committee meeting, Mr O'Connell was informed that Mr Kellaghan's letter was inadmissible as evidence. That being so, there was no substance in the complaint that he was denied fair procedures, Mr Mulvihill said.