Paisley and GAA violence

Ian Paisley junior was undoubtedly provocative and perhaps even inflammatory in his call for the Police Service of Northern Ireland to investigate the trouble on the pitch at Omagh during the recent Tyrone versus Dublin National Football League match.

He knows all about the poor relationship between the GAA and the PSNI's predecessor, the RUC. He knows that the PSNI still does not enjoy the full confidence of the people of the six counties. His comparison with last year's riots at a soccer match between the warring loyalist supporters of Linfield and Glentoran was disingenuous at best: that was a full-scale hooligan riot on the pitch between fans involving serious weapons.

What does Paisley want? That the police march onto the pitch to arrest players if, for example, Ulster players use their studs on opponents at a ruck during a Heineken Cup match at Ravenhill? Does he want to remove the ability of sporting organisations to discipline players for misdemeanours on the pitch?

The problem for the GAA in particular, however, is that common assault has happened too frequently on pitches throughout the island, made worse by a failure to deal with such incidents adequately. It will never be possible to eradicate fights between players that break out spontaneously, but there have been too many examples of players being hit deliberately and unexpectedly from behind. Players have suffered very serious injuries, sometimes from hurleys as well as fists and boots, and civil and criminal actions have resulted.

Unfortunately, the GAA has largely failed in its attempts to stop such actions taking place, mainly because participants have little fear of the consequences of punishments set down by the body. The failure to deal with televised attacks such as happened at Omagh has eroded any confidence that there would be decisive action taken, particularly now that officials have turned their attention to "unfair" media coverage.

As it is, what happened at Omagh should not rate as highly in causing outrage as some of the things that have happened on many GAA fields, even if it was unsavoury and unsporting.

Paisley's intervention will be seen as opportunist and perhaps even malicious but if he was to see what happens at games not covered by television he might become very vociferous indeed. For that reason the GAA should hope he doesn't start turning up at games. Although if he does it should be taken as a sign that a United Ireland might really be possible.