Battle of Omagh

[gaaa head]

I can remember an under 21 championship match, it could have been the first round, i'm not sure, but offaly were playing dublin. Similar to the much talked about battle of omagh, a big brawl ensued midway through the second half in parnell park. I think it was the crowd who started it because a bottle was thrown at a player on the pitch but again, i'm not too sure. Either way, due to the rioting the game was called to a halt.
The punishment handed down to the teams was that they were thrown out of the leinster campaign altogether for that year, and could not play their u21 championship homegames at home for the following couple of years.
The GAA has progressed so much since that day probably ten or less years ago. Players get better treatment and the although the association is not at all professional it has become more professional. There was no excuse for the behaviour of some Tyrone and Dublin players that day. If the GAA are to go forward rather than backward, why were Tyrone and Dublin not thrown out of the league, in the same way a few young guys were thrown out of an u21 championship almost a decade ago? If they did, it would be less likely to happen again. There just doesn't seem to be consistency, any opinions?

[Lone Shark]

To be fair to the players involved, there was a lot of shaping, but not many lads actually drew back a fist and hit someone. If that game wasn't on TV a lot less would have been said - the fact that it was meant that the phone lines to Marian Finucane and Joe Duffy were going to be hopping, and the GAA were forced to act. By all accounts the game in Wexford Park between Wexford and Derry was fairly bad too, but there was no cameras, so that's the end of that.

I know nothing about the famous brawl which was (I believe) in 1996, but there was a lot more went on there supposedly.

Most of what went on in Omagh was lads not wanting to be seen to stay out of it. Tyrone only got a load of punishments because the GAA are still annoyed that McMenamin got away with that malicious knee in the back last year.

[seamroga]

The Offaly Dublin row in the under 21 championship was in 1997 and inspired headlines like 'Pitched Battle In Parnell Park'. I can confirm that it was fairly savage. But the game wasn't called off. Dublin got a late goal to win it actually, but they were thrown out afterwards. I still believe Offaly could have won the provincial that year had events not unfolded as they had. We still had players on the team who won medals at this grade in 1995. There was a fairly high-profile investigation afterwards and Offaly were required to play away from home in the championship for three years afterwards which, if memory serves me right, included one or two replays. Again, home advantage may have helped us at least reach a final during those years because the teams we had weren't too bad.

[far from croghan hill]

seamroga is spot on, the game was in parnell park in 1997. mcmanus was star on the team scoring 1-7, infact one of his sisters videod the match from the stand, this was later used by the leinster council. several suspensions and fines were handed out. the dublin player damien bolger(supposedly at the tiem the next best thing) got a two year suspension which he failed to get lifted and vowed never to play GAA again. dave billings was a dub selector and also got a hefty suspension which threatened his job as director of sport in UCD. other offaly players were suspended including john ryan, stephen byrne(of 98 hurling fame). the star newspaper carried a picture of Ross Evans from ballyfore splitting two dub players, and amazingly he never was called before the leinster council. offaly did forfit home advantage, and the following year played their "home" tie under tommy lyons against wicklow in athy! the team included current senior pascal Kellaghan.