Fall Out Continues for Kerry

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Irish Voice Sport

Fall Out Continues for Kerry

June 26, 2008

The Cathal Dervan Column

THE beatification of Kerry’s suspended football captain Paul Galvin has been quite something to behold since the GAA have thrown the book at him for flicking the book out of referee Paddy Russell’s hand in Killarney two Sundays ago.

Galvin is an acquired taste. Some people, especially those who share his surname, love him and still people think he is getting what he deserves after Croke Park upheld his six month suspension.

Those who love him are mostly of a Kerry background and they have been rallying to the cause. Former GAA president Sean Kelly has spoken of Galvin’s voluntary work as a GAA coach.

Michael O Muirihear-taigh has likened Galvin to that other Munster rebel Roy Keane in his Star Sunday column.

Jimmy Deenihan, mostly a TD these days but a former Kerry skipper himself, has claimed that Galvin is more sinned against than sinning.

All three – Kelly, O Muiriheartaigh and Deenihan – are from Kerry so it is little surprise that they are down on the side of Galvin in the debate that has swept the nation though not one which has surpassed the interest in the various tribunals around the place as Kelly so bizarrely claimed in Tuesday’s Irish Examiner.

Sorry folks but I don’t buy into this sanctimonious bullshit. Paul Galvin was out of order in Killarney two weekends. His behaviour was not acceptable as a county footballer never mind as the Kerry captain.

That’s why the GAA have hit him hard with a six month suspension. Not because he is an acquired taste, not because he is from Kerry, not because he is some misunderstood hero.

He was out of line and now he will have to watch Kerry go for the three in a row from the line. He did the crime and now he must do the time.

Writing to newspapers to defend his honor or claiming he’s a victim in a column is not going to change any of that.

Galvin was out of order and he is now reaping the fruits of his behaviour. It would suit him and his defenders to accept that fact and get on with their lives.

There are, after all, more important things to be worrying about than a suspension, even in Kerry.

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