A FORMER officer of the Waterford county board of the GAA, who was at the centre of a Garda investigation into the alleged misappropriation of €142,000 from intercounty ticket sales, was found dead in Co Wexford yesterday.
The body of the man, who was in his mid-60s and from east Waterford, was discovered at about 12.30pm in a field at Stokestown, three miles from New Ross.
The body was removed to Waterford Regional Hospital for a postmortem examination.
A Garda spokeswoman said gardaí were not treating the death as suspicious and were not looking for anybody else in connection with the man's death. News of the tragedy was greeted with shock and dismay in Waterford, coming just days after it emerged that the Waterford GAA county board had made a complaint to the Garda that some €142,000 from ticket sales had been misappropriated.
Former county board chairman John A Murphy paid tribute to the dead man, describing him as "the most honourable and most efficient and most loyal officer of the county board to whom everyone in the GAA in Waterford owes a great debt of gratitude". The dead man, who is survived by his son, resigned this month from his positions on the eastern divisional board of Waterford GAA and the executive of the county board.
The missing money represented the proceeds of tickets sales by the eastern divisional board for Waterford's appearance in last year's All-Ireland hurling series.
Waterford played five matches in the championship, including a Munster semi-final against Cork, a Munster Final against Limerick, two All-Ireland quarter-finals against Cork and a semi-final in which the county was beaten by Limerick. All five games were all-ticket affairs which attracted large crowds, with tickets being sent from the GAA's Munster council and central council to Waterford county board, which gave them to its two divisional boards for distribution to the county's 50 clubs.
It is understood a small number of officials learned of the alleged misappropriation of money late in 2007, but they opted to give the man an opportunity to reimburse the board. The matter was later reported to the Garda and a writ issued against the man.