Wicklow camogie teams are banned after public brawl

Two Wicklow camogie clubs have been expelled from the Camogie Association by the local county board following a brawl at a senior…

Two Wicklow camogie clubs have been expelled from the Camogie Association by the local county board following a brawl at a senior semi-final game in Arklow last month.

Players fought each other in the centre of the pitch during the game between Kiltegan and Annacurra in Pearse Park on July 14th.

Match referee Ms Martina Kennedy was forced to abandon the game 15 minutes from the end because "she couldn't be responsible for the safety of the players".

The Wicklow Camogie County Board met on Friday night last to discuss the referee's report into the Kiltegan and Annacurra incident.

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While no official announcement has been made yet it has been learned a decision was taken to expel both clubs.

The clubs are awaiting official confirmation of their expulsion from the association.

Yesterday neither the PR officer, Ms Suzanne Pearson, or chairperson, Ms Winnie O'Hanlon, were prepared to comment on their decision.

"We've no comment to make at the moment. A statement will be issued in due course," said Ms Pearson.

It is unclear if the expulsion means a ban for life but under GAA rules, expulsion normally means that.

The expulsion affects all teams in both clubs which range from under 10's to seniors.

If the ban is for life it means that girls in those clubs can never play camogie locally again.

At an earlier meeting, Wicklow County Board gave both clubs and players an opportunity to explain their actions, after which they decided that both sides had a case to answer.

That meeting was attended by club officials and 31 of the 42 players.

The damage inflicted on the association was taken into account.

Both clubs were invited to attend last Friday night's board meeting with their two club delegates and two club representatives.

The clubs were present at the meeting when the decision to expel them from the association was taken.

The Kiltegan club has five separate teams, U-10s. U-12s, U-14s and U-16s as well as the senior team. Up to 90 members are affected.

There are similar repercussions for the Annacurra club members at both under-age and adult level.

Because of the ban imposed by the camogie board none of the members can join any other camogie club which effectively puts an end to their camogie careers.

A member of the Kiltegan club who did not want to be named said yesterday: "I don't think that an eight-year-old should be punished for something that an adult has done. It's had a very bad affect on us and we're still in shock. We need a bit of time to get our heads around what happened."

During the second half of the match most of the 30 players became involved in the brawl. Players were punched and kicked but it is not known if any were struck with hurleys.

Ms Suzanne Pearson at the time described the scenes "as not nice" but could not say if hurleys were used by the girls.

She said the referee had no option but to abandon the game for her own safety and for the safety of players and officials.

When asked if it was fair to have under-age girls banned for something they had no part in Ms Pearson said: "I cannot comment on that either."

She also refused to state for how long the clubs have been banned from the association.

Ms Síle Wallace, general secretary of the Camogie Association, was unavailable for comment on the findings.