THE FALLOUT from the controversial Leinster under 21 match between Offaly and Dublin continued last night when most of the management committee of the Dublin County Board resigned en bloc at the end of a tempestuous meeting.

A meeting of the board in April set up an investigating committee to examine a written complaint from under 21 player and All Ireland medallist Jason Sherlock that he had been spat at by a county board official during the game played in Parnell Park in February.

The committee gave its report to the full county board last night, recommending that Dublin vice chairman Paddy Delaney be suspended for two months under rule 138 of the association.

Having set up the investigating committee, the full county committee, made up of club representatives, then rejected that recommendation by 30 votes to 14 with 12 members abstaining.

Several key members of the board then tendered their resignations, including Central Council delegate Gerry Brady, juvenile chairman Gerry Devlin and youth officer John Egan.

It is believed that a county board employee and several Dublin substitutes gave evidence to the investigating committee which led to the decision to recommend suspension.

When the members of the management committee who had resigned left the meeting (chairman John Bailey was absent because of illness) matters took a further bizarre twist.

In Bailey's absence, Gerry Brady of the Parnell's club had chaired the meeting. But when Brady resigned and left the meeting, Paddy Delaney, the man at the centre of the investigation, took over in the chair.

The meeting then discussed the question of whether to seek a judicial review of the Leinster Council's actions in suspending the Dublin team from next year's Leinster under 21 championship and handing out additional suspensions to several key players.

Sherlock was unavailable for comment last night but a source close to the under 21 team and the player indicated that last night's decision placed a huge question mark over Sherlock's future involvement with the GAA.

"I don't know if Jason would be interested in going on with it when, having made a complaint like that, he gets his face slapped like this. It puts him in a very hard position," the source said.

During the meeting Gerry Brady had said that the investigating committee felt it was time to stand or fall on the way discipline is going in Dublin".

Afterwards, Gerry Devlin, a member of the Cuala club and also a member of the investigating committee who resigned, gave his impressions on why the full county board had rejected their recommendations. "There was a great amount of sympathy among some members for Paddy Delaney who has given 40 years of service. Paddy still denies the incident took place."