FORMER OFFALY and Westmeath star PJ Ward believes Armagh should not have spoken out about the alleged verbal abuse directed at Ciarán McKeever by a Laois player last Sunday.
An Armagh statement issued on Tuesday condemned the treatment of team captain McKeever at O’Moore Park and county board officials insist that McKeever was racially abused.
But Ward, who was forced to quit intercounty football last year due to injury, insists “99 per cent” of GAA players are subjected to verbal taunting on the field of play.
Ward revealed how he was verbally taunted over his surname, with the abuse reaching its peak following his transfer from Westmeath to Offaly in 2006.
The 29-year-old revealed: “I got stick because Ward is seen as a Traveller surname and I was called an inbred and told that there was a smell of burning sticks off me. But those were things that rallied me up on the field. They never got me to react and never bothered me.”
Ward insisted: “There was no need for Ciarán to bring this up. If you take everything so personally, where do you go?
“The GAA isn’t going to be able to sort this out because referees can’t hear everything that’s said on a football field. And 99 per cent of lads have things said about their mothers, sisters, aunts.
“This is after putting the GAA in a very awkward situation, especially after what happened in England with the Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez case.
“If something like this comes down to two players, it’s one’s word against the other’s and there’s not that much proof. And us as GAA players have to be seen as role models. With this being highlighted in the GAA, it’s not setting a good example.
“Kids are now seeing that this is being said and Ciarán McKeever is viewed as a role model, as is the Laois player who is alleged to have said what he did.
“Are youngsters in Laois now going to think that it’s acceptable on the field? But we know that it’s there. I’ve been getting it since I was 13 or 14 years of age.”
Ward is married to a Tyrone woman, but insists the relationship between northern and southern football teams is strained. He revealed: “There isn’t a good feeling between northern and southern teams. Northern teams seem to think that we don’t appreciate their football or that just because they’re within the Six Counties, that they’re not seen as politically involved in this country.
“But I’ve been to Tyrone on many occasions and attended club games there. And the grace and community spirit there is absolutely phenomenal, even better up there than it is down here. But what happened last Sunday is after opening a can of worms between North and South. It’s something we didn’t need youngsters to be hearing about or getting involved in. It’s something he (McKeever) should have kept to himself.
“You can also look at it from the point of view that it’s more discriminatory than racist. Realistically, that’s the way he (McKeever) has to look at it. He wasn’t abused for the colour of his skin. And if you went to the Laois player and asked did he really mean it, I’m sure he’d turn around and say, ‘not at all’.”
