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Sherlock suffered racist abuse during his playing days. INPHO/James Crombie

'It's simply not on' - Sherlock condemns racist abuse of Chin

The ex-Dublin star also recalled his own experiences with racism as a player.

EX-DUBLIN GAA player, Jason Sherlock, has spoken out against racist abuse recently directed at Wexford player Lee Chin.

Speaking on The Last Word, Sherlock said: “There are certain boundaries in sport, and racism is one of them.

“It’s an issue globally, and in our own society, it’s something we have to get used to.”

His comments come after two members of the Duffry Rovers team received eight-week bans when referee Brendan Martin highlighted racist comments they made in his match report, which were directed at Chin, during a recent senior football championship game.

Asked whether eight weeks was a lengthy enough punishment for such behaviour, Sherlock said: “I would say so.”

He also emphasised the positive manner in which the incident was handled.

He expressed satisfaction that “firstly, it was punished, and secondly, the referee picked up on it”.

The ex-GAA star also spoke of his own experiences suffering racist abuse, suggesting people did not always think of the victim in such circumstances.

“I would have suffered a fair bit – we didn’t have multicultural society as we do now.

“My sympathy would be with Lee, as it is a humiliating experience.”

Sherlock claimed that often, in such scenarios, the abusers were not inherently racist.

“It’s not necessarily that they’re racist, it’s just a lack of knowledge and ignorance.

“It’s like if someone was overweight, they might get abuse.”

Sherlock also revealed that he had already received racist abuse on Twitter, despite only recently joining the site. He added:

“There’s a load of other things people can slag me about, and I’d have no problem with that.

“When it comes to race, it’s simply not on.”

Speaking on the same programme, Helena Clarke of the integration society praised the GAA for the efforts they had made to address the issue of racism in the sport.

“GAA have shown they’re willing to tackle racism – Uefa hasn’t done that as well.”

However, she also expressed concern, suggesting that GAA clubs “tend to be very exclusive”.

She cited a recent survey to support her concerns, in which both Irish nationals and foreign nationals were questioned, with 44% of the former group saying they had played sport in the previous week, while only 28% of the latter group had.

She also expressed disappointment that the two abusers in the Chin case had only been given the minimum punishment for their behaviour, suggesting that “a harder sentence could have been put in”.

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    Mute Mike Brennan
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    Jun 21st 2012, 8:25 AM

    Glad to see less of a tolerance of this nonsense nowadays. I recall Jayo getting plenty of racial abuse himself at a Cork City v UCD game at Turners Cross back in the mid 90s. He was but a young pup at the time. Many there found it hilarious, as every time he got the ball a chorus of Chinese type sounds emanated from the shed end. I’m sure he must have gotten it as bad or worse elsewhere. This crap us no longer acceptable in modern sport and the players above all else should be setting the example.

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    Mute Niall Holmes
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    Jun 21st 2012, 8:17 AM

    people shouldn’t just be expected to take this on the chin anymore :P

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    Mute Dexter Gordon
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    Jun 21st 2012, 8:23 AM

    Not very funny in the circumstances.

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    Mute Paula Brennan
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    Jun 21st 2012, 9:11 AM

    Wow Niall, your’e so funny, such wit…

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    Mute Barry
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    Jun 21st 2012, 9:42 AM

    Niall, your an idiot and its fools like you that make alot of people think this crap is acceptable in society

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    Mute Damocles
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    Jun 21st 2012, 11:05 AM

    To be fair to Niall, that wasn’t a racist joke.

    It was a bad pun. And there’s always room for a few bad puns in the world.

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    Mute Ben Gunn
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    Jun 21st 2012, 11:34 AM

    N

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    Mute Foot Ball
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    Jun 21st 2012, 8:55 AM

    For an amateur organisation the GAA seem to have dealt with this matter very well. Swiftly and fairly. nIt’s embarrassing that this kind of racism still exists, and there’s no generational or educational excuses in this instance, just pure ignorance.

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    Mute Richard Lennon
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    Jun 21st 2012, 10:33 AM

    Racist abuse is wrong in all societies I remember Roy Keane, Martin O Neill and Niall Quinn saying they were abused in England for being Irish and its still going on today.

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