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”.
