LIAM O’NEILL HAS reiterated his view that biting is ‘unacceptable’ in the GAA as an alleged incident is set to be discussed at a Leinster Council meeting tonight.
The alleged altercation took place last Sunday in the O’Byrne Cup game between Dublin and DCU in Parnell Park.
GAA President O’Neill was in the USA last weekend at a function organised by the Buffalo Fenians club and was keen to stress that he was unaware of the facts surrounding the alleged incident.
But he did reiterate the comments that he made last year in the wake of the high-profile incident where it was claimed that Donegal’s Patrick McBrearty had suffered a bite.
“I made my comments on biting the last time when it reared its head and I stick by that. It is not acceptable. If it did happen, it is not acceptable.
“I am stressing, I am sitting here not knowing the facts. I wasn’t around at the weekend, I was away. If there is a case to be answered, it will be answered.”
“It is increasingly difficult to prove cases of this sort because of the effort people make now to circumvent rules. If an allegation is made, the person against who that allegation is made is entitled to due process. That is key too.”
O’Neill expressed his hope that those who made the allegation will stand by it.
“I said last year that if you make an allegation you should follow it through and I am not really going to back into that. That surfaced a few times during the year as if that was an awful thing to say.
“But I would hope that if an allegation is made the person who made it will follow through. I think that is a huge help to a disciplinary process.”
The GAA President did admit that these type of offences are extremely difficult to detect.
“I suppose it is, yeah. If it was easily seen it would not be done. We view those things seriously and our disciplinary process is there. It is robust. If people give evidence then it is easy to create a case, if indeed there is a case to be made.”
