THE PRESIDENT of the Ulster Council, Martin McAviney, has praised Donegal’s handling of the controversy that arose out of an Ulster Minor Championship game against Tyrone in May.
Following that game in Ballybofey, it was claimed that a Donegal player had been taunted about the death of his father in 2014 and the Donegal manager, Declan Bonner, went as far as to say that he considered his own position at the time.
“I would rather walk away than be involved in something that has become so toxic,” he wrote in a newspaper column at the time.
The Ulster Council launched a probe into the allegations and met seven times on the matter.
At a joint meeting between the Ulster Council and representatives from the counties on September 23rd, the investigating committee presented its findings and the contents were agreed with all parties.
A subsequent statement from the Tyrone County Board claimed that their players had been ‘exonerated’ but the Ulster Council followed that up by noting that ‘recent media reports regarding the investigation do not accurately reflect the findings of the Committee’.
There was ill feeling in Donegal about the comments from Tyrone, but the County Board kept their counsel and released only a brief statement, in which they ‘vehemently refuted’ a story carried on a Tyrone-based website.
Last night, at the Donegal GAA Awards function in the Mount Errigal Hotel, Mr McAviney touched on the subject in his address.
Picture caption: Donegal County Administrator Noreen Doherty with Martin McAviney at the County Presentation Awards night at Mount Errigal Hotel. Picture courtesy of Geraldine Diver.
“Both counties and the Ulster Council got together to investigate the matter and spent quite a while at it,” he said.
“There was an agreement made at the end of that and there have been issues since.
“I want to say this, and I genuinely mean this: Donegal and your Chairman, especially, did exactly what they agreed to do. There was an agreement made between Ulster, Tyrone and Donegal.
“Your chairman has absolutely honoured that agreement in full.”
Tags: