I VISITED my father’s grave this morning (Wednesday). The reason I was there was to ask for guidance to write my article for this week’s Gaelic Life paper.

The article I had planned was about the game on Sunday between Armagh and Galway as we had taken our two youngest kids for their first time in Croke Park. I would have included something about how Armagh had succumbed to their own invention as the penalty kicked was invented in Armagh no more than two miles from the Athletic Grounds.

Instead, I was debating whether I should break my father’s cardinal rule whenever he wrote articles for the papers. His rule was simple. His articles were for coaching and coaching only, they were not for getting involved in anything outside the playing development of the game. No politics, no conjecture, no opinions, no controversy; just coaching!

It is a rule I wanted to continue until I saw the injudicious national reaction to the skirmish between both teams at full-time, specifically the incident between Tiernan Kelly and Damien Comer.

As I sat awaiting some form of epiphany, Scarlett, my youngest, was playing around the grave and singing her own wee made-up songs as she does. She paused from her singing to ask me “Daddy, what was Granda John when he growed up?” I told her he was a teacher and she continued by saying “I wanna be a teacher when I grow up” and returned to her singing. After shedding a few tears I realised that Scarlett in her innocence was telling me that we all want to emulate who we hold dear.

I have watched the incident over 20 times. Driving home from the graveyard, Scarlett still singing in the back seat, I was thinking about the social media reaction and a phrase popped into my head. “He without sin, cast the first stone.” When I got home and looked up the passage it was ‘JOHN 8:7,’ Daddy had given me his sign.

John 8:6-11 reads: “They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Before I continue any further, I want to make it clear that I do not condone anything that happened at the full-time whistle on Sunday. Young Tiernan Kelly has been involved in a melee which resulted in him making contact with another player’s face, specifically the eye area, posing a risk to that player’s immediate safety.

I am sure he knows himself that this was wrong and could have resulted in a more serious injury but thankfully did not. The GAA will deal with this in the correct manner, and Tiernan I am sure will plead his case and accept the punishment that is carried out.

What I also do not condone is the nationwide smear campaign and vilification of any player, county andor region. This matter will be dealt with accordingly by the GAA’s controls committee following the correct protocols and as such that should be all that is required.

In my article I wanted to question the social media callous vilification of Tiernan Kelly. Namely, The Sunday Game’s incessant need to repeatedly show the incident while also saying they don’t want to see it in our games and the Association’s long neglect in dealing with such incidents.

I did enough of that on social media myself, something in hindsight I should have just not got involved in. This is what got me asking myself this morning about what my involvement in this incident was?

An answer I am sure will be the same for every other GAA person in the country. That answer was simple… I am complicit! How? Many times I have been involved in similar melees, more than once usually first in and with total disregard for opposition players.

Many times I have abused referees, officials and the opposition. And many times I have taken to social media to vent my opinion on matters that simply neither need nor want my opinion. We are ALL complicit in the form of our actions.

This then brought about my next question, one that I first directed to myself but which I will now direct to everyone involved within the GAA. A question that asks you on both a personal and an individual level.

“What are YOU going to do about it?”

If we want these incidents to disappear from our games, if we want people to respect each other as well as the officials and if we really want positive change to happen within the GAA then ALL of us need to be the change that we want to see in our games.

We first must change our own behaviours and attitudes towards this sort of behaviours before we can expect others to change. The same must be said for when we are passing judgement as well, only those who free from sins within a GAA setting have the right to judge without prejudice only then can someone “cast the first stone.”

Just as young Scarlett wanted to emulate her grandfather by becoming a teacher, we must first become teachers ourselves and show those we influence with the correct and necessary actions required to ensure that positive changes are made.

For now, I ask that people “Condone the sin and hug the sinner,” but most importantly before passing any judgement remember the message of John 8:7.

Email: pmgoalkeeping@hotmail.com

Facebook: @MSoG11 | Twitter: @MorSchGk