The 2023 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

I am an agnostic on whether he should or shouldn't step down. I have seen some of the press from his wife's side and some from his. However the prosecution service in NI do not believe he has a case to answer.

Family law is messy at the best of times. The NI court's gave him custody of his children. Until the courts say different we have to accept that.

Now should he be barred from the sideline for spitting on his hands that is a different story

While I'd agree to a certain extent that the Derry Co Board cannot really just knee-jerk react to social media campaigns and rumors, it's wrong to say that the PPS say that he doesn't have a case to answer. What they said was that the chances of achieving a successful prosecution were not high enough..... It's not exactly the same thing, in fact it's not the same thing at all.

However, if agree that any family dispute is messy, and really the likes of Derry Co Board have been handed a bag of sh1te not of their making, and no matter what they do they are wrong. Gallagher might be an assh0le, he might be guilty of all the things he's accused of, but the GAA like any other large organization is full of assh0les, do we act as judge and jury on everything?

Either way, it's very sad, and sadder to think of 4 kids caught in the middle of it all.

How can o e refute allegations completely. The nature of allegation's ate just that allegations. At the end of it he went through a civil procedure to gain custody of his children. The PSNI investigated, handed over the details of the investigation to the PPS in NI who found the case was not prosecutable. At the end of it he is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.

Guilty until proven innocent then.

Thats the social media mob for you.

I think it's a little more than a social media mob tbh, the allegations have been made by a named individual (not anonymously) and although deemed not prosecutable, it is clear that an incident or more likely incidents occurred.

He hasn't been proven innocent either, far from it.

That's not what I'm saying at all. Let's take a different example and maybe it'll help you understand:

Let's say there's an accountant about whom allegations are made that he stole money from a client, the guards investigate but no charges brought; fair enough he's not guilty.

Let's say you have done some previous work with him so he has some credit with you; then you need an accountant for your business and have the option of hiring that guy - you ask him about the previous allegations and he says "sure the guards investigated that, nothing was ever proven" and when you press him on it, he just repeats that statement rather than saying "that was all lies, I never stole a penny" - do you hire him?

If the first statement is all he can give me, I don't. It doesn't make him guilty but I'd still prefer not to take the chance with my business

You're still going down a road where you want Derry GAA to punish him for his actions X number of years ago. When the courts have not prosecuted and family courts have deemed him suitable enough for full custody of his kids.

They might have to sack him due to public pressure, his name is severely blackened now which will impact his future prospects, but it shouldn't really be a county boards job to insert themselves into family situations or to investigate historical abuse allegations

Donal doing his best to undo the goodwill he got last week

Have to wonder how appropriate it is for the GPA president to be referring to members as disappointed also rans.

He wouldn't be so quick to label the Joe McDonagh Cup competitors in similar terms, nevermind the Rackard, Ring, Meagher.

They're seen as great for the growth of his mystical game sure.

But it isn't the GPA who moan when the Connacht draw throws up the possibility of one of the 4 weak counties making the final. It is the general public, as represented on Boards who moan about it being on TV. Some of them want to engineer the draw (they call it seeding), so that it will always be two of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon in the final. Same in Munster, if a weak county makes the final, more moan moan moan.

Yeah, now that you mention that... Has the presidency of the GPA gone to his head? Has he been brushing up on his Jack Lynch speeches? Maybe he fancies a cut at the GAA presidency or maybe the main one...

The Tailteann Cup starts today, not that you'd know it to follow any media coverage. Ulster Final is the only show in town apparently.

For all the talk, the association is doing a pi56 poor job promoting ALL levels of ALL games, both hurling and football, Apart perhaps from the very elite 2 or 4 counties in both,the rest of us can sh1te.

Not for me. As a Galway supporter it would suit to be seeded but I don't think it's fair. I remember when Sligo beat us to win Connacht in 2007. The celebrated like they had won Connacht/All Ireland/World Cup all rolled into one (and rightly so). Seed a draw and that's that notion probably gone. The last day if Galway under performed got a couple sent off etc Sligo could have pounced on their chance. Luck of the draw is luck of the draw it fell right for them this year and gave them a shot at the big prize. Won't happen in a seeded draw as catching a couple of bigger teams out is unlikely.

As a Mayo fan myself ive no issues re an open draw in that regard but an open draw in Connacht gives a huge possible advantage to Sligo or Leitrim, thats not open to similar abiilty teams in other provinces.