Kyle Hayes Suspended Sentence

Whataboutism or whataboutery (as in "what about…?") is a pejorative for the strategy of responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation instead of a defense of the original accusation.

No, it highlights the faux outrage and hypocrisy of those who consider the suspended sentence an injustice when much more serious crimes get similar treatment every day of the week without a peep. 18 months prison for someone who hasn't put a foot wrong before or since for a fight in a nightclub? If that's the standard people expect we better start building 1000's of prison cells fast. Anyone who thinks an amateur athlete must be some sort of public role model does so on their own volition. Everyone has their flaws and make mistakes - unfortunately for KH because he's particularly good at his hobby his mistake gets plastered all over the front pages of the national press and he'll have to endure verbal abuse from thousands of individuals for years to come. Of course what he did that night was terrible but on the balance of things he's done a lot more good than bad in his life so he should just be allowed to get on with his life. But of course that won't be possible as that's the society we live in now so best of luck with the keyboard anger.

The very thought out and sustained nature of Hayes’s actions paint to me a nasty bastid. Even more galling that Kiely was so supportive

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Kilkennys team of the 00s were untouchable and then they were beaten.

I think you're missing the point here. It's a good rhetorical technique to mention 'whataboutery' as if no other comparison can be suggested without it looking like an excuse.

However, it seems to me that the law is all about precedent/comparison and anyone in my company in recent months with a whisker of experience of the law (including guards) was saying that with no previous convictions, and a not guilty verdict on the assault charge, this would almost certainly be a suspended sentence. As a (Limerick) Guard said to me a few months back when predicting this "they don't even put the criminals in jail these days".

The examples the other poster provided are extremely relevant and show that this verdict is not an outlier by any means. Then again when you have people saying things like "he should get jail for not showing remorse" (what are you in jail for?......oh I killed someone........what about you?.......oh I didn't say sorry..) or he should get jail because he said "do you know who I am?" reality is out the window.

The law doesn't care whether you like someone or not. Nor does it worry much about who wins the All Ireland. It will generally sentence someone within consistently established parameters (otherwise the sentence won't stand up) and that's what happened here.

It wasn't a fight in a nightclub. It was a beating of a man by a gang of other men led by Kyle Hayes. They beat a defebless man while he lay on the ground outside a nightclub, fracturing his eye socket. It was a disgusting and cowardly act.

So true

I don't see how someone in a vehicle committing a crime has any relevance to this assault case. Every case is different.

And I think it's obvious that the vast majority of people in the country are very frustrated with sentencing right across the board from sexual deviancy to bankers stealing millions to brown envelope payments to politicians. It's not a new thing. The vast majority of people angry at this sentencing have no interest in hurling. They see someone in a position of privilege getting away with something because of who they are, yet again. A desire for stronger sentencing is not new or related to this case. That's been around a long time. When people read that a victim lost the ability to drive a night and see suspended sentence and a measly 10,000 they get angry.