The imposition of a prison sentence on a man who admitted assaulting a referee and an umpire following a gaelic football match last year in Wexford has prompted hopes that referees will be afforded greater safety into the future.
Wexford GAA has already said it made a number of steps towards improving security for referees since the incident on 25 September last year at the St Joseph's GAA grounds at Whiterock Hill.
A junior football championship match between the home club and Our Lady’s Island was won by a point by Our Lady’s Island and, after the match, referee Michael Lanigan was punched on the back of the head from behind.
Umpire Edward Harding was pushed by the same person, 34-year-old Glen McManus of Cluain Dara in Clonard, Wexford.
He also pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Harding and this offence was taken into consideration by Judge James McCourt.
The referee received hospital treatment at the time and was out of work for a number of weeks, but has since returned refereeing on a gradual basis.
Chairman of the Wexford GAA referees’ committee, Séamus Whelan, said such incidents are unacceptable and that he hoped the response, which also included a 48-week ban from the GAA for McManus, would send out a message.
"It will send out the right signals and the referees that I spoke to were happy, they feel more protected going forward."
He said a pro-active approach was taken by the Wexford County Board in the wake of the incident last September.
"They brought all the referees together and the management team and they all met up as a unit and came up with proposals," Mr Whelan said, adding that there have been some high-profile incidents across the country.
"Generally we all know from the various news outlets that there’s serious problems with referees, maybe not being assaulted, but abused and their pedigree and family background being brought into question," he said.
"Hopefully this case now, yesterday at the Circuit Court in Wexford, will help to push that to one side."
He added that it will also help recruitment of referees throughout the country.
"Something had to be done. I heard a former president of the GAA saying maybe it will come to the day when referees will have to wear body-cams, and then they’ll have the evidence there on camera," Mr Whelan said.
"It’s something I hadn’t thought about and something that hadn’t been discussed, but having heard [former GAA president] Liam O’Neill bring it forward on [RTÉ] Prime Time during the week, I think it could be looked at."
Inter-county referee James Owens, who is from Co Wexford and has officiated at a number of high-profile hurling matches, including All-Ireland finals, said incidents such as that involving McManus are not common.
"I can’t pass comment on the judgment that was made yesterday," Mr Owens said.
"From a refereeing perspective here in Wexford, when the incident happened, the county board was very quick to react to the incident, the support levels to all the referees in Wexford, and that was backed up by the actions they took in sending motions to convention this year, which were unanimously passed."
Those motions called for heftier bans for anyone who assaults or abuses a referee and have since also been supported at national level through the GAA’s annual Congress.
"I think there is an awful lot of work being done, both locally here in Wexford and at the national level, they are working hard to try and recruit referees," Mr Owens said.
"We had 18 new referees starting this year in Wexford. They have a mentor going to each of the games. The first couple of games that they referee, they have to have a mentor with them, so that’s providing great support to the new referees."
He added that it is encouraging for them to see that there is a support level for them in Wexford.
"I thoroughly enjoy refereeing, I get great satisfaction being out among the players. Obviously there are isolated incidents but they are isolated," he said.
"I’ve been refereeing for 25 years and I could count on one hand the amount of major incidents I’ve had to report."
When such incidents happen "there would be concern," he added, but there are supports out there for referees.
Meanwhile, Mr Whelan said the seriousness of the Wexford incident in September was "a one-off" and anyone thinking of becoming a referee should "have no fear".
