Can someone post this please
There you are @gilgamboa
Referee Tom Colton was a late withdrawal from the OâConnell Cup final at Donnybrook last Saturday night where he was supposed to handle the game between Old Wesley and Lansdowne.
A colleague of his says it was a fitness issue that forced him to pull out. It must have been a wrench for he is an important man in Leinster refereeing circles, less for his competence as a referee, rather his willingness to turn up anywhere, anytime, putting in long hours on the admin side of the game as well as on the field.
From helping with the ticket allocation system for Ireland internationals matches to moving the referees around the fixtures jigsaw, Colton is a very hard worker and carries some weight.
It follows that he received six honourable mentions in last weekâs annual report from the honorary secretary of the ARLB (Association of Referees, Leinster Branch), Barry Armstrong. Reading the report you could only infer that Tom Colton is one of the men who glues it all together. And clearly the referees consider themselves an important bind.
âThe Leinster Rugby Referees is an association held in the highest regard within Irish rugby,â Armstrong writes. âAnd we all must play our role to maintain the status of our reputation, hold firm with integrity and respect in the face of any and all challenges we will encounter over the next and coming seasons. For it is our responsibility for generations of referees to come that we do so.â
The report doesnât mention that Coltonâs energy extends to contacting the dead and performing spiritualist marriage ceremonies, which would be useful info surely for referees who wanted to tie the knot in an interesting way and maybe have a dearly departed relative in the room as well.
Somehow, he has found the time also to write a book: Will We Ever Meet Again â a bridge between this world and the next. Itâs a sober stroll telling us how his gifts led him down the path of love and light â GrĂĄ agus Solas is the name of the marriage company he set up with his wife â and contains the following passage:
âPeople are often surprised by my reply when they ask me what I did before becoming a full time medium â which I only did in 2009, at the age of 34. Some seem taken aback that I have done anything other than mediumship in my professional life. Many are even more surprised when I explain that I had a career in accountancy.â
An elderly Monaghan couple had cause to regret the day Tom Colton took out his calculator and did a few sums for them. They needed help in 2005 with making a payment to Revenue and he rode to the rescue. Between the jigs and the reels he managed to steal âŹ322,070 from them. The husband, now deceased, by then was exhibiting signs of Alzheimerâs. His wife stepped into the breach. She was easy meat.
It was several years before the robbery came to light. When confronted with the massive shortfall between the cheque he wrote for himself and what had been passed on to Revenue, Colton admitted what he had done.
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âHe was very convincing,â one of the victimâs family told us last week. âVery charming. He got everyoneâs confidence. When he was confronted initially â before there was any court cases â he promised to repay the money. But sure he had no money. We werenât getting much satisfaction anywhere and eventually we had to litigate. Thatâs how the insurance company got involved.â
The victims sued the accountancy firm, Brophy Colton, of which Tom Colton was a partner, and it went to court. Faced with the prospect of putting their mother in the witness box, and being grilled by the insurance companyâs counsel, the victims settled for a sum âŹ82k short of what had been stolen from them.
The State also came after him. At his trial the judge described his actions as âextraordinarily dishonest and fraudulentâ and âcoldly calculatedâ. He served two and half years of a four years sentence in the Midlands Prison.
Sometime after his release Tom Colton picked up the threads of his Leinster refereeing career again. For his day job he busied himself with marrying the living and contacting the dead â all paying for the privilege, if not directly â and for extra curricular activity there was always a match to be reffed or an appointment to be filled.
According to a senior member of the refereesâ association, who did not wish to be named, Tom Colton underwent Garda vetting before slipping the whistle over his neck again. Moreover, seemingly he offered evidence that the slate was clean with the victims of his theft. Weâve asked Tom Colton himself, and the ARLBâs Barry Armstrong, for clarity on this. Neither responded.
According to the Leinster source: âIt wasnât shared with me but I was told by one of the officers of the association that he was satisfied with what he had seen. Itâs a private matter for Tom as well. From the point of view of us, and doing our due diligence, we did that at the time. We were satisfied.â
Itâs interesting that Tom Coltonâs word should be a coin of such value given his history. Elsewhere he is under pressure following revelations in the Irish Independent, starting last weekend, over a Personal Insolvency Arrangement that had some afters. A PIA is a facility where those who owe a stack of money can avoid bankruptcy and keep their family home.
Basically the deal is that creditors get more than they would if the debtor was made bankrupt. Largely speaking, if there are no objections in court then the judge approves the PIA.
Soon after that approval however, involving a write-off of âŹ2.7m, Colton made more headlines when it emerged the PIA did not include details of a luxury villa in Lanzarote for which himself and his wife are the registered owners.
This is now the subject of High Court interest, where a judge has been asked to decide whether the omission warrants the termination of the PIA. The case returns to court later this month.
In the meantime, presumably, Tom Colton will crack on with whatever remains of the rugby season. Opinion among his fellow referees varies on his continued membership of the association.
Our senior source there however is unequivocal. âYes he served his time and yes he did what he did but from our point of view he has made that right. And we have seen no other evidence to contradict that.â
We wonder if by âmaking it rightâ he means the case with the insurers of Brophy Colton that was settled in court. So, line drawn, move on? What about the shortfall between the amount settled and amount stolen?
This wasnât a prang in a supermarket car park where the insurance company pays out less than was claimed and walks away. This was a calculated, opportunistic theft from people who couldnât keep up with the pace of the game.
For an organisation that wants to âmaintain the status of our reputation, hold firm with integrity and respect in the face of any and all challengesâ you might justifiably ask if theyâre having a laugh. Lads, have a look closer to home.
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Cheers Fagan
Should be back in jail if the lanzarote thing is true.
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Basically the same thing boris Becker was jailed for this week
Except this lad is a serial offender
Forgetting the Apocalypse- how our nuclear fears faded and why thatâs dangerous.
Daniel Immerwahr
This is an excellent article. Thereâs links included to some further stuff including a brilliant article from The Atlantic.
Well worth 15 mins if your time
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Not sure if itâs decent or available on another thread but can someone post this up
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Lads, this is incredible.
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Didnât need that at this hour of the morning 
A beautiful piece of writing. Fair play for sharing
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It really is stunning.
It actually ties in nicely with something @Breaking_my_balls was saying earlier this week, sport can be incredibly cathartic for people going through difficult times.
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Thatâs brilliant.
Hannigan is a very good writer and a really nice fella, pal of my brother
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You must have laughed at the piece all the same, sport is only for shits and giggles shur.
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Great read
I only started it to be honest, Iâve read a lot of his stuff.
Sure my point the other day wasnât to do with anybody but myself, because I choose to be relaxed about my counties hurling team is my own business, Iâm being told that I canât comment on hurling because I donât take it seriously enough 
Sure you could say that about any sport or any team, Rugby means just as much to sone people as hurling, so does golf or cricket or anything at all.
I donât think youâre up to speed on the context
Rugby is not a sport
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Youâre not being told that you canât comment on anything because you donât care about it. Stop being a soft oul bollox.
What you were called out on was talking down to people that do care about it in that patronising virtue signalling and snide manner that you do. You were at the same yesterday on the career change thread, you canât help yourself.
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Thatâs not true
I made a comment in the run up to the All Ireland final last year that I was looking forward to a bit of banter in Limerick coming up to the match, I donât particularly know why but you took it very badly, since then youâve repeated that back many many times, odd really. Iâve explained myself enough now, I think youâre a bit of a dick head to persist but what about it?
Get your kicks any way you like, Iâll do the same.
Was my comment about Mary I that offensive, I donât really see it.
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