Except PJ
Is this the last of the court cases? Or Does AG have one pending?
âŚ
When can we start talking about Hayes the hurler again â or can we ever?
Malachy Clerkin
When it comes to discussing Kyle Hayes, it would be useful if everyone could channel their inner Mary J Blige and leave their situations at the door. The case has been deliberated upon and adjudicated, Hayes has been convicted of violent disorder and had a two-year prison sentence suspended. He was also ordered to pay his victim âŹ10,000 in compensation. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the rights and wrongs of the verdict and the punishment. But maybe take the jersey off first.
It is, to some extent, only natural for Limerick supporters to feel the urge to back their man. Especially in this year of all years, as they gather themselves for an attempt on what would be hurlingâs first ever five-in-a-row. It wouldnât be sport if they werenât inclined to weaponise the whole thing, to give it the full us-against-the-world treatment. But there are endless reasons why they should resist that temptation.
For a start, this is a situation without many parallels in world sport, never mind the tiny, self-contained universe of the GAA. That one of the best players on the best team has come this close to going to prison on the eve of the biggest tournament of the year is not an insignificant thing. As soon as you start applying a sporting lens to your view on the case, youâre immediately trivialising the whole thing.
Any Limerick fans who dismiss, minimise or whatabouterise in an attempt to defend their countyâs honour will only succeed in dirtying it up further. Nothing will cheapen this incredible teamâs achievements quicker than a one-eyed crusade to defend Kyle Hayes or to put it all down to mere youthful folly.
More to the point, Cillian McCarthy is as much a Limerick man as anyone else. McCarthy used to play both hurling and five-a-side soccer but in his victim impact statement to the court in January, he said has not been able to go back to playing sport since the 2019 attack for which Hayes has been convicted. He has been abused online and says he feels that âeveryone knows me as the guy who was attackedâ.
If you are a Limerick hurling supporter, Cillian McCarthy should matter to you. You are perfectly entitled to cheer for Kyle Hayes if you wish but if you arenât at least some way uneasy about it, then it is reasonable to ask why. The judge said Hayes used his leadership qualities on the night âfor no other purposeâ than to harass and attack Cillian McCarthy, whose only offence was not to be sufficiently submissive to him.
âDo you know who the f**k I am?â Hayes shouted at McCarthy. Itâs fairly obvious what he meant by that in October 2019. He meant Kyle Hayes, the Limerick hurler. He meant Kyle Hayes, the All-Ireland winner. He meant Kyle Hayes, the reigning Young Hurler of the Year. He did not mean Kyle Hayes, the ordinary Joe Schmoe.
Flipside
In that context, it is impossible to divorce Hayesâs standing as a high-profile sportsperson from the case. He was throwing his weight around that night as a celebrated Limerick titan, as the best young hurler in the country, using that status to intimidate a member of the public who had displeased him. And, ultimately, to violently attack him. Cheer for that, if you like.
That said, there is a flipside too. While it is clear that Hayesâs standing as a hurler was a factor in him avoiding a stint behind bars â the judge said as much when he included it in the mitigating factors during sentencing â the other reality is that the case drew such a sustained spotlight purely because of who was involved.
It was reported everywhere from the front pages of the newspapers to the Six One news to endless clips on social media. That happened for no other reason than because Hayes is a famous hurler. There are plenty of pockets of the country where the locals wouldnât know Diarmaid Byrnes or Declan Hannon from the Archbishop of Uppsala. But everyone knows who the f**k Kyle Hayes is now.
You can have sympathy for the victim. You can think the sentence is lenient. But what you canât do is argue that Hayes hasnât paid a price here.
For almost anybody else in the country who gets convicted of a crime like this, the worst they generally have to deal with is a few paragraphs in the local paper. Kyle Hayes has been shamed on the national stage and this will follow him around long into the future. Thatâs not nothing.
On top of which, he will have to carry this on to the pitch with him for the rest of his hurling career. Injury permitting, he will certainly be in the Limerick team that starts against Clare in Cusack Park in four weeks. What happens when his name is read out over the PA system that Sunday afternoon in Ennis? Does he got booed? Barracked? Cheered? All of the above? When do we start to talk about him as a hurler again? Should we? Can we?
Heated discussion
Clearly, Limerick would like to draw a line under the whole thing and move on. That might not prove straightforward, however. John Kiely was typically composed and upfront when talking briefly to the GAA print media about the case at the Munster Championship launch in Cahir on Thursday. But he followed it up by getting into a heated discussion with Marty Morrissey about RTĂâs handling of the case and ultimately refused to do an interview, despite repeated requests.
Kiely is, of course, well within his rights to speak to whatever media outlets he wishes. But getting in a snot with Marty Morrissey only gives the whole thing a bit more legs, surely.
Now the rest of the media gets to go in again and ask him what his issue is with RTĂ and whether this is a one-time thing or will it last through the summer and round and round we go again. All because Kyle Hayes committed two acts of violent disorder on a night out five years ago.
So yes, it would indeed be useful if everyone could leave their situations at the door and take the case and the verdict purely on its merits. It would be cleaner and less complicated. But we know that sport doesnât work like that.
We know that your view of Hayes or Kiely or even poor Cillian McCarthy is liable to be coloured to some extent by whether or not you are invested in the success of the Limerick hurlers.
Thereâs something very depressing about that reality.
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It was nasty business against Marty
Go fuck yourself Malachy Clerkin, fucking idiot trying to talk for everyone else
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Malachy should have taken Maryâs advice and left his situation at the door before he penned that faux attempt at objectivity
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Malachy appears to be endeavoring to create a narrative with the intent of prolonging the discourse. And it is evident that he harbors a penchant for the pervasive phenomenon of âwokeâ culture intertwined with toxic aspects of cancel culture.
Malachy is clearly advocating for a punitive approach, akin to the notion of Kiely subjecting Hayes to a form of penance, such as wearing sackcloth and ashes on a Late Late Show special hosted by Joe Duffy. What a f**king bellend.
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Exactly, he pens an article with a headline and opening paragraph of oh can we please move on and then goes on to just about stop short of calling Hayes a thug, guilt shames any Limerick fan who might dare to cheer for him and has a go at Kiely. Im surprised he didnt bring JP in!
He is entitled to his opinion the same as everybody but please save us the holier than thou bullshit of writing a supposed fair piece while clearly having strong opinions.
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Clerkin would be wise to recall the relative positioning of individuals such as himself and Marty within the hierarchy of the hurling community â stationed well outside the dressing room, as it were, within the hall waiting for a few crumbs.
Ah lads. Surely its ok to write an article about the best player in the country getting done on the week it happens? What do ye want? Nobody to ever say anything about him ever again? Seems a fairly even article.
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Ah of course he is, my only suggestion would be stand by his views rather than cloaking himself as Mary J. Hows his singing?!
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Maybe John Kiely is slow to speak to the media given his own personal circumstancesâŚ.
The sulkys circled quickly here
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Plenty of people have thrown a punch on a field and never been jailed or dropped 
Oh fuck Ewan has spoken up, Im going to change my mind to agree with him!
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Heâs Kyle Hayes. He can do what he wants.
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I could be wrong on this but I think, I THINK, this wouldnât be an issue for some lads had it happened at a time when Limerick werenât winning so much.
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