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2541

Fuck me. It’s like an ICA meeting in here

2542

Ah he was just taking off Ronnie Pickering

2543

Prior to this furore I didn’t even know the likes of Conor McDonald and Conor Whelan were going around bateing the heads off people.

2544

When was Conor McDonald in Cory for assault?

2545

Sorry, drink driving. Jesus, he could have kilt someone

2546

Poor Cory. Internally assaulted, apparently.

2547

Is it possible Kyle had forgotten himself who he was?

2548

A slightly different take on it to Clerkins…

John Leahy’s tale shows Kyles Hayes can make amends

Limerick hurler faces challenge of ensuring conviction becomes a footnote in his story, not the headline

Michael Foley

Sunday March 24 2024, 12.01am GMT, The Times

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When Kyle Hayes’ suspended sentence and fine for two counts of violent disorder nearly five years ago finally nudged past the news of Leo Varadkar’s departure last Thursday, the reaction was in keeping with anything anyone would have expected. Having pleaded not guilty, declared one school of thought, Hayes had got away lightly. Anyone not carrying five All-Ireland medals would be slopping out behind bars this weekend.

Or, were those the mindless actions of a muddled kid in 2019 still figuring out the terms of his fame? Imagine him in 2024 in a temper asking anyone if they knew who the f*** he was? No chance. Whatever validity those views might have, and whatever Hayes has already endured or will face into the future, the impact on his victim should be held above all else.

In court, Cillian McCarthy traced the effect of the attack, from the fractured eye socket, headaches, numbness below his eye and double vision that leaves him unable to drive at night, to the psychological trauma he continues to cope with.

He became anxious about going out in Limerick city. Having hurled and played soccer, he didn’t return to sport. His family now “constantly worry” whenever he leaves the house — the effect on him reduced to a single line.

“Everybody knows me now as the guy who was attacked in town,” he said.

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It’s utterly trite to compare anything Hayes is experiencing now, but his journey won’t end here, either. In the early hours of a Sunday morning in January 1996, the Tipperary hurler John Leahy ended up in an altercation in a Manchester hotel, swinging a glass into the face of a Limerick man who had travelled across to see Manchester United play Aston Villa the previous day.

Having pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court, Leahy initially had his sentencing deferred in June 1996 until December. He received a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for two years based on his continued good behaviour, and was ordered to pay ÂŁ9,000 to the victim.

Hayes received a suspended sentence and a fine after being found guilty of two counts of violent disorder
Hayes received a suspended sentence and a fine after being found guilty of two counts of violent disorder1180×663 102 KB

Hayes received a suspended sentence and a fine after being found guilty of two counts of violent disorder

BRENDAN MORAN/SPORTSFILE

Some of the parallels with Hayes’ story are striking. Hayes was given a two-year sentence, also suspended for two years, and ordered to pay €10,000 to the victim. In both cases, the judge’s logic for granting a suspended sentence were identical — Leahy and Hayes had shown sufficient remorse and improvements in behaviour to suggest they weren’t a threat to anyone else. A custodial sentence for Hayes, said Judge Dermot Sheehan last week, would be “of no benefit to society”.

“These sorts of incidents, which result in these very grave injuries, generally result in a sentence of immediate imprisonment,” Judge David Hudson told Leahy in December 1996. “But there has been a real change in your ways and you have done extremely well.”

In the time between the trial and sentencing Leahy also turned out for Tipperary — just like Hayes with Limerick. Both of them missed games through injury. The victim in Manchester was even from Pallaskenry, Hayes’ home parish.

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Whether the parallels continue is up to Hayes. For Leahy, the experience was life-changing. When he came home from Manchester he drank a couple of pints one night, then joined Alcoholics Anonymous. The moment never left him.

“I left that man with a mark for the rest of his life,” he said in an interview in 2019. “I did something that should not have happened. It’s a confusing kind of place because I wonder if I would have stopped afterwards if that night had not happened. I remember inside in the cell asking myself what had gone wrong. And it was drinking.”

Two days after his sentencing hearing was deferred Leahy lined out for Tipperary in the Munster championship against Kerry. The Tipp crowd cheered every time Leahy touched the ball. His marker was constantly trash-talking in his ear.

Leahy struck one stunning goal in the first half, then another, launched a sideline ball over the bar from 35 yards and finished the game with 2-2. A few weeks later before Tipp played Limerick in the Munster final, the players paused for a minute’s silence before the national anthem. Out of the stands came the lone cry: “Go on Leahy you wanker.”

“I wish the ground could have opened up and swallowed me,” Leahy said.

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The abuse followed him for a long time, in work and at play. Hurling and human nature hasn’t changed so much that Hayes won’t be goaded in the same way, or passionately acclaimed by his own crowd regardless of why.

In time Leahy became an addiction counsellor, turning his own problems into an opportunity to help change other peoples’ lives for the better. Think of Leahy now, and we remember first the wildly talented, dashing hurler. Hayes faces the same challenge, ensuring this terrible incident becomes a footnote in his story, not the headline.

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2549

2 incidents that were very wrong and should never have happened, but can you not see one glaringly obvious difference. One person identified what went wrong and changed things to ensure it didn’t happen again, they pleaded guilty accepting their role and apologised. While in the other case, the person has denied it ever happened by pleading not guilty and has never apologised to the victim.

A huge difference in how the 2 people dealt with disgraceful behaviour by themselves.

2550

Hayes doesn’t appear to have a second thought for the victim. Neither do most of the Limerick hurling fraternity or panel or backroom team.
They may do, but it appears that keeping on winning is the main thing.
Your man took an absolutely savage beating from Hayes, having done nothing wrong, and it’s he who has ended up the target of most of the opprobrium it seems.

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2551

Tommy Conlon: The 29 minutes in court that Kyle Hayes will never forget

Tommy Conlon

At six minutes past eleven on Wednesday morning the judge looked down from his lofty perch at the man sitting alone in the witness box below.

“Kyle Hayes, stand up please.”

Judge Dermot Sheehan’s tone was polite but brisk. The holder of five senior All-Ireland medals stood immediately and clasped his hands in front of him. He would stand there for 29 minutes before he’d hear the verdict that would make or break his world.

For the first 27 minutes, Sheehan narrated from his notes the facts, circumstances and contested evidence of a case that was now about to reach its climax, four years and five months after the violence that had set the dominoes falling. “Eighteen months in prison” on one count of violent disorder and “two years in prison” on the second count of violent disorder. The jail terms would be concurrent.

Two minutes later came the magic words that would preserve Hayes’s life as he had known it: “Both sentences are to be suspended.” Finally, his giant frame, wrapped in a navy coat, released its pent-up tension. And 36 minutes after he stood to hear his fate, he sat back down. For 29 minutes he had stood at a crossroads, one road leading to prison, the other leading back to the world he’d known and the life he’d lived as one of the greatest hurlers of his generation.

It must have been the loneliest half hour of his life, made all the more so by the apparent absence of friends or family in the court room.

At 12 noon Hayes, his mobile phone glued to his ear, strode down the hallway that leads to the front entrance of the courts complex on Mulgrave Street in Limerick city. The phone was evidently not for show. He was co-ordinating his exit with an associate because just as he walked the final ten yards, a silver Audi pulled up outside the front doors. Hayes came through the doors, through the media scrum on the footpath outside and into the passenger seat of the car.

With that he was gone. Wednesday, March 20, was the first day of the rest of his life. The page had been turned. Kyle Hayes was a free man.

​Cillian McCarthy, on the other hand, was surrounded by loved ones as he stood outside the court room afterwards, listening to a final debrief from the barrister who had prosecuted the case on behalf of the State.

McCarthy, from Ballysimon, no longer carries the visible wounds of the ordeal he suffered on the night of October 28, 2019. Presumably the conclusion of the case last Wednesday represented the start of a new chapter for him too. Some measure of justice had been served for having his face smashed and his head punched in a Limerick night club, and for having his head kicked and his body kicked by various assailants as he lay in the foetal position outside the venue.

The trial ran for two weeks at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court last November. Hayes was charged with assault causing harm to Cillian McCarthy, and with two counts of violent disorder. He denied all charges.

McCarthy, a carpenter, gave evidence at the trial. He said he had consumed a bottle of rum with a friend on the evening in question before repairing to the Icon night club. There they met school friends of McCarthy, two young women, and they were having a chat when Hayes came over and warned him to “stay the fk away” from the girls. Hayes was apparently of the view that one of the young women was dating a friend of his; he took umbrage at seeing her socialise with another man. McCarthy said he tried to explain to Hayes that she was just an old school pal. “But he didn’t want to hear it.” Hayes became “aggressive” and then uttered the line: “Do you know who the fk I am?”

McCarthy backed off and walked away, sensing the situation would escalate. But later on he met the two women again on the dance floor, at which point Hayes came over again. He “charged” towards McCarthy. “He told me he was getting sick of me. He told me if I wanted ‘to do it’, we’d ‘do it’. Suddenly a friend of Hayes “threw the first punch, hitting me in my right eye.” Then Hayes and the friend started “punching me continuously into the head.” He received further blows when other men joined the brawl.

CCTV footage of the fracas was played to the jury. “You can clearly see Kyle Hayes jumping in and punching me,” stated McCarthy.

Eventually the club’s bouncers arrived on the scene. A number of men were ejected from the premises. “My right eye was pounding,” said the witness. “I could feel blood dripping down my face. It was getting hard to see out through it as it was swelling up a lot.”

​On the street outside, he said, Hayes caught up with him and threatened him again, saying he’d “dig the head off me.” McCarthy’s friend was then surrounded by Hayes and some of Hayes’s mates. McCarthy went to the rescue of his friend and “it all kicked off again.” Hayes and others started “throwing punches left, right and centre, trying to attack us.” He and his friend tried to run away but were chased down. McCarthy was knocked to the ground. “That’s when they started stamping on me.” Five or six males, including Kyle Hayes, “were standing over me … Between punches and kicks [I received] roughly about 20 continuous blows.”

McCarthy’s friend was also kicked and beaten on the ground.

A number of gardaí arrived on the scene. Detective Garda Dean Landers told the court that he saw two men on the ground. One had blood on his face, the other was surrounded by a group of men, including Hayes, who were “punching and kicking [him] while he lay on the ground.” The man was screaming at them to stop. Landers said Hayes stood out from the other assailants because he was conspicuously taller than them. “He was swinging kicks directly into the male, all over his body. The male was curled up into the ground while receiving kicks.”

Det Gda Landers grabbed Hayes and pulled him off the victim. Hayes “told me to f**k off and pulled his arm at force away from my grip and turned and ran.” The policeman gave chase and eventually caught up with him and arrested him. Hayes was taken to Henry Street Garda Station and processed through the custody suite at 1.38am before finally being released without charge.

Garda Daniel O’Riordan had arrived on the scene with Landers. Both were cross-examined by Hayes’s barrister, Brian McInerney, who raised the possibility of misidentification on their part. The defendant’s brother, Cian Hayes, was also over six feet tall. It was Cian Hayes, McInerney suggested, who had come “under attack”, and Kyle Hayes “went to his brother’s assistance.”

​Neither garda had seen the previous incident inside the night club, nor had they seen who had struck the first blow. They agreed that the street was crowded with people and that there was general “chaos”. Asked by counsel if he was possibly confused as to the identity of the assailants, Garda O’Riordan replied: “I’m not confused by what I saw. I saw Kyle Hayes; he was most identifiable.” O’Riordan previously told prosecution counsel that he had “absolutely no doubt” that Kyle Hayes was one of them. “I observed him draw back and kick a man who was lying on the ground, kicking forward into the man’s head and shoulder area twice.”

On December 1 the jury returned with its decisions. Kyle Hayes was found not guilty of the charge of assault causing harm to McCarthy. (He wasn’t charged in connection with the assault on the friend of McCarthy.) The jury found him guilty on each of the two counts of violent disorder. Judge Sheehan remanded Hayes on bail for sentencing until January 19. He warned the guilty party that he “can expect a custodial sentence.”

At the January 19 hearing, testimonials on behalf of the defendant were furnished by his employers, former mentors at university and charity activists, all of whom commended his work ethic and character.

But it was the support offered by John Kiely that generated fresh headlines. Kiely, as senior team manager, has been the chief architect of Limerick hurling’s golden age. On the field, Hayes has been one of the team’s foundational pillars. It goes without saying, therefore, that Kiely would have felt some duty of pastoral care to a player who had served him so well but was now in serious trouble. So Kiely entered the witness box to help in the pleas for mitigation.

He had viewed the incriminating CCTV footage and conceded that he’d found Hayes’s behaviour on the night “very disappointing”. On the other hand, the publicity and media coverage had been “extremely difficult” for Hayes; the player had paid “a heavy price”; everyone deserved a second chance; and Hayes had “accepted responsibility” for his actions.

​John O’Sullivan, the prosecuting barrister, picked Kiely up on the latter point. If Hayes had accepted responsibility, then why had he not pled guilty in the first place?

Judge Sheehan also challenged Kiely on parts of his testimony. He asked the manager how many hours do his players spend in training each week. “About 30,” Kiely replied. Sheehan wondered if all this time spent inside this bubble had not left Hayes “sheltered from the realities of life.” Might this be an example of a person “who, for all his achievements, had limited socialisation.”

McCarthy read out a victim impact statement at the January 19 hearing. The beating he took in the small hours of October 28, 2019, had a profound impact on him and his family. He’d been in a constant state of anxiety since. His self-confidence had been undermined. His working life had been affected. He had been abused and slandered on social media. He’d needed specialist facial surgery. He still suffered from severe headaches and blurred vision as a result of the damage done to his eye socket.

Judge Sheehan adjourned sentencing until March 20. And on Wednesday morning last, having weighed everything up, he decided that “it would not be appropriate to impose an immediate custodial sentence … The accused appears to have improved himself in the meantime and society would not benefit were I to impose an immediate custodial sentence on Kyle Hayes.”

On Thursday, John Kiely professed himself relieved that the case was finally over. He said he’d appeared as a character witness in court because “I wanted to show him that I was there to support him but also that it doesn’t mean I’m condoning what happened at all — quite the contrary.” In reply to further questioning, he added: “Listen, it’s over, it has been dealt with by the courts, we move on.”

Hayes, he clarified, would not be involved in yesterday evening’s national league semi-final against Kilkenny because “he has a bit of an ankle injury.” He should, however, be back in time to begin Limerick’s bid for an historic fifth All-Ireland title in a row.

2552

Wrong on about five counts.

2553

This seems very presumptious

4 Likes
2554

No he didn’t.

2555

McCarthy is a rat. That’s what he’ll forever be known as… He got a few slaps, take em like a man and get on with with it. We’ve all had a kicking at some stage - who runs to the law except someone looking for a pay day.

2556

:sweat_smile: I hope this is a wum, coz if it isnt youre an awful gombeen.

Hayes is a rough diamond with a nasty streak and this thuggish act unveiled that. He’ll move on with his life now and hopefully he’ll be a better role model going forward. He’ll forever be tainted as a dubious character.

Kiely did what he needed to do, i think most of us would try and support a fallen star who is a critical piece of his team.

1 Like
2557

No it’s the context the media presumed things and lads run wild with it

2558

What sort of sad case of a lad are you at all?

1 Like
2559

Use your other account.

2560

Potential civil case means he would probably be advised to say nothing.