GAA is sued by victims of sex abuse
Actions are filed by three victims of former Eastern Harps coach McCormack
THREE men who were the victims of sexual abuse in the 1980s are suing the GAA.
The men, all of whom are represented by Damien Tansey Solicitors, are also suing Ronan McCormack, the former coach who was previously convicted for the abuse of seven boys. Representatives of Eastern Harps, the club at which Ronan McCormack was a coach, have been named as co-defendants.
According to the Sunday Times this week, the GAA is listed as a defendant under the name of its director-general at the time when charges were filed in 2016.
The HSE is listed as a co-defendant in one action.
In 2014, Ronan McCormack, with an address in Cuppanagh, Cloonloo, was convincted of the sexual abuse of five boys following a trial in Sligo. He was sentened to five years and 10 months in jail after his conviction on 53 counts of indecently assaulting five boys aged between 10 and 13 years old beween 1981 and 1986 while he was their coach at Eastern Harps. In 2017, he received a
further seven years in jail after being convicted of abusing two brothers in the 1970s who had come forward after the first trial.
A year later, McCormack’s second conviction was reduced to four years after the Court of Appeal ruled that the aggregate sentence was excessive as the defendant was 75 years old.
In the 2014 trial evidence was given by a victim that he was abused after being asked to travel to an All-Ireland semi-final between Donegal and Galway in 1983.
“He told me I would have to stay over at his house the night before the match as he wanted to get to early mass at 7.30am before getting the train to Dublin,” the victim said. “He said he had only one bed made up and that we’ll have to sleep in the one bed.”
On another occasion, McCormack abused a boy when showing him a county championship medal. McCormack was found to have indecently assaulted boys in his home, his car, at his breakfast table and on fishing and swimming trips.
The action now being taken is believed to represent the first attempt to make the GAA liable for sexual abuse suffered by former underage players.