Will Dónal Óg have to leave hurling coach job over sex fiend reference?
Cusack was spotted driving into Croke Park
HURLING legend Dónal Óg Cusack warned Clare hurling bosses that he was to be named as the second person who gave a character reference for shamed sports writer Tom Humphries, before he publicly apologised for giving the testimonial.
It is understood that Dónal Óg and the Clare management are currently considering whether or not the triple All-Ireland-winning goalkeeper will return to the team fold next year.
The former Cork hurler took to Twitter late on Saturday night of last week – after the deadline for the Sunday newspapers had passed – to admit that he was one of two unnamed people who had given character references for Humphries.
The other was the chief sports writer of the Sunday Times, David Walsh.
Humphries, 54, pleaded guilty to two counts of defilement of a child and four counts of inviting a child to participate in a sexually explicit, obscene or indecent act.
A week before Cusack’s tweet, he and the organisers of the inaugural Electric Ireland GAA Ireland Minor Awards went to extraordinary lengths to avoid answering questions about why he had given the character reference.
The event was at Croke Park on October 7 and Cusack was a judge.
Three days earlier, PR fixer Declan Lee, of Wilson Hartnell PR, who was working for Electric Ireland at the time, issued a press release confirming that Cusack would give interviews at the event.
But a day before the awards, Mr Lee issued a statement that the media event had been cancelled due to ‘conflicting schedules’.
On the day of the awards, Mr Lee insisted that the ceremony was a private event for friends and family of the winners. He also claimed that the judges were elsewhere due to conflicting schedules.
However, less than half an hour later, Cusack was spotted driving through the side gates of Croke Park.
Despite several texts and emails to Mr Lee, enquiring about whether Cusack would talk about why he gave a character reference to sex offender Tom Humphries, Cusack left the sports grounds almost five hours later without making any comment.
It has now emerged that behind the scenes Cusack was contacting his bosses on the Clare hurling side to warn them that he would be named in weekend newspaper reports.
A spokesman said Clare management officials had no comment to make and team management for next year ‘had yet to be finalised’.