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Myths debunked and a GAA death threat from the Battle of Aughrim

Listen to the full interviews above via the podcast player  "You rotten so and so! You robb...



Myths debunked and a GAA death...
Football

Myths debunked and a GAA death threat from the Battle of Aughrim

Listen to the full interviews above via the podcast player 

"You rotten so and so! You robbed us out of the Leinster final. If you put off the three lads for using the fist, what broke Gerry Browne's nose. And your so and so linesman!

"Don't forget we are watching you. It may not be now but don't travel too far on your own from home. You are going to get what they are getting in the North...the bullet!

And we mean every bit of it. You may never get the chance of taking the whistle in your hand again. I think you were treated with a bit of alright in Laois. We are not letting you away with it. No way. We don't mind what happens to us so long as we get you. Besides it will never be known who did it. It may go a while but we will get you and your car."

Tonight on Off The Ball former intercounty referee Carthage “Catch” Buckley read out that anonymous letter that was addressed to him following an acrimonious championship game in 1986, later infamously dubbed the Battle of Aughrim.

Buckley had sent off three Laois players in that volatile match against home side Wicklow in Aughrim and tonight, he and a player from each side joined us on the line to talk about the match and its fallout.

He told us how the game was not as bad as was made out at the time. He also rubbished a rumour that he was smuggled out of Aughrim in the boot of a car in order to escape Laois fans.

"That never happened," he stated firmly, adding that Wicklow deserve credit for winning that game against a "marvelous" Division 1 league-winning Laois side.

He also backed up the four red cards he gave in that match, describing them as "clear-cut incidents". 

Former Laois footballer Willie Brennan was the first man to be sent off and he told us that he did not strike his Wicklow opponent and questioned Buckley's decisions and added that any claim that Laois players struck their opponents were a "lie".

Kevin O'Brien of Wicklow who scored 2-3 that day as a 19-year-old, described it as a "tough encounter" and that the Wicklow boys were confident heading into that game, although he admitted that the result was a "shock".

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