Listen to the full interview above via the podcast
In Damien Lawlor's new book Fields of Fire Limerick hurling captain Donal O'Grady revealed that he received hate mail, purportedly from supporters, following last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Clare.
It reminded us of the unwelcome experience former inter-county referee Carthage Buckley had to put up with after officiating at an explosive match between Laois and Wicklow in 1986.
Buckley had read out a death threat sent to him after the match on Off The Ball a couple of weeks ago, while Limerick county board also admitted that they have received similar messages over the years.
But those incidents are not as isolated as you would think so tonight we spoke to Sean Potts, the GPA Head of Communications about the issue.
"The first time I heard the Donal O'Grady one was in the book, it wasn't brought to our attention. But it's something we're acutely aware of the broader issue of the abuse of players and increasingly so on social media. When we're briefing our players about engaging in social media, we do prepare them for the fact that there will be keyboard warriors," said Potts, who believes threats like those suffered by O'Grady and Buckley should be criminal matters.
Potts added that his organisation has also been on the end of similar treatment from anonymous people.
"We used to receive stuff from someone who used to quote various scriptures and religious pictures - I've no idea where he was going with it - but it was something to do with Ireland becoming less Irish as the GPA were pushing for better treatment of players.
"I know we had a lot of abuse on the previous format which was the chat rooms and we went to the point where criticism was spilling into abuse, that we actually tracked these people down and invited them into the office to discuss what they were saying and needless to say they never arrived!"
Listen to the full interview via the podcast.
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