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Objections mount over Donegal star

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Pierce O’Reilly

The highlight of the GAA calendar year in New York is clouded in controversy this week as GAA delegates brace themselves for a backlash of objections from the Stamford Gaelic football club following their semifinal loss to Donegal on Sunday.

“We’ll be objecting if Peter Loughran plays,” Stamford delegate Tom Williams told the weekly GAA meeting last Thursday.

Loughran and Donegal took no notice. The Armagh man was at full forward for their semifinal showdown against the Connecticut team. The Donegal victory was facile. What happens next, however, will be no cakewalk.

Stamford, like most GAA pundits, feel they have been cheated and wronged. The Connecticut club will claim, like Fermanagh and others, that serious questions remain about the legality of Peter Loughran and Paul Higgins.

The issue is clear regarding Loughran. He was illegal to play junior football this year for Donegal. Monty Moloney even clarified the case in early February.

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In New York, however, nothing is clear-cut and clubs are good at twisting and bending the rules. There is no rule in the New York GAA Rule Book regarding weekend players not being allowed draft the following year. In the past, the good will of clubs usually prevailed.

To draft, you had to be the property of the junior club for one year. Today, there is no good will left in New York; it is win at all cost and players’ careers don’t seem to matter.

Donegal drafted Loughran illegally and used the “no rule” stance to defend their position. The New York executive board felt it would be unfair to suspend such a talented player when he was innocent, they showed good will despite their critics.

The New York Board felt Loughran was misinformed and used by Donegal.

Peter Loughran should have been suspended for 12 months if the rule book were followed to the letter, but because the draft rule is vague, the executive board mooted. To suspend the player in such circumstances was too harsh. In fact, they suspended everyone else expect Loughran in the aftermath. Paul and Garreth Kelly got 12 months for playing in two championships in the same year. Donegal junior manager Pat McGill, chairman Lawrence McGrath and secretary Mary Grant also ran afoul of the law for misleading Loughran and others.

It was Donegal that hung Peter Loughran out to dry, not New York GAA. Beaten quarterfinalists Mayo requested clarification on Loughran’s playing status after their defeat. The president of the association off-loaded the issue to the executive board. Later it emerged that Loughran was perfectly legal to play against Mayo. The executive board had cleared his name for the above reasons. He was also legal to play against Stamford last Sunday.

It’s the New York GAA and the executive board, however, that has to clear it’s own name now. That may prove more difficult.

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