Former Mayo minor star James Maheady gave his girlfriend a black eye after drinking session
Ciara Duffy, from Crossmolina, Mayo, sustained the injuries when a ‘drunk’ Maheady – her then boyfriend of more than two years – kicked out at her after a night out during a trip to Nottingham on December 27, 2024.
Ciara today expresses deep concern as to how members of the Deel Rovers GAA club involved themselves in the situation days later, initiating contact with her mum on January 1 — three days before Maheady lined out with his team-mates in the All-Ireland Intermediate Club Championship semi-final.
James Maheady in action for Crossmolina Deel Rovers
Ciara reveals too how she, her mum and stepdad spent the following month in a fruitless battle with the club seeking an apology for the matter.
However, eight months later, and after the family declined an offer of mediation from the club, formal complaints submitted to Deel Rovers by Ciara and her mother remain unresolved.
“I believe all that was wanted of me was that I stay quiet,” Ciara said.
“I believe football and James’s football career was far more important to these people than what I was going through.
“What I want from the club is an apology for how these club members acted and an acknowledgement the club should have had no role in this situation.”
Ciara is releasing text messages Maheady, last year’s ‘Eirgrid Young Player of the Year’, sent to her on the day after the incident, December 28, in which he accepted he knew he was kicking her but states he hadn’t meant to kick her in the face.
Ciara’s injuries after her then boyfriend James Maheady kicked her in the face following an argument at Christmas last year
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The text exchange begins with Maheady apologising and saying he hadn’t meant to kick Ciara in the face and that it was accidental.
At 8.48pm, Ciara texts Maheady back, stating: “It wasn’t an accident, you knew what you were doing. Maybe you didn’t mean to kick me in the face but you knew you were kicking me.”
Maheady responds: “Ya, obviously, but I didn’t mean to kick you in the face.”
In another text at 8.50pm, Maheady wrote [sic]: “Like it wud be so different so I was always beating you or doing it wen sober or something like.
“We were both drunk, had a small argument and I threw a kick but obviously got you in ur head which I did not mean.”
Another text from Maheady follows: “Like u also knew what you were doing coming down wen I were upstairs just to get a reaction out of me. U have to take accountability as well.”
When the Sunday World called this week to Maheady’s home, he declined to discuss what had occurred with our reporter.
Ciara and her mum tell our reporter Patrick what happened
“No comment for any of that and I don’t want you coming back here,” he said.
The Sunday World sent a follow-up query to Maheady on Thursday, in which we outlined our intention to publish an interview with Ciara and the content of the texts he sent to her.
He again declined to comment, citing legal reasons.
Recalling the night Maheady kicked her in the face, Ciara said the couple were on a two-day trip to Nottingham to see her father, along with her brother Daragh and sister Sinead.
“James was in bad form … even Daragh asked me when we were rocking up to the house: ‘Why’s James in such bad form?’” she said.
Ciara said over the ensuing hours James had a number of drinks while at her father’s house before friends called over and they all went to Kitty O’Shea’s pub.
But she said she, Daragh and James returned to their father’s house early as James wasn’t enjoying himself.
“After we got home, me and James were in our room,” she said. “I said to him it wasn’t fair he had ruined our night and he owed everyone an apology.
Crossmolina Deel Rovers GAA Club
“But he didn’t want to do that and he was getting agitated and annoyed and he was still drinking at that stage as well.
“I was sat on the couch facing the wall and he was laying down with his legs on my knees and then … the leg lifted up and lifted back and came straight for my face.
“I started crying. I covered my face and went up to Daragh’s room and said: ‘He kicked me, he kicked me!’ I didn’t know what to do, and then Daragh went downstairs to him and said what have you done?”
Daragh told our reporter: “When she came up, it [the mark] was like a golf ball on her face.
“I went down to him and said: ‘What the f**k did you do?’
“When something like that happens, it’s all a blur but I remember him telling me to f**k off and saying I didn’t know what was after happening.”
Ciara’s injuries
Ciara’s mum Jennie said her daughter called home to Crossmolina in tears and told her what had happened.
“Ciara said she didn’t want him arrested in a different country,” Jennie told this newspaper.
“Because we could have called the police that night. We agreed to get him home.
“It was Ciara’s wish for this to be kept among us all.”
Ciara made a complaint to Nottinghamshire Police on January 27 but the force opted not to pursue the matter as both parties involved live outside the jurisdiction.
Police officer Lee Barlow later emailed her to say the force would not normally seek a European Arrest Warrant in cases of ABH (Actual Bodily Harm).
Ciara Duffy
Both Ciara and her mother Jenny emailed formal complaints to Deel Rovers outlining concerns over how club members involved themselves in the situation.
Jenny’s email detailed how a named club member rang her on January 1 to say he’d heard about what happened and to gauge the family’s feelings if Maheady played in the semi-final three days later.
Mum Jenny’s partner Rodney said he was told by a separate club member on January 3 that a meeting was to be held with Maheady’s team-mates where the situation would be referred to, the players told the families were dealing with it and that it wasn’t to be discussed further.
In her email to the club, Ciara complained the behaviour by the members concerned showed “no regard for my experiences, trauma or indeed my voice or my wishes.
“They forced this issue into the business of the club and this has taken my rights away to deal with this is my own way.”
SILENCE: Maheady had nothing to say for himself when the Sunday World called
After the initial contacts, the family attended two meetings with club officials to voice their displeasure and anger at how the two named club members had acted.
A large number of emails were also exchanged over the following month with the family, even reaching out to senior GAA figure asking him to intervene.
Ultimately, an offer of mediation was suggested by the club on January 23, but Ciara and her family, who have accused the club of having a conflict of interest, ultimately declined.
We contacted the club this week to ask what the outcome of Ciara’s complaint was and whether Deel Rovers was satisfied with how the club’s members had acted in the incident’s aftermath.
The club responded: “Your query was discussed fully between the principal club officers, and in light of previous media queries, who informed us of an ongoing Garda investigation of the case, we will review and comment when that is concluded.”
Ciara has confirmed to the Sunday World that there is no garda investigation ongoing as the matter occurred outside this jurisdiction.
Deel Rovers went on to win the All-Ireland Intermediate Club Championship with James Maheady playing in the final – three days after the club’s offer of mediation on January 23.