{"id":397245,"date":"2026-04-14T03:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T03:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/397245\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T03:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T03:02:11","slug":"man-who-assaulted-umpire-at-underage-gaa-match-given-suspended-sentence-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/397245\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who assaulted umpire at underage GAA match given suspended sentence \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A father who assaulted an umpire at an underage hurling<\/a> match, leading to the victim suffering a concussion at the hands of others, has been given a suspended three-month sentence.<\/p>\n

The actions of Michael Kelly at Clan na Gael club in March 2023 were \u201cnot a true reflection of the GAA<\/a>\u201d, Judge Orla Crowe said as she sentenced him on Monday. <\/p>\n

Kelly (41) of Sherrard Street Lower, Dublin 1<\/a>, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court<\/a> to assault during an underage hurling match at the GAA club in Irishtown<\/a> on March 5th, 2023. The court heard Kelly came at the victim with his arms swinging after his 17-year-old son got into a verbal disagreement with the umpire.<\/p>\n

Kelly did not actually strike the umpire, Paul Keane, but put him in fear he would be hit, which allows for a charge of assault under section two of the Non-fatal Offences Against the Person Act. It is an offence that carries a maximum sentence of six months. Kelly was originally due to stand trial on a charge of affray but entered the guilty plea on the first day of his trial.<\/p>\n

The court heard matters descended further and other unidentified people then struck Keane several times from behind. He suffered concussion and had to receive medical attention. <\/p>\n

The judge said it was \u201cunacceptable\u201d and \u201creprehensible behaviour\u201d on Kelly\u2019s part.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the accused Michael Kelly having decided to involve himself in the situation where an umpire was speaking to [his] son and acting as he did . . . this situation might not have happened at all and he [the umpire] might not have had any injuries,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

It was a \u201creally unedifying experience\u201d she said, noting the victim\u2019s concerns that this behaviour brought the game into disrepute and had a negative impact on the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe charged in when his son, who was 17, was having an issue,\u201d she said. \u201cHe did not have to do that. He did not have to go in with his arms swinging.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted the maximum sentence of six months and said she did not believe a custodial sentence was warranted. She sentenced him to three months, which she suspended in full on a number of conditions, including that Kelly engage with the Probation Service for one year.<\/p>\n

She noted Kelly had indicated he was willing to give \u20ac5,000 to the victim as a token of his remorse and she ordered him to do so within one week.<\/p>\n

Both spectators and players, who were about 17 years of age, were distressed by the episode, with John Gallagher, prosecuting, describing it as \u201ca very unwelcome intrusion at a sporting event\u201d.<\/p>\n

The court heard that Kelly had 20 previous convictions, mostly for road traffic offences, but also for assault causing harm.<\/p>\n

The court heard that numerous other people who caused Keane\u2019s injuries were mostly not identified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A father who assaulted an umpire at an underage hurling match, leading to the victim suffering a concussion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1965,51250,37837,4183,61,60,141570,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-397245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-hurling","9":"tag-criminal-courts","10":"tag-dublin-1","11":"tag-gaa","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-irishtown","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}