"Would they put in an ounce of the effort and dedication he did?…doubtful.”
Meath GAA have today released a statement underlining their "disgust" at the vitriol and personal abuse that its members have had to endure in recent times.
This is in relation to Andy McEntee, who stepped down as the county manager after six seasons at the helm, and was subject to a lot of personal and hateful abuse online.
McEntee's son, Shane, who captained Meath during his reign, took to Twitter to debunk the false claims that the county board paid to fly him home from Mali, purely because he was the son of the manager.
https://twitter.com/ShaneMcEntee1/status/1533911987314479113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1533911987314479113%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportsjoe.ie%2Fgaa%2Fshane-mcentee-slams-twitter-trolls-defends-fathers-time-charge-meath-263626
The Tweet read: "Online abuse, letters to the house. You can put yourself forward for these roles or you can tweet about it, one takes a bit more conviction.”
McEntee's daughter, Aisling, was also on social media, and had to read horrible statements made about her father.
She responded in a Tweet stating: “I really hope the next manager doesn’t have a family with access to social media.
“I also hope I never raise anyone to be as pathetic as to abuse people from behind a keyboard. Would they put in an ounce of the effort and dedication he did?…doubtful.”
https://twitter.com/ashmcentee/status/1533890776660320256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1533890776660320256%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.the42.ie%2Fmeath-gaa-abuse-statement-5786594-Jun2022%2F
Today’s full statement from the Meath county board, signed off by Public Relations Officer Ciarán Flynn, reads:
“Meath GAA wishes to put on record its disgust at the personal abuse aimed at our members in recent times.
“Unfortunately, this has become a regular occurrence that persons representing Meath GAA are being abused whilst representing our organisation.
“We welcome and encourage our members to engage in meaningful conversations on our social media channels. However, this can never escalate into abusive behaviour directed at individuals.
“We understand the frustration that supporters feel when our teams do not perform to the level that we all feel they should. This frustration is felt most by the team itself. True supporters will support our teams when it is not easy to do so.
“Anyone that resorts to abusive behaviour is not putting the interests of Meath GAA to the forefront. Indeed,
“Finally, we ask all our members and supporters to focus on the future of Meath Gaelic games and support all our teams in the coming years.”
