What’s More Shocking: Harte’s Derry Move Or Fact He Wrote Character Reference For Man Who Sexually Assaulted Woman In Van?

ITS THE SHOCKING move no one in GAA circles saw coming and never in their wildest dreams thought possible, Mickey Harte, All-Ireland winning coach with his native Tyrone is to become Derry’s new manager.

But is Harte’s sudden departure from Louth more shocking than details of a court case doing the rounds again on social media in which Harte provided a character reference for Ronan McCusker, a man convicted of sexual assault? We posed this exact question to the public and here’s what they said:

“Eh, hardly. A GAA coach NOT coming to the defence of a young lad no matter how heinous their crimes – now that would be genuinely shocking” confirmed one GAA fan.

“Wash your mouth out, this is a disgusting hatchet job on the man, how dare you smear him like that, he’s a… wait, what? He is actually going to Derry?” added another Tyrone man before dying instantly of heart-rage-explosion syndrome brought on by the shock of hearing Harte doing something so egregious.

“Hang on you’re acting like providing a character witness for someone after hearing they sexually assaulted an unconscious woman and then dumped her half-naked body on the side of a road from a moving van is somehow worse than coaching Derry and it’s just not,” said one outraged Tyrone supporter.

“It’s like Alex Ferguson managing Liverpool, Michelle O’Neill leading the DUP, your missus cheating on you with the neighbour, all unfathomable, unforgivable things but the letter for a sex offender, I’m pretty sure that’s a prerequisite for becoming an inter-county manager,” defended another.

“That was ages ago,” added another GAA supporter, part of a cohort of people famous for hanging onto decades old grudges based on the contentious awarding of a 45.

Elsewhere, the Derry GAA board have been praised for their maturity having moved on from a coach accused of domestic violence to one who just writes character references for sex offenders.