Legal action launched against Jarlath Burns and GAA

Former Derry county football manager Rory Gallagher has begun legal action against the GAA and its president Jarlath Burns after he intervened in Mr Gallagher’s potential appointment to a Kildare team.

In January, Mr Gallagher was offered a coaching role with senior club champions Naas but the offer was then withdrawn after details of the appointment were made public.

It later emerged Mr Burns had contacted the club to express his concern at the proposed appointment.

In a statement to BBC News NI in January, Mr Gallagher said Mr Burns’ actions were “unprecedented” and “misguided” and threatened legal action if the remarks were not retracted.

When news of the appointment at Naas appeared in the media, the association’s president spoke to the Naas club chairman before sending an email which was then read at a meeting of party officers at which it was decided not to proceed with Mr Gallagher’s appointment.

In the email, which was seen by the BBC, Mr Burns said he felt compelled to share his perspective given the “potential implications for Naas GAA and the wider association”.

He said decisions made by the club “reverberate far beyond your immediate community” and send a “message about the values we uphold and the standards we set for our members and supporters”.

He also warned of the implications for the GAA’s Game Changer Initiative which was launched in November to challenge the “social and cultural norms that contribute to domestic, sexual and gender based violence”.

At the time, Mr Gallagher called on the GAA president to withdraw his remarks.

“I have never asked for sympathy or support. I do however ask that this action is formally withdrawn and the contents of the correspondence is retracted,” he said at the time.

“The president should lead by example and accept when he has overstepped the mark.

“Absent such a retraction, I will have no other alternative but to take legal action to cure the irreparable damage done to me and my family in my ability to continue to work as a manger in the years ahead.

When the accusations against Mr Gallagher were made, it emerged that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) had investigated reported incidents.

Two files were submitted to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), which decided against pressing charges due to insufficient evidence “to provide a reasonable prospect of a conviction”.

After Mr Gallagher resigned as Derry manager, he was “temporarily debarred” by the GAA in September 2023 when an independent panel was asked to investigate the claims made by his estranged wife.

Mr Gallagher successfully challenged that debarment in February 2024 and a statement from his solicitors in September said there was no “legal impediment” to prevent him returning to a senior role in the game.