Davy Fitzgerald: 'I'm happy with the vindication. I'm happy it's done'
Davy Fitzgerald said he had to fight to protect his good name in a recent legal case.
A clarification appeared in the 'Sunday Independent' this past weekend relating to articles in the newspaper about him in March 2021 about his time as Clare boss and the hurling supporters's club. It pointed out the piece 'did not contain, nor were they intended to contain, a suggestion of dishonesty on Mr Fitzgerald's part.'
For the current Antrim manager, it brought to a close a four-year ordeal, which had caused him and his family distress. 'To have to wake up on a number of Sunday mornings and read stuff that affects you and your family, and for there to be insinuated certain things against you is hard to take.
'But I made a decision there and then that I wasn't going to let that go. Some things and some of my friends have said to me, 'We know what the story is, don't bother.' I couldn't. I couldn't let that go and I'd like to thank my legal team, who were absolutely unreal for the last three or four years.
'I'm happy with the vindication. I'm happy it's done. Did it hurt? There are probably two things that hurt me in the last number of years. That was one of them. When some people would actually think that that might be true, some of the stuff that was insinuated, that was terrible.'
Fitzgerald cited the 2020 All-Ireland qualifier in Portlaoise when as Wexford manager at a game that couldn't be attended by supporters due to the pandemic he was heckled throughout the game by a member of the Clare backroom game.
'I spent a whole game in 2020 on the sideline where I got absolutely abused personally by a member of a backroom team, my own county, which hurt me. Clare. That's not right. No one should have to put up with that. And it was during covid.
'Some of my friends said to me afterwards that you could hear it on the television. I suppose the only thing on that day was nearly every single member of the Clare team came up to me afterwards and shook my hand, which meant the world to me.
'I suppose the one thing I said to myself afterwards about these two things is that it's only a very small minority, a few powerful people, a very small minority that were probably behind this campaign.
'I look at the supporters in Clare, the Clare players, they're absolutely top-class. The clubs in Clare, top-class. I've benefited from the clubs in Clare. I won an All-Ireland because the clubs in Clare did their job and I'm so proud. But that did hurt. That campaign hurt. That clarification meant the world because you don't get them too easily, I can tell you that.'
For Fitzgerald's father Pat, former Clare secretary, who stepped down in 2022 a year after pursuing a civil case against a social media website, the weekend's development was also important. 'I suppose the only regret Pat has is that Pat was actually going finishing up (as county secretary) in 2018, believe it or not.
'He had another opportunity got and people probably don't know, he actually wanted to go then. But because the case with the social media had gone with the guards, there was an investigation, he had to stay employed in order for that to happen.
'But I would have actually loved to see him gone then and he probably would have himself. But he's happy. He goes to matches. The Munster Council are incredible to him and a few other counties are unbelievable to him. I think he kind of said on Sunday that, 'Do you know what now? That's that.''
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