Knife threats and highly personal insults – not the type of thing you want to be reading after your county were just shocked by your close rivals.
Meath goalkeeper was guilty of a rush of blood to the head, on Sunday, as he was sent off in injury time of his side’s defeat to Westmeath. O’Rourke will have to live with the red card decision that followed his foul on Kieran Martin.
One wonders how much thought the people that tweeted the Meath man some outrageous abuse will ever give to their actions?
Tyrone captain Sean Cavanagh is hoping to inflict further misery on The Royal County when the two sides meet in the next round of the All-Ireland qualifiers. However, he has nothing but sympathy for O’Rourke.
Cavanagh believes the actions of the online posters, concerning the goalkeeper, has been reckless. ‘It is a dangerous trend,’ he tells us.
‘I was acutely aware of the possibility of getting that kind of abuse, a few years ago. For that reason, I decided not to join the social media wave.
‘I wouldn’t want to put myself in that position to have people abusing me. I wouldn’t want that to happen to me in the street so enduring it online held no appeal.’
A sample of some of the online abuse suffered by O’Rourke.Cavanagh continues, ‘I have seen it [online abuse] happen to lads in Tyrone and it really knocked the stuffing out of them.
‘The [online] legal and policing systems haven’t seemed to caught up and people are posting comments without putting much thought into it. For guys to be taking direct pot-shots is very disappointing.’
‘Paddy is such a gent and such a big man. A few of the lads that posted those Twitter comments, I bet, would not stop him in the street and say that to his face.’
‘We’re all putting in the time and commitment of professionals but we’re amateurs,’ he adds. ‘We have to go home to our families and go to work the next day.’
Moy Tír Na nÓg GAA club are official suppliers of Sean Cavanagh to Tyrone GAA, who will take on Meath in the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Qualifiers.Having been eliminated from the Ulster championship by Donegal, Cavanagh and Tyrone are targeting the Sam Maguire through the back door. He said, ‘We were happy to get the result over Limerick and, at this stage, delighted to stay in the draw. The home draw is very much welcome but it is not as much of an advantage as some make out.
‘We played five away games in six weeks, a few years back, and it was great from a team-building and spirit point of view. Still, going on the road is tough. You get back late at night and are up again, early, for work the next day.’
He admits that he did not expect to see Meath in the qualifiers at this stage.
‘We played them in 2013 and it was a humdinger of a game. It ebbed and flowed all afternoon.
‘Meath have leaders all over the field. Household names like the Reillys, Menton, Newman and McMahon. They have such quality so it was surprising to see them lose a nine-point lead. They looked home and hosed.
‘When a team gets a run on you, like Westmeath did, it is hard to swing that momentum back. After many years of hurt, at the hands of Meath, they were not letting up.’
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