GAA county dual star opens up on death threats and confronting online trolls
Aaron Fitzgerald of Eire Og and Clare(Image: ©INPHO/Natasha Barton)Eire Og dual star Aaron Fitzgerald has opened up about online death threats he received whilst playing for Clare in 2022. Fitzgerald is closing in on a remarkable Munster club SFC/SHC double with Ennis outfit Eire Og after a breakthrough season.He's captain of the football team that will take on Cork's St Finbarrs in Sunday's provincial semi-final. And he'll man the centre of the hurlers' defence a week later when they face Ballygunner in the provincial decider in Thurles.Fitzgerald previously played for both county teams and was caught up in controversy during the Clare hurlers' Munster SHC draw with Limerick in 2022.Limerick star Gearoid Hegarty picked up a second yellow card for a pull across Fitzgerald - though pundit Donal Og Cusack was among critics who claimed the Clare man made 'a huge deal out of it'.Speaking on the latest edition of the Smaller Fish podcast, Fitzgerald said he received death threats afterwards and described it as an 'awful couple of weeks'.Clare's Aaron Fitzgerald and Jason Foley of Kerry(Image: ©INPHO/James Crombie)Fitzgerald said of the incident: "I felt contact and I went down. I'm okay now after it but I had death threats and everything through Instagram and Facebook and everything over it. It was an awful couple of weeks to be honest with you."I had three or four lads with death threats. I'd say I had eight or nine other messages, to my personal account. And these weren't even people that tried to hide themselves. They were normal people. I can remember sitting down beside herself on the couch and I was going writing back to one of these lads."I picked and choosed who I was going writing back to, he was a small little scrawny fella and I was going to say, did he want my address, if he wanted to call down. She wasn't long reminding me that we had two kids in the house so that wasn't long going out the window."I just went off Facebook and Instagram for a while and I let it mellow out. Look, these things happen. Is it something I regret? Probably not because it got us into a Munster final. Would I do it again? Probably not."Fitzgerald joked that it may be the thing people remember most from his inter-county career.He said: "Everyone was talking about it. It was the talked about subject. I'd rather talk about the throw ball in hurling and stuff like that, I think it's something they need to look at a bit more."The full interview with Fitzgerald is available on the Smaller Fish podcast which is on the patreon platform.Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond
