So, some of our recent visiting Antipodean brethren purported to be shocked at the recent 'Irish Independent' photo montage of images from the Galway senior hurling final between Loughrea and Portumna, writes An Fear Rua.

Just as well, then, they had'nt arrived here the previous Monday when the front page of 'The Irish Times' sports supplement regaled us across eight or ten columns with a photo of a kerfuffle between some Wolfe Tones and Navan O'Mahonys players in the Meath senior football final.

Then, there was that brief 'schemozzle', as Micheal O'Hehir used to call them, during the second half of the Waterford hurling final between Mount Sion and Ballygunner. Quite frankly, such is the intense rivalry between these clubs in recent years, as county titles alternate back and forth, that it would be surprising if tension didn't boil over at the stage when one or other team faced into defeat. And, by the way, the Pairc Tailteann scenes were little more than routine 'hand bagging' in front of a dug out.

The latest episode is the TV pictures and newspaper reports of that Ulster Intermediate club game at Casement Park, in Belfast.

These sorts of photographs on a Monday morning are as predictable as the swallows and house martins leaving our shores in Autumn to head southwards to the warmer climes of places like Namibia. Their bouts of pre-flight agitation seem just as familiar. Like the swallows, the 'meeja' commentators often swirl around pointlessly before single-mindedly heading off in a particular direction.

An Fear Rua will not embarrass them by naming them. But you know them well yourself. They are the small handful of editors, journalists and media columnists who seem to specialise in public hand wringing over 'GAA violence' at the back end of the year. Their tiresome pulpit thumping against the GAA merely obscures the facts and the reality of what they comment on. If it were not GAA 'violence' it would be 'GAA players wearing their socks around their ankles' or 'GAA umpires wearing white coats similar to the medical profession'. The particular issue does not matter, so long as it serves as a convenient stick to beat the GAA.

No doubt, from time to time, some GAA players, mentors and spectators ruin games by their behaviour. However, it is entirely wrong to suggest that violent behaviour on or off the field is largely confined to GAA. The difference, of course, is that violence in other games rarely finds its way into the news pages of the tabloids nor does it ever seem to provide acceptable column fodder for the more stately pages of the broadsheets. Partly, this seems to because of an unwritten vow of omerta in certain media that violence in rugby, especially schools rugby, is not to be mentioned. Anyone familiar with under age and junior soccer, for example and who is honest about it will admit that there are increasingly frequent incidents of violence on and off the pitch and that the soccer authorities are getting more and more concerned about indiscipline as well as attacks on referees.

Now, An Fear Rua is not going to defend or condone the violence that sometimes mars GAA matches as a traditional part of what we are. Nevertheless, there are some explanatory, even mitigating, historical factors that specifically apply to GAA and do not apply to other sports. For example, GAA clubs in many parts of the country are based on intense parish loyalty. When the McClaffertys of tiny Ballydubh take the field against the neighbouring O'Raffertys of the much larger Ballybawn, there can be several generations of resentment and bad blood in the background how an O'Rafferty made off with the best looking McClafferty girl seventy years ago how the two families took differing sides in the pre-famine faction fights, how Red Tom McClafferty swindled Paddy 'The Rambler'O'Rafferty out of that half acre of good land just beyond the church.

Inevitably, therefore, on the rare occasions that the Ballydubh Davids defeat the Ballybawn Goliaths passions may run high before, during and after the game. But what justification does a journeyman rugby or soccer player or mentor have? You cannot evoke a similar passionate intensity on behalf of your club or province when, the next year, you may be paid more to get involved with their archrivals at the other end of the county or on the other side of the city.

The confluence of county semi-finals and finals in all grades at this time of year means that, inevitably, there will be games with much more at stake and passions may spill over. In one recent weekend alone, fourteen senior county finals were down for determination. However, an autumnal spike in on-field violence should not be taken as typical of the rest of the GAA year and extrapolated from just to sell more newspapers.

To an extent, what we are experiencing on the playing fields of all sports is part of the general increase in the level of aggression and violence that seems to be part of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. That should not be a counsel of despair, however. There are measures that can be taken to mitigate violence in our games and to ensure greater protection for players, referees, mentors and spectators but if this is a GAA problem, the solution will be a GAA one. It will not be foisted on us by a handful of commentators who are, to adapt the memorable phrase of Lyndon Baines Johnson, mostly outside the tent pissing in.

The first thing to understand is that there is no 'quick fix' to this issue. A more effective disciplinary procedure, by its very nature, will focus only on the outcomes of bad discipline. We also need to address the causes as well.

Here, we are into the difficult area of what constitutes the traditions and ethos of the GAA. Many still feel that parish passion and loyalty is an essential part of the Association. AFR begs to differ on that point, but accepts that a major dilution of the so-called Parish Rule is not on the cards for some years to come yet. So, there will still be potential in the GAA for what we will term the 'faction fight' dimension engendered by parish rivalries.

At the same time, there needs to be a focussed effort, involving sustained communications and education programmes, to engender good behaviours among players and mentors, from the youngest juvenile right up to senior inter-county level. Particularly at juvenile and even schools level there is far too much tolerance of shady umpiring and linesman's decisions by partisan officials, far too much badmouthing and belly ragging of referees and, all in all, extremely poor example being set for kids. Under-age and schools boards need to be much tougher and more consistent about applying disciplinary rules, particularly in incidents involving referees.

All coaching courses and summer camps should include mandatory sections on better behaviour and improved discipline. We may need to have behaviour ambassadors on the road visiting clubs regularly and talking to players and members about the need to focus more on the game and to cool it more often. Current and recently retired inter-county stars would be ideal role models for this task. Players and mentors need to be encouraged or made to take ownership for the consequences of their own actions. We need to stamp out the video evidence gimmick, which has recently been widened to allow independent witnesses, that often seeks to exonerate high profile players after the event and undermine disciplinary outcomes.

Above all, we need to put respect and protection for referees and other match officials at the very heart of our disciplinary code. There may be some legal or even constitutional difficulties about imposing mandatory sentences for interference with match officials, but certainly the punishments for this and for public order or bringing the game into disrepute-t