Tyrone county manager Mickey Harte took a high moral tone when urging “the GAA community” to get behind the “National Vigil for Life” in Merrion Square on June 8.

But high morality was hardly the hallmark of his intervention last February when he provided a character reference for a man who had admitted a vile and disgusting sexual assault. Derry Crown Court heard that the attacker, Ronan McCusker, 27, “comes from a widely-known GAA family in Tyrone.”
McCusker admitted offering the woman a lift home from a pub, launching a horrendous assault and then ejecting her from a van in a state of undress. A mother in her forties, she was found unconscious in a laneway some hours later by two men on their way to work: at first they thought they had stumbled upon a dead body.
The woman, too, comes from a family steeped in GAA tradition. “Mickey Harte is a man so many of us looked up to, as an ambassador and an inspiration for young players. But he spoke up for the person who attacked me even after he pleaded guilty. What was he thinking? Maybe he was misinformed.
“But he had a chance to withdraw and say sorry, say he didn’t realise the extent of what I had been put through. But he didn’t do that… I don’t think his reference for this man reflected well on the GAA.”
Since her ordeal on June 28, 2010, the woman has suffered panic attacks and other problems. She was not in robust health to begin with. She has had spells in hospital since the attack. “I had a panic attack just days after it happened. I couldn’t get my breath and thought I was having a heart attack. After that, I had attacks every now and again when things got on top of me.
“I had a panic attack on the day I heard he was going to plead guilty.”
On one occasion, she collapsed unconscious in her kitchen. “I remember falling and grasping the sink. In the ambulance, my heartbeat was 142. My partner panicked, too. This wasn’t like me. I never experienced anything like this before. I had never fainted in my life.”
For a period, she says, “It was on my mind all the time. When I was doing anything at all, it was in my mind. It took me a while to pluck up courage to do ordinary things. When I was able to go back to mass on Sunday, I found myself trying to pick a seat where I wouldn’t be sitting beside a man. Wee silly things like that.
“At first, I wouldn’t go down to the GAA club, but I go down now. I did think that people were looking at me, judging me, and I didn’t know how to handle it.
“There was an awful thing in my mind about the two men who found me. At first, they were afraid to touch me. I’d been left for dead. I was very conscious of the embarrassment of how they had found me. I felt people were looking at me, talking about me. For a time, I felt like a leper.
“But the men who found me were grand lads. I am grateful to them.”
Judge Piers Grant singled out the character reference from Harte as one of the “mitigating factors” which led him to pitch McCusker’s sentence towards the bottom of the range; two-and-a-half years, 15 months in jail, 15 on licence.
In fact, the PSNI has informed the victim that McCusker will be freed next January.
The woman found support from the Rape Crisis Centre in Belfast. “It’s the only one of its kind in the North. That’s wrong. There should be at least one Rape Crisis Centre in each of the six counties, and outreach programmes where anybody can make contact. That’s what would happen if this crime was being taken as seriously as it should be.”
Despite some negative reactions, she stresses the level of support she has received. “Neighbours sent cards and mass bouquets. There was great support in my home village. Even in his village, the number of people who believed me lifted me up.
“People have come up to me in the street since the end of the case to say they were pleased the trial went in my favour.
“And all the time, I had my children, my partner and my best friend around me, completely solid. They have been absolutely brilliant. I wouldn’t have got through without them.”
She has reared her children on her own. Educationally and otherwise, they are all doing well. “I reared them with dignity. Without a doubt I am proud. None of them was born with a silver spoon.”
She has an indomitable dignity about her, without which she might not have emerged with as clear-sighted an appreciation of the issues raised by the savagery she endured.
“My mood was low and I didn’t know if I could recover my spirit, until one day I got angry and thought – No, I am not going to allow myself to be pushed down. There’s no way I’ll let that boy beat me.”
Perhaps those in leadership positions in the “pro-life” movement will think again about the propriety of Mickey Harte playing Holy Joe on their platforms. Perhaps.