Rory Gallagher will not now be linking up with Naas as a coach for 2025 after the club’s executive met on Sunday night to discuss his pending appointment.
Gallagher had been earmarked for a role with the four-in-a-row Kildare champions who are managed by Joe Murphy.
But a decision to end interest in Gallagher was taken by the executive who had met after contact on the issue earlier in the day from GAA president Jarlath Burns who is understood to have expressed concern, by email, at the potential wider implications for Naas that the proposed appointment could have in light of allegations of domestic abuse by his estranged wife Nicola. She made the allegations in a social media post prior to the 2023 Ulster final when he was managing Derry.
Burns is understood to have specifically referenced the GAA’s role, together with the LGFA and Camogie Association, in the launch of the Game Changer project last November, which is a collaboration with Ruhama and White Ribbon Ireland aimed at raising awareness and action through sport to tackle Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (DSGBV).
Gallagher stepped back from the role prior to the final in which Derry beat Armagh and then stepped down in the days after.
In a statement issued through his solicitor at the time he said the allegations “have been investigated and dealt with by the relevant authorities.”
Gallagher was understood to be close to reappointment in Derry last summer but ultimately the county opted to look elsewhere and have since appointed Paddy Tally.
In a further statement issued on his behalf by Phoenix Law last September it was stressed that “there is no legal impediment to our client undertaking or accepting a role as a GAA senior football manager.”
The Belfast-based law firm added that “at all stages of this process, our client has firmly and steadfastly denied his guilt and refuted all the allegations levelled against him.
“Two separate investigations have led – rightly – to decisions by the PPS not to prosecute. Mr Gallagher has not been charged with a single offence.”
He had initially been “temporarily debarred, without prejudice” from coaching by Ulster GAA as they awaited the conclusion of work done by a safeguarding panel attached to the province.
But Gallagher challenged that decision and had it lifted by a Disputes Resolution Authority panel which found that Ulster GAA did not have the power to temporarily debar him as they did while the safeguarding panel completed their work.
Gallagher had been coaching Monaghan senior club side Corduff at the time of the initial Ulster GAA decision in September 2023 and he coached them last year.
It’s understood that he will continue to coach Corduff in 2025 and that was still going to be his primary coaching role, even if the Naas connection was going ahead.