#Ibelieveher

Our daughters are on their way to Dublin as I write. They’re going to today’s demonstration in support of the complainant in the Belfast rape trial.  I’m delighted that they are going to show solidarity if only just tinged with a sense of regret that I can’t be there myself.

I like rugby and played the game a lot as a teenager. The position of out half is key to the game, controlling how a team can attack. 70 years ago my late father took a day excursion to Ravenhill to watch Ireland win the triple crown after a 49 year wait.  Central to that team was Jackie Kyle. Kyle was the same age then as the complainant in the Belfast rape trial is now.

In my own time there’s been Mike Gibson, Tony Ward, Ollie Campbell, Humphreys, O’Gara and now Sexton, not forgetting Wexford man Seamus Kelly. Kelly filled in for Kyle in much the same way as Jackson did for Sexton.  Tony Ward came the wrong side of the IRFU for having the temerity to pose topless for a tabloid paper. His talents were considered surplus to requirement by the blazers subsequently and he never recovered his place on the international team afterwards.

So where does that leave Jackson? On Wednesday after he was acquitted of the charges he said all he wanted was to return to the rugby pitch. However his attitude contrasts to that of the other 3 defendants who simply wanted to disappear.  An aggressive statement by his solicitor indicated his sense of anger at being even asked to account for the night in question. There’s a parody of South Dublin Neanderthal attitudes to women called rugby addict Ross O’Carroll Kelly. Not in the wildest dreams of Paul Howard could his fiction actually come close to what has been heard in Laganside Court House in the last 2 months.

Jackson has already indicated he wants to sue the BBC over claims breach of privacy. Yesterday he said he’s sue my colleague Senator Aodhán Ó’Riordáin arising from a tweet that Aodhán posted highlighting the middle class nature of accused after the verdict was delivered. With all those legal appearances in the diary one wonders where Mr Jackson will find the time to play the game he loves. Mr Jackson will be in and out court houses like a merry go round, except he may find that it’s easier to threaten action rather than face the roasting in either a courthouse or indeed the court of public opinion.

Threatening people with legal action after the details of your private life become public knowledge isn’t smart. It stinks. In fact the basis of Jackson’s defence was that he was a decent middle class boy. His co accused in fact said, he’d be the last person in the world to rape someone. I have to accept that because the jury did. Why when you rely on an argument in court for a defence do you threaten someone with legal action outside the court house when they draw attention to that argument?

On the field of play the out half takes split second decisions that can turn a game in your favour. I’ll leave it for readers to conclude how effective Mr Jackson is in that role off the field concerning this matter.

The entire case exposes a laddish culture of drink and divine right to act as you wish and leave the consequences to later and a whatsap group pow wow. I wonder what some of the distinguished players I mentioned above would think of that. I doubt if many would find much in common with the values of today. Kyle famously spent most of his life doing voluntary work as  a surgeon in Africa.

For me it’s a case that #Ibelieveher