Five months on from Martin Breheny's explosive interview with former Mayo managers Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly, Aidan O'Shea was yesterday asked about it.
Among numerous other revelations in the that December interview, it emerged that Holmes and Connelly had prevented O'Shea from appearing in the first season of The Toughest Trade, an opportunity which would have seen him train at Sunderland Football Club.
It was also claimed that O'Shea had sent and email prior to the 2015 All-Ireland quarter-final win against Donegal, voicing his and other players' displeasure regarding the omission of one particular player from the matchday squad.
Also, the former joint managers claimed Aidan O'Shea's brother Seamus had suggested to them that he would prefer his Breaffy teammate Rob Hennelly to start in goal ahead of David Clarke.
O'Shea said yesterday the interview had been 'factually incorrect'
It's factually incorrect and that's unfortunately the way the paper wanted to write it.
That's their prerogative. It's not something I dwell on – I've completely moved on myself personally and the group have completely moved forward.
He also added that he had not been given the right of reply at the time.
I didn't get the right to respond at the time and as a duty as a journalist they didn't give me the right at the time and I'm not going to do it now, six months later. It's a lack of respect. Please.
In today's Irish Independent, Martin Breheny hit back at what he called 'unsubstantiated allegations' by O'Shea.
On the right of reply charge, this is the actual position. If O'Shea, any other member of the panel or indeed the squad collectively, sought to react to the contents of the interview, we would have carried it in as much detail as they wanted. We received no such request and when we inquired what the situation was, we were told that there would be no response to the interview from the players.
As for "the way the paper wanted to write it", I can be even more specific, since I conducted the interview. Neither I - nor the paper - wanted to write it in any particular way, other than as a straightforward interview.
Breheny also questioned why if O'Shea believed the interview to have been 'factually incorrect', he waited so long to voice his opposition to it.
Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
