A couple of years ago a Westmeath player missed a relatively easy free in an important championship match at Croke Park — never the most pleasant experience for someone who is entrusted with the important task of making such chances count.

To add insult to injury, two members of the opposing team immediately sprinted some twenty metres to goad, ridicule and abuse him in full view of the referee.

It did not surprise me in the least that no action was taken against either player yet what had been just witnessed was surely an invitation to violence.

Thankfully, the Westmeath player somehow managed to retain his cool despite what I as an onlooker regarded as the most intense provocation.

That particular vignette has flashed through my mind more than once of late as Ulster GAA strives to come to terms with some of the most disgraceful incidents ever witnessed on our playing fields and in our stands.

And while I most certainly do not have any special insight as to what caused the thuggery which marred the Lamh Dhearg v St Mary’s Rasharkin U21 semi-final in Antrim and the Carrickmore v Dromore Tyrone All County League final, I would suspect that verbal abuse proved the catalyst for at least some of the utterly reprehensible incidents which occurred.

Club and county players are trained and conditioned to absorb tackles, on how to make tackles, on how to fall without incurring injury and on how to pace themselves in games so as to maximise their stamina. What they are NOT trained to do is to cope with the most scurrilous insults in relation to their mothers, wives, partners or sisters.

And let me assure you this is very much part and parcel of the GAA.

Even worse, I have known managers who have actually condoned this practice in a desperate attempt to get inside the heads of opposing players – very much a case indeed of trying to achieve victory while resorting to gutter tactics.

On the other hand, many fair-minded managers, the majority of whom are family men themselves with small children, invariably exhort their players not to rise to the bait and to ignore as far as possible the taunts to which they find themselves exposed.

Few, if any, players will be prepared to admit publicly that they have been subjected to salacious verbal abuse yet it remains a cancer within the sport.

Sadly, we have all been forced to view the symptoms of violence lately — but we have yet to be made aware of the causes of such controversy.

Heavy sentences were imposed on individual members of the St Mary’s Rasharkin club without their particular offences being articulated while the proposed expulsion of the club from competitions above Minor level in 2012 has sent shock waves throughout the Association.

Now the Tyrone Competitions Control Committee is forced to deal with a situation in which people were left with bloodied faces, women and children were traumatised and the image of the GAA savagely tarnished.

There is no proof as yet that verbal insults were an initial contributory factor to the violence that occurred at Dunmoyle last Sunday but I — and I am sure many others like me — would like to know just what actually triggered circumstances in which the very fabric of the sport was ruptured.

The presentation of senior inter-county championship games has been stepped up considerably with rules in place governing the number of people inside the actual playing arena, the manner in which substitutions are made and the enhanced liaison between referees and linesmen and of course the fourth official

This has led to such matches, the majority of which are played out against a backcloth of high intensity, being staged without major incident and which indeed reflect great credit on the country’s biggest sporting organisation.

For various logistical reasons, the same precise measures are not applicable at all club games.

And thus there is always the danger that the boundaries of sportsmanship and indeed common decency can be breached in the pursuit of victory.

I am well aware that it is difficult for referees to pick up on jibes that may be traded between players — God knows the whistlers have a demanding enough role as it is — but the sooner that examples are made of some players in this connection the better.

I have yet to hear any of the GAA hierarchy condemn the sadly flourishing culture of on-field verbal abuse. Indeed, it seems that within the corridors of power heads tend to be buried in the sand on this particular issue.

This is a great pity. I know that this is an extremely complex and embarrassing matter but it is having a detrimental impact on both the image and welfare of the GAA.

November has been a particularly bleak month for the Association in Ulster. We can only keep our fingers crossed and hope that lessons will have been learned from the mayhem which has gripped gaelic football.