A former GAA coach was today convicted of a series of sex assaults on schoolboys.
Ronan McCormack, who is now aged 71, was found guilty of 53 of 54 charges of indecent assault on five boys aged between nine and 13.
His trial that lasted for more than two weeks, heard of his abuses against the children when he was aged between 39 and 44.
McCormack, a farmer of Cuppanagh, Cloonloo, Co Sligo, who coached the under-12 team at Eastern Harps GAA Club in nearby Keash, abused boys on trips to Croke Park. He was convicted of indecent assaults in his home, in his car, at a breakfast table in his kitchen, on fishing trips and on lakes and rivers.
On one occasion, while umpiring an under-12s football game, he indecently assaulted one of the goalkeepers on the football pitch while the rest of the team was up the field.
The jury of 11 men and one woman heard that the offences were committed between October 1981 and August 1986. During that time McCormack coached four of the boys for the Under-12s team. The fifth boy became known to him through a family friendship.
The first witness told how the coach persuaded him when he was 11 to examine a county championship medal in his darkened bedroom and then sexually assaulted him for the first time. The coach then drove him home to have tea with his mother.
He was also accused of indecent assault against one victim when he was aged 10 at a football pitch near his home and when he was 11 after they had been to Croke Park.
One of the victims, now aged 43, told of being sexually abused several times as a 12-year-old before two Croke Park games in 1983.
He was indecently assaulted at the coach’s home before the Donegal-Galway semi-final and before the All-Ireland final between Dublin and Galway.
He said: “I would have to stay over at his house the night before because he wanted to get to Mass before going on the train.”
He said before the semi-final the coach arrived in a bedroom naked and climbed into the bed beside him with the words “don’t be shy.”
Then the coach indecently assaulted him a number of times during the night. The sexual assaults were repeated the following month on the night before Dublin’s win over Galway. Two of the victims are now aged 41 and two are 43. The fifth is aged 38.
Judge Petria McDonnell rejected a prosecution application that McCormack be remanded in custody when she was told he required time before sentence to deal with family affairs.
He was remanded on bail for reports and sentence on June 17th.