Confusion surrounds eBay Leinster SHC winners' medal sale
The Galway Hurling Board is set to investigate the sale of a 2012 Leinster SHC winners' medal on auction website eBay.
Galway made history last July when they beat Kilkenny to become Leinster Senior Hurling champions for the first time. The Tribesmen have been playing in the eastern province's Championship since 2009.
It has now emerged that one of the victorious Galway team's medals was sold on eBay this morning for a price of €570.
Forty-one bids were made for the medal and its original presentation box, beginning with a bid of €99.99 on February 2.
The eBay page is headed, 'Senior Leinster Hurling Final Winners Medal. Player Issued. Galway Champions', and the accompanying six pictures and the seller's positive eBay feedback suggest that it a legitimate item.
According to local sources, the sold medal allegedly belongs to a member of the extended Galway senior hurling panel and not any of the players who actually played in the Leinster final against Kilkenny.
It is not unusual for sportspeople, including inter-county footballers and hurlers, to sell their medals and trophies - but mostly this is done a number of years later, and not barely six months after the particular match.
Ray Hazley, who was sent off in Dublin's 1983 All-Ireland SFC final win over Galway, auctioned 18 of his career medals in the capital last month.
The initial reaction to the news on social media has been a mixture of shock, confusion and annoyance.
Some observers have said that selling the medal "dishonours"' the GAA and the Leinster Championship and those who have won the Bob O'Keeffe Cup down through the years.
