GAA:Former Clare hurler and manager Ger Loughnane has strongly criticised some sections of the media for their conduct during his battle with leukaemia.
The RTE hurling pundit is recovering from treatment and returning to good health but has been left with “nothing but absolute contempt” for certain journalists after he was requested to do an interview days after he started treatment and it was then reported to have died last July.
“The lowest point of all was when the rumours that I was dead went around. That was the hardest thing to deal with,” said Loughnane. “I had the first phase of chemotherapy just finished and the first phase is very, very difficult."
After such an ordeal he and his wife Mary had to calm his distraught son Conor, who had rung from Australia upon hearing and reading reports of his father’s death.
"He saw it all over the internet and he couldn't be convinced that I wasn't (dead), even when he was talking to Mary. He thought she was just trying to calm him down," told The Star. "I had to ring Conor back to reassure him that everything was fine."
The 58-year-old was also angered by requests for an interview from a reporter that came two days after he started treatment.
“I got a message from an RTE reporter looking to do an interview. I didn’t even reply to it.”
The request was re-routed through a friend. “I was on the chemo for three days, he knew I was on chemo but he wanted to do an interview for his own gratification. Worse still then, he wanted to do an interview at the end of the year.
“He sent me a text saying he was thinking of me and praying for me, and was there any chance I’d do an interview. That’s despicable stuff altogether.
“It shows the kind of insincerity that is there with a certain section. When you see it as barefaced as that, you have nothing but absolute contempt for the people who are trying to pull that kind of stunt.”