Jimmy Cooney, at the centre of one of the biggest controversies to hit the GAA, has broken his silence on the matter.

Just over a year ago he blew the whistle for full-time three minutes early in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final between Clare and Offaly and the GAA was forced to order a replay.

Clare were leading at the time but Offaly won the replay and subsequently won the All-Ireland title.

Since the match Cooney has refused to talk about what happened but he has now given an interview to Telefis na Gaelige which will be broadcast tonight at 10.00.

In the course of the interview he says: "We (he and the other officials) spent hours in the dressingroom, lonesome hours, we got out of Croke Park at about 10.00 that night."

Cooney also refers to the effects on his family: "The kids were crying saying there wasn't nice things being said about them. I didn't feel comfortable about going to games for a good while afterwards.

"I made a simple mistake in the game which I couldn't rectify. If I could I would have. If we could have restarted the game I would have loved to do it," he says.