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2nd November 2011
12:18pm GMT

A Facebook account posing as the official Fermanagh GAA page has caused one hell of a fuss in the Erne County after waging war by social media with the county board.
The Fermanagh County Board want the Fermanagh GAA page shut down as it is not does not represent the county on an official basis and has instead been attacking elements of the county board administration via public posts to the 1,500+ people it counts as friends on the social networking website.
Needless to say, the County Board aren’t happy about the whole situation because of the possibility that people may mistake the parody page for the official Fermanagh GAA page (Fermanagh GAA Amateur Sports Team) and because of some of the accusations levelled against them on it.
Speaking to The Irish News, Fermanagh PRO Joe McManus said: "Last week, the county secretary showed me screenshots of this unofficial Facebook page and we're worried people will think it's from the county board. The page we use is a 'like' page that we use for fixtures, announcements and statements.
"The unofficial one has been putting up stuff about the county board, that they're 'big fat cats', pictures of youngsters' teams that we don't put up and slating county board members and the management.
“Then they started copying and pasting stuff off our page onto the unofficial page."
McManus pleaded with the author of the Fermanagh GAA page to shut it down, but his plea fell on deaf ears.
"I asked him (the author) if he would close it and just use our page and then he started putting up stuff about me,” he added.
“I was told 'I was here first, I don't care what you do'. We're worried that people think it's the official page and don't use our proper one.”
McManus’ concerns would appear to be justified as there are a number of inflammatory posts about the county board included on the page, such as the ones below.


Saying that, we know that people in Fermanagh have had issues with how their hurlers have been treated in the past and supporters have a right to voice their concerns about the way GAA is administered in their county, but doing so under a moniker that could easily be mistaken as the official wing of the County Board may not be the best way to go about it.
Neither party is obviously keen to stand down, however, so this row might rumble on for a little while yet.

Gaa | Joe.ie
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