Westmeath football manager Pat Flanagan has been forced to call in the Gardai in an attempt to put an end to the bogus parody account set up in his name on Twitter.
The account (@PatFlanagan001) has been in existence on Twitter for the last number of weeks and has been used mainly as a forum to attack Westmeath footballers and create wild speculation about the football scene in the county.
Have a quick look at a sample of tweets taken from the account (at time of writing, it is still in existence) and it would seem fairly obvious to most observers that the account is a fake.
With nearly 200 followers, however, it has attracted quite a following and Flanagan is understandably eager to end any association with it as soon as possible.
“I’m aware of what’s going on, and it’s difficult to believe how, on what’s a very popular form of social media, people can just use another person’s name to say whatever they like,” Flanagan told the Westmeath Examiner.
“I spoke to a couple of people to see if they could find out who is behind it, but we haven’t been able to identify anyone. So I have had chats with the various authorities. I spoke to the Gardai and made them aware of it.
“I’ve never used Twitter in my life. I can only go on what has been shown to me by other people.”
Flanagan only became aware of the mere existence of Twitter in recent times after a number of former and present Westmeath players used it to criticise his management style and frequent appearances in the meeja.
While it seems that the days of Flanagan’s parody account are numbered after this scandal, there are still a few more alive and well, such as the hilarious one related to erstwhile RTE GAA hack, Marty Morrissey.
