Listen to the full debate with Aaron and Sean Kelly via the GAA podcast above
Back in December 2012, Crossmaglen Rangers player Aaron Cunningham suffered racial abuse from another player during an Ulster Football Final against Kilcoo.
With the GAA's Playing Rules Standing Committee proposing a minimum eight week ban for racist abuse and Jim Gavin set to speak to Off The Ball about the issue this Saturday, racism in Gaelic Games is back on the agenda.
But is an eight week minimum ban good enough?
To discuss that we spoke to Aaron Cunningham and former GAA President Sean Kelly.
Cunningham detailed his own experiences and the incident that he spoke up about.
"I rose the issue because I felt that this is a chance for the GAA to really make their mark and put their foot down. You can see the effort that's being made in England and with UEFA and FIFA on a world level and they can't deal with it. But this was a chance for an amateur organisation to set a good precedent in sport and lay down some kind of a marker, but they practically got off scot free," said Cunningham.
"The fella who got six months was rounded down to four months and it was during the close season. He got suspended from December to April and effectively missed absolutely no football whatsoever. It was a bit of a holiday for him to be honest."
He believes that it made a "mockery of the opportunity the GAA had to make a precedent."
Sean Kelly, President of the GAA ©INPHO/Andrew Paton
Depending on the calendar timing of a ban (his abuse occurred on the cusp of the off-season), Cunningham believes an eight week can turn out to be a "glorified holiday" for players.
"If the GAA really want to stamp it out and make their mark, it really needs to be a zero tolerance policy. I've heard rumours that six months and twelve months have been mooted by Jim Gavin and that. I think it's the only way it can strike a chord with people. Eight weeks is not long enough."
Sean Kelly believes the GAA has been at the forefront in the fight against racism in sport. But he wants to see all sports bodies to come together on the issue to create consistency across the board in terms of minimum and maximum penalties, which Cunningham also agreed with.
And Kelly added that there is an appetite for zero tolerance on the issue.
