A circuit Court judge who described a defendant as a "big, fat, thick man with a head like the front of a mallet" apologised yesterday for his comments.
Judge Harvey Kenny requested that Thomas Collins (18), of Lui na Greine, Claremorris, Co Mayo, who appeared before him on Tuesday charged with headbutting another youth, be returned to Castlebar Circuit Court to allow him to apologise directly.
The judge hurled the remarks at Mr Collins during his deliberation of the case, which he concluded by ordering the defendant to join a football club and lose weight.
Yesterday, Judge Kenny addressed Mr Collins: "I want to apologise to you for the words I used when talking to you last Tuesday. I sincerely regret using those words. They were inappropriate and unnecessary and not befitting of a judge.
"In that they may have caused you injury or upset, I ask you to accept my apology.
"In that they may have caused your family injury or upset, I also ask you to accept my apology.
"Another matter that doesn't concern you, Mr Collins, but which has arisen is in connection with the GAA. "I want to put on the record, I have always had the greatest respect for the GAA.
"That organisation has done Trojan work for young people for years and years, in parishes throughout Ireland, particularly where others have not.
"It was urged on me that Mr Collins had considerable prowess in football. He told me he was a member of a club and that he had stopped playing.
"It was urged on me to put the case back to May and try to give Mr Collins a chance to see if he could mend his ways and one of those ways was to play football, which Mr Collins told me he was keen to do.
"Lest it be taken up that he kick a ball in a field somewhere, I directed that he join a club and if he trained and played three times a week, it would impress me, and help him to mend his ways.
"It was an effort to help Mr Collins stay out of prison by mending his ways. "Mr Collins came to me as a footballer, a member of a club who had lost his way and I was trying to put him back on the straight and narrow.
"So I hope that any people in charge of the GAA in Mayo may know I was not directing them to take any particular person on.
"They take on whatsoever person they choose and that is only right and proper. "I regret that my words caused upset to the GAA but I do hope that they now accept this clarification."
Mr Eoin Garavan, for Mr Collins, said his client understood how serious a headbutting offence was and why it would be viewed with such distaste, and he apologised again to the court.
Mr Collins said he accepted Judge Kenny's apology and thanked him for it.
Mr Collins was sentenced to a month in prison on the assault charge, but the judge suspended it until the case is reviewed next May.