Prison officers involved in a new RTE documentary series refused to take part in a GAA game for the show after they took offence at a comedy sketch.
Social media star Rory O’Connor admitted the gaffe ahead of the fly-on-the-wall jail programme Gaelic in the Joy.
The show sees Rory and former Dubs ace Philly McMahon coach a team of prisoners before they take on a team of prison officers and former Dublin players.
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Rory revealed how he visited Mountjoy Prison last December to entertain inmates and their families – but one of the skits thought up by the prisoners did not go down well.
Rory, 35, told The Sunday Mirror: "I was on national tour at the time so I was doing Rory’s Stories and I suggested doing a show for the prisoners and their families at Christmas.
"Part of that was a workshop so what I wanted to do was create Rory’s Stories sketches in Mountjoy – we made five of them.
"They were never going anywhere other than there, but unfortunately the officers took offence to one of them and it led to them pulling out of a match.
"There was never any intended insult. I don’t want to comment any further out of respect for the prison officers."
In the documentary, Rory and Philly take the prisoners under their wing and teach them the essentials of becoming a team.
At the end of the 12 weeks is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play at Croke Park, where the prisoners’ team compete in a game on the hallowed turf of GAA headquarters.
Rory said: "As well as the football, myself and Philly also used our influence and our stories on these guys to help them, so that when they leave jail, they stay away from jail.
"People will have this perception that a prisoner is this big dangerous, intimidating person and, yes there are some in prison but there are also guys who are just products of their environment, a drug addiction or who went down the wrong road."
But he said they always had the victims of crime in their minds.
Rory said: "That’s one thing we were always mindful of, the victims, and the service were very careful about who could be on our team. The lads don’t shy away and they accept they have made mistakes, they want to do better and turn a corner.
"All I ask is for people to watch it with an open mind."
Gaelic in the Joy is on RTE One Wednesday, 9.35pm.
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