Davy Fitzgerald has again spoken about how he was "bullied badly" while at secondary school.

Lifting the lid on his nightmare ordeal at the hands of bullies during the course of an inspirational speech to students at Limerick IT, the Clare hurling manager gave a frank account of how the bullies tormented him:

"I got bullied badly when I was in secondary school," the former Banner goalie is quoted in The Irish Examiner. "It was probably the toughest time in my life.

"I used to dread getting up in the mornings and going out on the bus, absolutely dread it. I used to sit on the second seat from the front nearly all the time. There was seven or eight guys who used to be laughing at me.

"They'd hit me on the back of the head. They would pull my hair. They put egg on my head. They would pull me back to the back seat - the bus driver wouldn't know anything about it - they'd open my shirt and start painting on my body. I got my shoes thrown out the bus window. I felt absolutely so low and I tried to figure out what this was all about.

"I went home with a black eye and bruised ribs. I never told my mam or dad anything. To this day I don't understand bullying. I cannot understand how people are so insensitive. I cannot understand how you would single someone out and do that. It just doesn't make sense.

"It's something I cannot tolerate. If you ever have done something like that, just look within yourself and say, 'Listen, I'm not going there again and I'm not going to make someone feel like that again'.

"Did they make me stronger? They did, without any shadow of a doubt. People often ask me why I have an attitude on the sideline. I have an attitude because I won't let anyone walk down on top of me. 100% not." Tweet

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