Irish players, who were acquitted of rape, have been told that they will no longer play for Ulster or Ireland

The Ulster and Irish rugby unions have revoked the contracts of rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding following their acquittal of rape, and have told the pair they will no longer play for Ulster or Ireland.

The Irish Rugby Football Union and Ulster Rugby issued a joint statement on Saturday, saying their commitment to “respect, inclusivity and integrity” had led them to the decision, following a review conducted after Jackson and Olding’s high-profile rape trial in which they were cleared.

The unions also announced an in-depth review of Irish rugby, which has been widely criticised by campaigners for what they call a prevailing culture of misogyny in the sport. Another player, Craig Gilroy, was also sanctioned by the unions over a text message he sent, and has been suspended until 26 April.

Protests against the pair’s acquittal, led by the #IBelieveHer movement, have continued across Ireland after degrading and lewd WhatsApp messages came to the public’s attention during their trial.

On Friday, more than 300 campaigners and women’s rights groups took part in a protest outside the headquarters of Ulster rugby ahead of Ulster’s clash with the Welsh team Ospreys.

It is understood the players might seek to continue their rugby careers outside the UK or Ireland, possibly in France or Japan.

Irish rugby player tries to recover legal fees after rape acquittal Read more

The demonstration is part of a wider movement – appearing online under #IBelieveHer – that has sprung up across Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after the acquittal of the Ireland rugby internationals Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding for rape last month.

One of their friends, Blane McIlroy, was found not guilty of indecent exposure; another, Rory Harrison, was cleared of perverting the course of justice and withholding information.

Although there was a large police presence on the avenue that runs parallel to the stadium, the atmosphere between Ulster supporters and the demonstrators was generally civil.

One of the protest’s organisers from the Belfast Feminist Network, Kellie Turtle, said it was designed to put pressure on the Ulster and Irish rugby authorities to tackle what she called the “ongoing culture of sexism and misogyny” around the sport.

Turtle said that before their protest the organisers had been contacted by a large number of female rugby players who said they were too afraid to speak out.

“They said they feared being sidelined by their clubs if they speak publicly over their concerns regarding sexism and misogynistic attitudes in rugby. That has got to change. Ulster rugby has to start an education programme teaching players from their elite players downwards that the kind of attitudes to women we heard about during that trial are stamped out,” she said.

The trial focused on the events in June 2016 at a party in Jackson’s south Belfast home in which a 21-year-old woman alleged she had been raped and sexually assaulted.

A day after the men were all found not guilty last month, up to 1,000 people demonstrated outside Belfast’s Laganside courts criticising the trial but also demanding that Jackson and Olding no longer play for province or country.

For the Belfast Feminist Network, the lifting this week of reporting restrictions from the nine-week long trial revealed the prevalence of sexist behaviour and attitudes in sports such as rugby.

It can now be revealed that Harrison sent a pornographic video to Olding’s mobile phone the morning after the party at Jackson’s house showing three unknown people – two men and a woman – engaged in a sex act. The trial judge, Patricia Smyth, had ruled that this evidence could not be heard by the 11-member jury.

The latest revelation has compounded the anger of many Irish women over the attitudes of the players and their friends.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paddy Jackson, left, and Stuart Olding. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Arguments over whether Jackson and Olding can resume their top-level rugby careers have been played out in two full-page advertisements in the Belfast Telegraph. The newspaper is a sponsor for the Ulster team.

Jackson and Olding’s supporters paid £2,000 this week for an ad in which they demanded that “these innocent men are reinstated and rightly allowed to resume their roles for both club and country”.

The advertisement was in response to a previous ad last week organised by a rugby fan, Anna Nolan. In a direct appeal to Irish and Ulster rugby’s high command, her ad said the players’ behaviour “falls far beneath the standards that your organisations represent and as such we demand that neither of these men represents Ulster or Ireland now or at any point in the future”.