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Short filmTranscript
00:01Growing up in County Kilkenny, hurling was everything.
00:06You go to any pitch, the guys playing it,
00:09they have so much pride in their parish.
00:11They're representing their parish first of all,
00:13and then they're representing their county.
00:17Hurling is a religion in Kilkenny.
00:21And I suppose we here in Kilkenny
00:23had the privilege and the honour of watching him
00:26and what he did for Kilkenny.
00:29He was just that extraordinary individual.
00:32He just enlightened the whole place.
00:35I remember my first game going to see him.
00:37I can remember it as if it was today.
00:40He was probably one of the smallest guys on the field,
00:43that he was just that bit different.
00:46He just was, for a little fella, he just could get that ball.
00:51I honestly cannot remember not having heard of him.
00:54He was just that enormous amount of fame,
00:57known by his initials.
00:59DJ Kerry!
01:04DJ Kerry!
01:05DJ Kerry!
01:07Dennis Joseph Kerry.
01:09When the pressure was on, Kilkenny could rely on DJ.
01:12I think he was the greatest superstar of my era.
01:15He just had it all.
01:19He had the skill, he had the speed,
01:21you know, he had the cunning.
01:22He was the hero so many times
01:24in terms of turning matches and the scores.
01:27DJ Kerry!
01:28DJ Kerry!
01:29DJ Kerry!
01:30DJ Kerry!
01:31DJ Kerry!
01:32DJ's in the waiting!
01:33A goal!
01:34I can still picture him on that TV,
01:37scoring the goals,
01:39going for the high ball.
01:40I can still see him, you know,
01:42and he was, he was, he was God.
01:45DJ is God.
01:46In God we trust, in DJ we believe.
01:51If he was a professional today,
01:53he'd be worth 50 million.
01:54The right team would be worth nothing.
01:56Nothing!
01:57In more ways than one,
01:58he was the George Best of Kilkenny.
02:00He had that extraordinary ability
02:02to touch the hearts and minds of people
02:05with an ability that was beyond comprehension.
02:07But the sad part is,
02:09where it has gone to,
02:10and where he's got himself to.
02:13Judge Martin Nolan sentenced him
02:15to a total of five and a half years in jail,
02:17saying he couldn't imagine
02:19a more reprehensible type of fraud.
02:21There was a certain belief
02:24that if someone was that good at hurling,
02:27that they were decent people.
02:28Because there was something about
02:29the discipline needed to be a good hurler,
02:31and the inherent decency that that suggested.
02:34Like a good hurler was a good person.
02:37DJ Kerry is accused of inducing 23 people
02:41to pay him money
02:42after he had fraudulently claimed to have cancer.
02:45DJ Kerry had a remarkable career as a hurler,
02:49and nobody would take that away from him.
02:51We didn't just love him,
02:53we trusted him.
02:54We're blinded by our heroes.
02:56He is the ultimate hitman,
02:58and we mean that in the nicest possible way.
03:01DJ Kerry.
03:03Most people have no idea
03:06what a bad person that man is.
03:09Very evil type individual.
03:12A con man is somebody who is very plausible
03:15and comes along and convinces you
03:17to part with your money
03:18for something that isn't true
03:19where it isn't the case.
03:20And DJ did that.
03:21Yes, of course,
03:23definitely he's a con man.
03:24No question about it.
03:26He's a nice con man.
03:27He's a nice con.
03:28Ha ha ha ha.
03:29A
03:31A
03:32A
03:33A
03:34A
03:35A
03:36A
03:37A
03:38A
03:39A
03:40A
03:41A
03:42A
03:43A
03:45A
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03:47A
03:48A
03:50A
03:51A
03:52I've been waiting, really, for the last two and a half years to get to this point, wondering
04:02would he plead guilty at the last minute, and that's actually what happened.
04:09Hi, I'm just outside. I was so sorry. I had no reception in the building. Now he's pleaded
04:14guilty. It changes things, you know, so I said all that to him. So I was relieved because
04:19I've gotten to know a lot of the victims. As soon as it was over, talking to them, and
04:24their relief, their sense relief, these are decent people.
04:29I'm an accountant. First time in my life I had a bit of money, and here I go and give
04:3317 grand away to a stranger without checking anything. It's embarrassing.
04:39It was very convincing. We were in the troves of our own struggles, and I kind of said,
04:45Jesus, sure, what else would you do? You'd help someone out. She was happy to be able
04:49to help someone.
04:51I gave him 5,000, and that was it, and I forgot about it. I absolutely never, never occurred
04:58to me that he didn't have cancer. There's a lot of people out there who still don't believe
05:01that DJ Carey's a bad guy, and that's the frightening thing.
05:06I didn't hear her name, so because she was paid back, I don't...
05:10DJ, finally, the law caught up with him, and I think that he had nowhere else to turn.
05:17He was cornered, so he obviously accepted the deal that was done, so instead of facing
05:2421 charges, he pleaded guilty to 10, and what was interesting for me, watching him as he
05:30stood there in the dock, was that when each charge was put to him, one by one, with the
05:36person's name or the people's names involved, he had to say the word guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
05:43Gordon's just a half an hour outside Kilkenny City. It really is a beautiful, scenic place.
06:05A beautiful, scenic place. It's a small community, rural community, great community spirit, working
06:13together and working for everybody in the community.
06:18If Mother Theresa had been born in Kilkenny, and hadn't made the Camogie team, she would
06:25not have been the Kilkenny people. If you know what I mean. That's the culture. Yeah.
06:35Everybody knows about hurling, and everybody wants to talk about it. And the love of hurling
06:41is endemic. You could just go into a shop, like on the Monday after a match, and you'd hear
06:48people saying, what did you think of that? And they don't have to say, what did you think
06:51of the match yesterday that took place at three o'clock or ever. People knew what you meant,
06:55and everybody had something to say about it, whether they were there or not. The whole thing
06:59just consumes the county.
07:05On a sunny day, Goran, it's an absolutely idyllic place. But there's very little in it in terms
07:13of, if you're thinking about the 1970s, farming and hurling. They were the two big things.
07:20There was the church as well. But certainly for D.J. Carey, hurling was his religion.
07:28I think I had the hurling in my hand all the time. As soon as I had spare time, I think the hurling was
07:33in the hand. Society led to that because there wasn't really much to do in a small country village. Hurling
07:40was what we did.
07:48And we're talking about a little chap. Say he was four or five years old, and he had the hurling in
07:54his hand, and he'd go all the way to school, say a mile and a half with the Schlitter, balancing it
08:00on the hurling. He'd hurl in school when he'd arrive before the classes start. They'd be hurling at
08:06one o'clock and they'd be playing during their lunch break. So I would say a lot of the day was
08:12taken up by hurling.
08:20When he was growing up, I wouldn't say he had an easy life. They called him the little fella at times
08:26because he was so small in stature towards his classmates.
08:31As you can see, he's not exactly professional. It's a big grin. And he says,
08:40this is the most interesting picture probably because it's the first time
08:44that I have a picture of DJ playing in the school league under 13 championship. Again,
08:50you can see how small he is.
08:51We would play a hurling matches after school on Wednesdays. And as often as not, DJ might be
08:58absent that morning. But we never worried because we knew he'd turn up at the school field. He had
09:05his priorities right. He never missed a match. First time he played hurling for the county under 14.
09:13A simple life, a country boy from a very humble background. There were times when the family
09:20struggled, but there were people in the GA community that looked out for them. DJ's mother actually
09:26ended up getting a job as a cook in St Ciaran's College, which is a very prestigious secondary school
09:33which DJ attended. That's where his hurling career took off.
09:38At the time, Ciaran's College was known as the Hurling School.
09:44The minute you walked in the gates of St Ciaran's College, you could just see and feel the atmosphere.
09:49We went there first to hurling and second to get an education.
09:56Word started to spread about Ciaran's College had quite a good team.
10:01Then there was word about there was this little fella. He was really, really something special.
10:06People that might be only going to senior matches that you'd meet, but suddenly they were going to
10:12underage matches. A great ball in there, and it's in the net. It's a great goal there for St Ciaran,
10:17scored by DJ Carey. The word coming through was, did you see this guy DJ Carey?
10:26That time he was commonly known as the Dodger. He could weave and dodge around rocks and lads trying to
10:33get the ball out. He was just able to tip the ball out and he'd have it gone four or five meters ahead
10:38of him. And he'd gone and still had to be looking for the ball. For a small guy, he had that toughness,
10:44but it was his skill that marked him out. He could do things with the ball.
10:49People said, wait till he gets onto the county team.
10:53If you went to Ciaran's, you had a very good chance of playing with Kilkenny teams.
10:58But what entered our head at that time was to make the team that you were trying to make.
11:03Probably one of the greatest pieces of advice I ever got was, you know, if you can get a jersey from
11:10one to 15, you take it.
11:16It's all over, the game is all over, and thank you.
11:20The first big break came in 1988 when St Ciaran's College won the All-Ireland Colleges final,
11:28and that was massive for a DJ. People of great prominence had watched DJ
11:34Carey play because he was different. And some of the skills that he showed on the field,
11:40we hadn't seen before. They were really staggered by the display, and certainly others that said,
11:48you know, he was some kind of a wizard.
11:51I said to myself one day, I don't need to teach this guy anything really, because
11:54he had everything. Temperament, he had skill, he had timing, he had everything.
12:00I think when he gets a hurling stick in his hand, it becomes a different person.
12:04It's like a different world. And I think just for the sheer pleasure of it, I think he does it.
12:08It's All-Ireland under 21 hurling. Again, it's DJ Carey, the star of Maniac Kilkenny win,
12:15and that's a beautiful fight by Carey. From a promising minor in 88, to an actual senior player in 89,
12:25then in 1990, Kilkenny won the league that year, and he began to make his name in doing so.
12:34He was being described as the next superstar of hurling.
12:40And it says DJ Carey, a shot, and a goal! Yes, the finish by Carey, the goal!
12:46The hype was building, and you could kind of see and hear this train coming from a long way off.
12:54So looking back over his life, I'd say there was a sense of grief in the household.
13:06There were two children that died quite tragically. DJ had an older brother who died in a cot death,
13:13and then he had a brother who died on the farm in a farming accident when he was three or four years
13:18of age. So I'm sure this had a profound effect.
13:24DJ was different to the other teammates. There was a little nervousness. He'd get jittery.
13:34DJ wasn't sitting at the back of the bus with the boys having the crack. His upbringing, he was clean
13:39living, his lack of interest in drink. He wasn't interested in that kind of stuff. He wouldn't let the
13:47team down. He was an excellent team player, but he didn't have the same rapport with the team and the
13:53people his age. If you scratch the surface, you realize that there were times when he cut a lonely
14:02figure. He spent hours outside the family home practicing, trying to hit the perfect spot that
14:11he picked out on the gable end. I think DJ has very few people in his inner circle.
14:21I think growing up, there was an on-self
14:23selfishness in me. Probably in life in general, that's the way I am.
14:30But growing up, when you play with bigger guys, you're not really able to run through them. And
14:35by and large, you're not really able to run around them. You have to learn over time.
14:39Unless you're the toughest, the hardest, the most skillful, the fittest, the fastest,
14:45you won't be champions. It's as simple as that.
14:47There's always a certain madness. No matter how cool a guy is, there's always a certain madness.
14:54And the big thing was to hit the chimney. I don't think that will ever leave.
14:58The world was out about him. The speed and the alertness. There was an electricity about when
15:18he got the ball. People would half stand up or sit up in the stand when a movement would start with him.
15:24The individual scores he got and things he did on the pitch. He was courageous in his decision making,
15:31you know.
15:32John Hoyne, who's trapped it through the centre.
15:35When he took the ball, good God almighty. He was an unstoppable force. And I suppose for a defender
15:41who was trying to defend against him, trying to anticipate where he was coming from or where he
15:46was going was just something that was out of the extraordinary.
15:49After him there was Oli Baker, DJ steadying himself, turning it in beautifully and putting it over the
15:55incredible, incredible, incredible player. He had a turn of pace and a turn of speed and a touch
16:02that you couldn't coach. He just had it. He's in space.
16:09If anyone, if they're new to the game, if they really want to see a game properly,
16:15go down and look as closely at eye level as you can to that game. And there's where you're really
16:21going to see it at its best.
16:23He was probably one of the first that actually moved around the field, like he could be found
16:32in the middle of the field rooting out a ball and has gone to somebody else. But he'd be on the edge
16:36of the square within seconds and when the ball was delivered in. And I would have remembered,
16:40you know, the crowd in the stand from all clubs clapping him after maybe a score. He was a superstar.
16:46Here he is to Paul McKillen. The best one was the ball against Antrim. The super reflex reaction
16:54of the crossbar. The skills that we saw, the star quality, they're the kind of highs you can't capture
17:09again. That's what makes hurling the best game in the world.
17:19He was kind of becoming known beyond Ken Kenney. If you were a hurling fan, you were hearing about
17:29D.J. Carey. In 1992 in Ireland, in the final against court, it was a wet day, a greasy surface.
17:39Now the force of the cross towards D.J. Carey looking for the first score of the match.
17:43They got a penalty before halftime. Ken Kenney were finding it hard to stay in touch.
17:49They really needed a goal. And D.J. being D.J., he took his run up, connected with the ball,
17:57and of course it kicked up off the wet side and beat all the guys on the line.
18:13D.J. Carey, 20 minutes out.
18:14Although they scored two more goals in the second half, D.J.'s goal from the penalty
18:19was the one that kept them in touch and gave them the platform for the second half to go and win it.
18:25D.J. Carey, 20 minutes out.
18:29D.J. Carey, 20 minutes out.
18:34D.J. Carey was an age hurler of the year in 1993. So here was proof that the hype hadn't been misplaced.
18:48All the people who saw him back in Goran when he was young knew what they were talking about.
18:52This was it. He had arrived.
18:54The day after an All-Ireland win, it really is something very special.
19:06The flags in the street and the local radio, everyone talking about it,
19:10and something that gives people such joy here.
19:13That week after an All-Ireland win, they'd go around all the schools with the cup,
19:17and the big excitement was that D.J. would be there, and that was amazing.
19:21D.J.! D.J.! D.J.! D.J.!
19:31You almost felt like you had met him, because you felt like you had witnessed someone giving their all.
19:37So you almost felt like you knew him, even if you didn't.
19:42I mean, in Kilkenny, when we had no Kardashians, these fellas, you know, they're like gods,
19:47and the young ones would absolutely be mad about them.
19:51He had an aura about him then that was just beyond comment.
19:55Like, people just flocked around.
19:58So I just happened to be looking at it. He just picked me up and said,
20:00hello, how are you? So I was blessed.
20:03I remember one time queuing for tickets for an All-Ireland, and D.J. turned up.
20:10But I remember he went to queue, along with everybody else. And everyone said, no, D.J.,
20:15you don't have to, you go on, you know, you go on, get your tickets. No, no. And he was insisting he'd queue,
20:21you know. So everybody just basically was delighted that he was there. You know,
20:25you could go home and tell everyone that D.J. was in the queue, and that was a big deal.
20:28Well, you've all done very well, and I'm delighted to call forward the prize winners.
20:32I was involved in Hurland so much that it kept me out of an awful lot of trouble. It keeps me healthy,
20:38you know, it keeps me in good shape. You're kept out of any scrapes that are going on around the town.
20:42He was fantastic with people. You know, even as a young guy, his interaction with the kids. He visited schools,
20:50you know, presented medals. A great ambassador for the sport.
20:54Still only 27 years old and already a legend, D.J. Carey started the day with an activity he loves dearly,
21:01meeting and inspiring young hurlers. Maybe something that I said or someone else said
21:06will help you on the road to your success. Thanks very much.
21:09The energy he gave to the schools and the visits he would have paid to small clubs,
21:16and how he had time to go to the weakest of clubs and deprived areas and give time to them.
21:23But, I mean, you hear stories of him ending up up the north now, up around Antrim, and I wasn't sure
21:28if he went down around Tipperary or that, but he would have been very welcome there.
21:31So in the 90s, early on, as a young man, he met Christine O'Keefe. They married in 1995. Christine
21:46was a lovely, ordinary country girl, and a lot of people thought she was very good for D.J.
21:51because she'd ground him. You know, when he's traveling here, there, and everywhere,
21:57and dealing with the pressures of fame, that he could always come home to Christine.
22:03They had two young children. A few years into the marriage, the boys came along,
22:09and Christine kept things going at home for him. She must have found it hard,
22:14because there were such long periods of time when she wouldn't see D.J.
22:20D.J. was training in the evening. He was working all day.
22:23He was traveling at night to medal presentations, and he wasn't at home very much.
22:28This is probably by 90th or 100th since September. It's just night after night after night.
22:37Oftentimes, it's very difficult for All-Ireland Champions to make a promise,
22:41and then they want to carry out that promise. And it leads on then into mid-season,
22:46and then an odd injury is picked up, and you're having the pre-season work done,
22:50and you're that bit softer, and fellas are praising you and clapping you in the back.
22:53And then when the real championship thing comes around, your focus,
22:57even though you think your focus is right, it's not really right.
23:04D.J., a very, very amenable guy. He never knew at the time when to say no.
23:11He would be going to medal presentations a few nights a week when he should have been,
23:20or might have been, at home, either having a domestic life or resting.
23:29You can make sure that he wasn't making money out of these medal presentations. That's the guy D.J.
23:34Carey Enterprises was his main cleaning company, which he set up the year before he got married,
23:51in 1994. Was it the right thing for him to do? Did he have the business acumen?
23:56He was employing between 15 and 20 people at that stage in the business. He was a man under pressure.
24:06He never had a very, very good, to my mind, confidant. Someone just say, look,
24:13go to that medal presentation, but that's enough. You have to say no, you have to draw the line.
24:20And at the time, he never had that, and that was certainly a problem. Basically, the pressure had got to him.
24:28He retired in 1998. It was a WTF moment before WTF moments came along.
24:40The news that D.J. Carey is to retire is by far the biggest sporting story in years to hit this proud county.
24:46There was shock in Kilkenny. The favourite player, the guy that everybody had the jersey with his name on your back,
24:53and all of a sudden, dramatically, D.J. Carey announced he was resigning.
25:03How he could give up the game that he loves so much overnight, I don't know.
25:08I've never been one for controversy. I've got on with the game on the field. But as far as I'm concerned,
25:16my hunger is gone. And if I haven't got that, well, then if I go out in the field,
25:20I'm letting down both myself and the person beside me and the people who are selecting me.
25:25And I felt that by doing that, everyone was being let down. And I said, now is the time to do it.
25:30Asher, we were disappointed when he announced it then. We felt that he had more to offer. And,
25:37you know, look, he had given so much. He had given so much. And he had to be jaded. He had to be tired.
25:43Like, he was playing from a very young 12 years of age. Not many people's careers go on and go and
25:49grow and grow and grow and continuously grow. He's at the top of his game. He's the top sportsman in the
25:54country. And he epitomises all that's good in the G.A. in terms of the image he portrays,
25:58particularly to the young people. So he's a huge asset to the G.A.
26:02And that's why I believe he himself must come back because I think he owes it to an awful lot
26:07of people to come back.
26:12I think he lapped up the attention. He loved it. He had six weeks where the postman's back
26:18was broken and gone because he was delivering bags of letters to the house. Schools and classes
26:24wrote to him. And letters came from all over the world saying, please, DJ,
26:29will you go back and play for Kilkenny?
26:34I think he was having some kind of a personal crisis.
26:39That he'd hear people saying things about him that he wouldn't perform on the big days. And
26:45these kind of whispers got to him. So there was a huge media narrative about all this.
26:50And a press conference was called. Now, after careful consideration and support from his family,
26:57other players and thousands of letters, especially from children, DJ is back.
27:02It was an astonishing change of mind. But was it a mistake?
27:05In my mind, I made no mistake. That's the way I felt at the time. The reason I felt that way,
27:11I can't tell you. Outside of the game, I have nothing. I don't drink or smoke. I have my own
27:19business. I have my own house. I have my own family. And that's all that matters to me.
27:25Lo and behold, you know, after getting so many headlines a few weeks earlier for his retirement,
27:31and dominating the airwaves everywhere, six weeks later, he's back in.
27:40DJ was absolutely aware that he was in an amateur sport. And I have no doubt that it weighed heavily
27:46on his mind. When you consider everything that he put into it, and here he was slogging and training
27:53three, four nights a week and playing matches. And he wasn't getting any cash in the bank for it.
28:00DJ seemed pretty adamant six weeks earlier that he was done. There was talk. How much did he get?
28:07Who was looking after him? The dogs on the street were asking questions about Avonmore, which was a
28:13huge Kilkenny company and would have been the main sponsor for the GA locally. Of course, the main sponsor
28:21wants the star player. So you can't blame people for speculating and saying, well, how much did
28:26Avonmore give him to get him back? Now, in terms of the press conference, those questions were asked.
28:33That was knocked on the head.
28:36DJ Kerry's not one of those players looking for money. In fact, and this is a fact,
28:40he has only claimed his expenses up to July of last year. He's actually due expenses.
28:44It was absolutely outright denied by the Kilkenny County Board. No inducement of any sort was offered
28:51to DJ Kerry to get him back playing. I'm going to become very thick-skinned from now on.
28:58The criticism, I don't mind, but the rumors that start out there, it's not going to be listened to
29:04anymore. There was jubilation when we heard he was out and he was back. And like, people flocked again to
29:13see him training. So when he came back at the time, I think all the stars aligned. Brian Cody came in
29:23as manager. So a clean slate, a new start. Top Cat DJ back on Hurling's big stage. Kerry's come
29:32back a huge boost to Kilkenny's All-Ireland ambition. We pride ourselves on trying to win All-Irelands and
29:37we hadn't been winning one for a few years. You know, it was just to get that one more.
29:44Bear in mind, DJ had played in the previous two or in finals, 1998 and 1999, and lost them both.
29:55Had not played well in either. Pipped at the post by Offaly a year ago and now heartbreak against the
30:02young guns of Cork. For some of the players, the emotion was too much. I'd certainly be expecting
30:07DJ to step up a year. He didn't score. This defeat was worse than losing last year's final.
30:14The Kilkenny players, selectors and fans really wanted to bring Dillian McCarthy to the banks of
30:18the Knorr. They didn't go for us and, you know, we'll go home disappointed again. But
30:22there has to be a winner. That's the cruel part about sport. That question is always there. Could
30:30I have done something different on that occasion? He was going into an All-Ireland final with more
30:40pressure on them than possibly any player in whirling history.
30:57The tension throughout Kilkenny all week was palpable. But so too was the fans' confidence
31:02that this team would not go down in history as having lost three in a row. And the Cats fans
31:08were hoping for an inspired display from who else but DJ.
31:14It's the excitement around DJ. It's the story. When DJ does his thing so spectacularly,
31:20it's the impact on the crowd. We'd call it the DJ factor.
31:28When the All-Leinster All-Ireland got underway, Kilkenny quickly raced ahead.
31:32DJ Carey producing one of his true classics. Carey blasted his shot past Stephen Byrne.
31:39There was a huge excitement when he was in form. He'd be heading for goal and you knew something
31:45special was going to happen. The Cats couldn't have hoped for a better start with goals at plenty.
31:52And the fans were jubilant. There was always something special there. And the excitement that was there,
31:58not only on the day in the stand watching him, but in the county. You know the way Maya Angelou says,
32:04you don't remember what someone did or what they said. You remember how they made you feel.
32:09And he just made us feel wonderful every single time.
32:12The young Ireland's club man pounced again for Kilkenny minutes later.
32:16Niall Claffey did enough to keep Henry Sheplin's effort out, but there was no denying DJ.
32:21To put the icing on the cake, people sitting up in the stand had picked a team of the millennium,
32:28which did not include our superstar. And by half time I think they were gone into hiding,
32:35because he played a star game that day, you know.
32:38But by half time Kilkenny had clinched goal number three. Charlie Carter capitalising on who else,
32:44but DJ's darting run. Even the most faithful must have felt the title was heading north side.
32:51Kilkenny's seven-year wait for the Liam McCarthy Cup was over.
32:54This extra special train arrived in Kilkenny city to a fanfare of noise. The players were mobbed by family,
33:15friends and supporters. The crowd's joy made up for the disappointment of the past two years.
33:20Any day you win an Ireland is a special day. And it was always Monday evening at the train station.
33:26The train would be coming in and the bangers would be going off, and then the parade down John Street,
33:31the open top bus. Again, DJ would be at the centre of that. Everyone wanted to get a hurl sign by DJ,
33:37get their jersey signed, or indeed their arm pushed out that they wouldn't wash for a month,
33:42because they got DJ's signature on it.
33:55Like, he had the world at his feet, really. You'll hear people saying it all the time,
33:59people called him a god and a giant and a hero and all sorts of things.
34:03But also, I can't say that I know anyone who said they were a friend of his.
34:08I think that there were a lot of people who played with him. There were other lads,
34:11you know, that they weren't big stars like DJ. But you know, they did well out of the hurling in the
34:15end. Like, they got jobs on the basis of their reputation, and people looked out for them,
34:20and they were able to be successful and given opportunities for that.
34:24Ideally, those players should be paid and given money and rewarded for putting people in the stand and,
34:31you know, putting that effort in. But realistically, it's not there. If you're to try and
34:36professionally pay an inter-counted senior hurling team, you know, you have a real problem,
34:40because you only have 35 or 40 people that you're going to have to pay, and pay very well over a 10-year
34:47career. They do make incredible compromises, but it's part of what they are.
34:53Hurlers up and down the country give their time, massive amounts of their time,
34:58to their parish and community to play hurling. But I sometimes think it must be a little bit galling
35:04to be at the top of your game, giving of their all for maybe 10 months of the year,
35:10and amateur or professional, they are professionals in everything, but picking up a paycheck.
35:18It's very hard for, say, Americans even to grasp this.
35:21DJ Carey is a guy who sat down, had lunch with Tiger Woods, trying to explain the GA in terms of,
35:28no, actually, we don't make any money from this. We get the profile, we have to hold down a full-time
35:34job. And this is where the dynamic changed maybe a little bit, because money is talked about a lot
35:42by DJ Carey in his interviews.
35:45No one can stay going for six, seven, eight, nine months,
35:48and come off a building site or come off a tractor on a farm or wherever they are. And they're
35:55losing out on money maybe and they shouldn't be. Things have to change.
36:00Players from around the country gathered at City West this evening. The issue of endorsements and
36:05player imaging rights will be discussed for the GPA's AGM.
36:09Around the time of the inception of the Gaelic Players Association, where players had come
36:14together, including DJ Carey, to negotiate a deal so that they'd get some money off the field for
36:21appearances.
36:21In the mid-90s, hurling became cool. You had the Guinness sponsorship. It brought it to the ads,
36:33it brought hurling to the billboards, it brought hurling, I think, into the
36:40sitting rooms of the nation in a way it hadn't been before. They were kind of pushing the door,
36:47they were trying to open the door. Six of the country's leading GAA players were today unveiled
36:53by sportswear company Puma, who have contracted each player individually to wear their boots and
36:58carry out promotional work. This was 20 years ago. There was a lot of resistance. They had to do a lot
37:05of things or fight for things that we now take for granted. DJ was obviously one of the figureheads.
37:13I would be hoping that eventually all players in all counties will have some sort of endorsement
37:20deal. And, you know, there'll be no one become millionaires out of it. This is what we're looking
37:25for. We're not looking to get paid to play. There is no doubt that there are ways that players can be
37:34looked after. You can wrap your arms around them, you can make sure that maybe they have good clients
37:40for their business, that there's other ways that people can take care of people who they know and
37:45they like in Ireland.
37:50From an early age, even young DJ Kerry, I mean, you can sometimes see evidence or you can see patterns
37:56emerge. You start examining things.
38:00There were times when he didn't have to go to school, he got away with murder, he got looked
38:08after, he got the best of everything in terms of his education. But there were times when he did
38:16things that if you weren't DJ Kerry, certainly you wouldn't get away with them. Doors would open
38:23because of who he was. And then as he got older then, that continued. One of the little perks that
38:30the Kilkenny hurlers got after winning in All-Ireland is that they'd get to go on a holiday abroad.
38:39I'm not sure why DJ was so involved. I think DJ was interested in golf as well at this stage.
38:44Everybody in Kilkenny wanted to go on this famous hurlers trip. So this would have been, they were
38:49planning for January 2001, after winning that 2000 All-Ireland final, to head to Asia.
38:58How exotic. They were off to Bangkok, then they were going to go to the little seaside resort of
39:04Pattaya in Thailand. The wives were coming, the girlfriends were coming, the big entourage of
39:10supporters. But they clearly remember DJ Kerry organising the golf and the rounds of golf. And one
39:17fella said to me, and excuse my language, but he said he was a bossy fucker.
39:23My closest contact with DJ would have been in the golfing group in Thailand. He was kind of
39:28coordinating the horror golfers. He was certainly the leader on the golf course of the Kilkenny lads.
39:36But I don't think he had much say after seven o'clock at night. The rest of them went their own way.
39:42And he wouldn't have been in the bars or anything like that. I was heading off for golf at half six
39:48in the morning. And I would have met lads coming in the opposite direction through the door.
39:56But it was certainly not Kerry.
39:58I know people as well that were sitting at the breakfast one morning and lo and behold,
40:05a young Thai woman walked in and took her seat at the breakfast table with DJ. Christine,
40:11DJ's wife was there as well, and that this young woman had been recruited as an au pair. And then,
40:17when we got back to Kilkenny and to Ireland, she was spotted at the side of the football field.
40:25She was certainly seen out and about in the community and she was introduced to people as
40:31DJ and Christine's au pair. A busy time for Tip's defence, DJ clearly on song.
40:37He and Kilkenny scoring tally on the increase.
40:43So in the early noughties, in terms of Kilkenny winning that 2000 All-Ireland final,
40:48things going really well on the field for DJ Kerry.
40:51It is the 250th point in DJ Kerry's inter-county career.
40:57It was Kerry who brought the curtain down on a classic. Brian Cody's side moving ever closer
41:02to an All-Ireland final appearance. Things started to get really exciting for DJ. I was looking on
41:08thinking, this is incredible. And for me, the 2002 All-Ireland final. Boom. We were saying it during the
41:16semi-final, but he's the man who had the courage to come back into the Kilkenny colours.
41:21Nicely down here towards Henry Sheffield. What a battle he's going to have with Sean McMahon
41:26and starting already. Thundering forward, looking for the opening. Score! It's a goal!
41:33What a start that is. DJ Kerry with yet another championship goal and only three...
41:39Early on in that, DJ comes on, but within a few minutes, he scores a goal into the back of the net
41:46in Croke Park. And after that, DJ Kerry is getting towards the absolute pinnacle of his fame.
41:54DJ Kerry!
41:56There's massive pressure on Kilkenny hurlers because the expectations are so high of the fans.
42:08To bring back the Liam McCarthy to Kilkenny, it's hard to explain that sense of pride that he must have had.
42:15So, on the one hand, things look amazing. Things have never been better for him. But yet still, we have these issues in terms of,
42:24in his personal life, we have turmoil. It was about what was going on in his marriage.
42:30The difficulties in the marriage aren't written about in the newspapers until 2003,
42:36but it's clear in 2001 that something happened. We know the au pair arrived. There are people
42:44close to Christine that say she wasn't happy about the arrangement. DJ said he was trying to
42:51ease the pressure on Christine because he was here, there and everywhere all over the country giving out
42:56the medals. So, maybe this woman would be able to help with the two young boys. Whatever happened,
43:02a source told me she changed the locks, the clothes were thrown out the window, the au pair went back
43:08to Thailand and that the marriage was in deep bother. Christine was really important in terms of
43:18running his day-to-day business, DJ Kerry Enterprises. But once the marriage is in jeopardy, it's then that
43:24really Christine starts to step away from the company and enter his younger sister, Katrina Kerry.
43:32Katrina had a profile herself actually. She played hockey, she didn't just play, she had an
43:42international career for Ireland as a hockey player, but she got really involved in the running of the
43:47the company once the marriage started to break down. Talking the talk 10 days before the hurling season's
43:56showpiece. Kilkenny captain DJ Kerry and Alan Brown of Cork meeting the media. The pair will be very much
44:03sought after in the coming days. The countdown to the All-Ireland Hurling final producing very different
44:08demands. There's a lot to be said for focus and everything else, but sometimes it's good to get
44:14your mind off it as well because if you're thinking holy and solely about it, you wouldn't sleep, you
44:18wouldn't do anything. He may not be the God, but in hurling he is God. Dennis Joseph Kerry. DJ, come on.
44:26He refers himself to pressures, but again there's contradictions with everything about him. DJ is
44:35somebody that often complains about the intrusion into his private life. It must be very hard to
44:40live up to testimonials like that. The media have to have something to go on. You have to be out and
44:46about for there to be that level of interest in you. In the days before the All-Ireland final in 2003,
44:54there was all sorts of stories flying around. There were journalists all over Kilkenny. They were asking
45:00questions about DJ's private life. There was kind of a suggestion or some talk that a story was about to break.
45:12The papers had decided they were ready to go with this story. They published the front page with the
45:18photograph of the boys and DJ's wife and an inset picture of DJ and this was on the day of the All-Ireland
45:26final.
45:29Yes, the team's just being introduced to the crowd here at Croke Park at the moment and significantly
45:35Michael Dyden, the biggest cheer of the two teams, went for DJ Kerry. It's been a rough week for DJ
45:40Kerry. Will this impact today, do you think, on him? Obviously, it's been going on maybe for a while now
45:46and maybe a little bit off-colour the last few matches, but knowing DJ, he's mentally very strong.
45:50He'll put that to the back of his mind during the match and I don't think the papers or anything should
45:54have commented this week. You know, it's a big week for him and it's his own personal life and
45:58it's no one's business and I don't really know why the papers had to bring it up this week.
46:07This was absolutely scandalous. The public had a real interest in the story,
46:13but they were annoyed maybe on DJ's behalf.
46:19Was it fair, all these pressures, a sports star? It's an amateur sport, so why is everyone talking
46:25about his private life?
46:29Kilkenny County Board were furious. Some, an unnamed official went as far as to say it was blatant
46:36sabotage, so no doubt they were relieved when Kilkenny won that All-Ireland Final.
46:42And Kilkenny with the title. The Champions have retained the McCarthy Cup.
46:50They had a battle on their hands in the second half, but they met the challenge head on.
46:56Kilkenny the Champions for the 28th time.
46:59It's a great pleasure and honour for me to accept the lead McCarthy Cup on behalf of this
47:08great Kilkenny team for the second year in a row.
47:10What's really interesting now that mightn't have been so significant at the time,
47:28this rumour that had been sweeping the southern half of the country,
47:32the level of stuff that DJ was putting up with, the poor DJ, and that is, to be fair,
47:38that is the narrative that we all believed in, that he was up against it, that there were all
47:42these rumours, there were all these people saying these things about the great DJ Kerry,
47:47why would they say them? But the line was that one of the vicious rumours related to him having cancer.
47:54And that is in the article in 2003, and it is mentioned as a rumour about DJ Kerry.
48:00Where does this rumour come from? Where did it start?
48:08Just very few hurlers have got into the game to be famous, and I can tell you,
48:15I am certainly not one of those. Without any shadow of doubt, there's a certain amount of pressure.
48:22You just try and block out whatever else is surrounding you, and I deal with life as much
48:28as I can in the same way. I like to think of myself as a sportsman on and off the field.
48:34I think the mind will always be sharp. The mind will always keep you thinking.
48:40The mind will always keep you questioning. And when, you know, you're in a spot,
48:46can there be a right decision made? I would hate to think that I went through a career
48:52that I pulled a dirty stroke on anyone.
49:04I think it's just a little bit lazy.
49:06Even if, the pi-mice could waste gathering heart attack,
49:08I don't think that I'm at the same position.
49:08And if my mind will be an point again,
49:09I have to like go down, and there's a certain plot ofек
49:29that says that one at the level of gravity is breaking.
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