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00:00.
00:06Growing up in County Kilkenny, hurling was everything.
00:11You go to any pitch, the guys playing it,
00:14they have so much pride in their parish.
00:16They're representing their parish first of all,
00:18and then they're representing their county.
00:21Hurling is a religion in Kilkenny.
00:25And I suppose we here in Kilkenny
00:28had the privilege and the honour of watching him
00:31and what he did for Kilkenny.
00:34He was just that extraordinary individual.
00:37He just enlightened the whole place.
00:40I remember my first game going to see him.
00:42I can remember it as if it was today.
00:45He was probably one of the smallest guys on the field,
00:48that he was just that bit different.
00:50He just was, for a little fella, he just could get that ball.
00:55I honestly cannot remember not having heard of him.
00:59He was just that enormous amount of fame,
01:02known by his initials.
01:04DJ Kerry!
01:06DJ Kerry! DJ Kerry!
01:11Dennis Joseph Kerry.
01:14When the pressure was on, Kilkenny could rely on DJ.
01:17I think he was the greatest superstar of my era.
01:24He just had it all.
01:25He had the skill, he had the speed,
01:26you know, he had the cunning.
01:27He was the hero so many times,
01:29in terms of turning matches and the scores.
01:32I can still picture him on that TV,
01:42scoring the goals, going for the high ball.
01:44I can still see him, you know,
01:46and he was, he was, he was God.
01:49DJ is God.
01:51In God we trust, in DJ we believe.
01:53If he was a professional today,
01:58he'd be worth 50 million.
01:59The right team would be worth nothing.
02:01In more ways than one,
02:03he was the George Best of Kilkenny.
02:05He had that extraordinary ability
02:07to touch the hearts and minds of people
02:10with an ability that was beyond comprehension.
02:12But the sad part is,
02:14where it has gone to,
02:15and where he's got himself to.
02:17Judge Martin Nolan sentenced him
02:20to a total of five and a half years in jail,
02:23saying he couldn't imagine
02:24a more reprehensible type of fraud.
02:27There was a certain belief
02:30that if someone was that good at hurling,
02:32that they were decent people.
02:33Because there was something about
02:34the discipline needed to be a good hurler,
02:36and the inherent decency that that suggested.
02:39Like a good hurler was a good person.
02:42DJ Kerry is accused of inducing 23 people
02:46to pay him money
02:48after he had fraudulently claimed to have cancer.
02:51DJ Kerry had a remarkable career as a hurler,
02:54and nobody would take that away from him.
02:56We didn't just love him, we trusted him.
02:59We're blinded by our heroes.
03:01He is the ultimate hitman,
03:03and we mean that in the nicest possible way.
03:06DJ Kerry.
03:08Most people have no idea
03:11what a bad person that man is.
03:14Very evil.
03:16A good type individual.
03:18A con man is somebody who is very plausible
03:20and comes along and convinces you
03:22to part with your money
03:23for something that isn't the case.
03:25And DJ did that.
03:26Yes, of course, definitely he's a con man.
03:29No question about it.
03:31He's a nice con man.
03:33And that's how it means...
03:34You've got time,
03:39you LIVE AND ISN'T WORRY
03:43I've been waiting, really, for the last two and a half years to get to this point, wondering
04:07would he plead guilty at the last minute, and that's actually what happened.
04:14Hi, I'm just outside, I'm so sorry, I had no reception in the building.
04:18Now he's pleaded guilty, it changes things, you know, so I said all that to him.
04:22So I was relieved because I've gotten to know a lot of the victims.
04:27As soon as it was over, talking to them and their relief, their sense relief, these are decent people.
04:33I am an accountant. The first time in my life I had a bit of money, and here I go and give
04:3817 grand away to a stranger without checking anything. It's embarrassing.
04:44It was very convincing. We were in the troves of our own struggles, and I kind of said,
04:49Jesus, sure, what else would you do? You'd help someone out. She was happy to be able to help someone.
04:56I gave him 5,000, and that was it, and I forgot about it.
04:59I absolutely never, never occurred to me that he had cancer. There's a lot of people out there who
05:05still don't believe that D.J. Carey's a bad guy, and that's the frightening thing.
05:10I didn't hear her name, so because she was paid back, I don't...
05:15D.J., finally, the law caught up with him, and I think that he had nowhere else to turn. He was cornered.
05:23So he obviously accepted the deal that was done. So instead of facing 21 charges,
05:30he pleaded guilty to 10. And what was interesting for me, watching him as he stood there in the dock,
05:36was that when each charge was put to him, one by one, with the person's name or the people's names
05:42involved, he had to say the word guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
05:56Gordans just a half an hour outside Kilkenny city. It really is a beautiful, scenic place.
06:13It's a small community, rural community, great community spirit, working together
06:18and working for everybody in the community.
06:23If Mother Teresa had been born in Kilkenny, and hadn't made the Camogie team,
06:29she would not have been to Kilkenny people. If you know what I mean. That's the culture.
06:40Everybody knows about hurling, and everybody wants to talk about it.
06:44And the love of hurling is endemic. You could just go into a shop, like on the Monday after a match,
06:52and you'd hear people saying, what did you think of that? And they don't have to say,
06:55what did you think of the match yesterday that took place at three o'clock or ever.
06:59People knew what you meant. And everybody had something to say about it,
07:02whether they were there or not. The whole thing just consumes the county.
07:05On a sunny day, Goran, it's an absolutely idyllic place. But there's very little in it in terms of,
07:18if you're thinking about the 1970s, farming and hurling. They were the two big things.
07:24There was the church as well. But certainly for DJ Carey, hurling was his religion.
07:29I think I had the hurling in my hand all the time. As soon as I had spare time,
07:37I think the hurling was in the hand. Society led to that, because there wasn't really much to do
07:43in a small country village. Hurling was what we did.
07:53And we're talking about a little chap. Say he was four or five years old,
07:58and he had the hurling in his hand, and he'd go all the way to school,
08:02say a mile and a half with the Schlitter, balancing it on the hurling.
08:06He'd hurl in school when he'd arrive before the classes start.
08:10They'd be hurling at one o'clock, and they'd be playing during their lunch break.
08:15So I would say a lot of the day was taken up by hurling.
08:25When he was growing up, I wouldn't say he had an easy life.
08:29They called him the little fella at times, because he was so small in stature towards his classmates.
08:35As you can see, he's not exactly professional. The big grin. And he says,
08:45this is the most interesting picture probably because it's the first time
08:49that I have a picture of DJ playing in the school league under 13 championship. Again,
08:55you can see how small he is.
08:56We would play a hurling matches after school on Wednesdays. And as often as not, DJ might be
09:03absent that morning. But we never worried because we knew he'd turn up at the school field.
09:09He had his priorities, right? He never, he never missed a match.
09:14First time he played hurling for the county under 14.
09:17A simple life, a country boy from a very humble background. There were times when the family
09:25struggled, but there were people in the GA community that looked out for them.
09:29DJ's mother actually ended up getting a job as a cook in St. Ciaran's College,
09:35which is a very prestigious secondary school which DJ attended. That's where his hurling career took off.
09:41DJ's mother's mother's mother. At the time Ciaran's College was known as the hurling school.
09:49The minute you walked in the gates of St. Ciaran's College, you could just
09:52see and feel the atmosphere. We went there first to hurl and second to get an education.
10:01Word started to spread about Ciaran's College, had quite a good team.
10:06Then there was word about there was this little fella. He was really, really something special.
10:11People that might be only going to senior matches that you'd meet, but suddenly they were going to
10:17underage matches. A great ball in there and it's in the net. It's a great goal there for St. Ciaran's
10:22score by DJ Carey. The word coming through was, did you see this guy DJ Carey?
10:31That time he was commonly known as the Dodger. He could weave and dodge around rocks and lads trying to
10:37get the ball out. He was just able to tip the ball out and he'd have it gone four or five meters ahead
10:43of him and he'd gone and still lads would be looking for the ball. For a small guy, he had that toughness,
10:49but it was his skill that marked him out. He could do things with the ball.
10:53People said, wait till he gets on to the county team. If you went to Ciaran's, you had a very good
11:00chance of playing with Kilkenny teams. But what entered our head at that time was to make the team
11:07that you were trying to make. Probably one of the greatest pieces of advice I ever got was,
11:13you know, if you can get a jersey from one to 15, you take it.
11:25The first big break came in 1988 when St. Ciaran's College won the All-Ireland Colleges Final.
11:33And that was massive for DJ. People of great prominence had watched DJ Carey play because he was
11:41different and some of the skills that he showed on the field, we hadn't seen before. They were
11:47really staggered by the display and certainly others that said, you know, he was some kind of a wizard.
11:55I said to myself one day, I don't need to teach this guy anything really because he had everything.
12:01Temperament, he had skill, he had timing, he had everything. I think when he gets a hurling stick in
12:06his hand, he becomes a different person. It's like a different world. And I think just for the
12:11sheer pleasure of it, I think he does it. It's All-Ireland Under-21 Harlan. Again, it's DJ
12:16Carey, the star of Maniac Kilkenny, and that's a beautiful fight by Carey. From a promising minor in
12:251988, to an actual senior player in 1989. Then in 1990, Kilkenny won the league that year,
12:36and he began to make his name in doing so. He was being described as the next superstar of hurling.
12:45DJ Carey, a shot, and a goal! Yes, the finish by Carey, the goal!
12:51The hype was building and you could kind of see and hear this train coming from a long way off.
13:05So looking back over his life, I'd say there was a sense of grief in the household.
13:09And there were two children that died quite tragically. DJ had an older brother who died in a cot death.
13:17And then he had a brother who died on the farm in a farming accident when he was three or four years of age.
13:24So I'm sure this had a profound effect.
13:31DJ was different to the other teammates. There was a little nervousness. He'd get jittery.
13:37DJ wasn't sitting at the back of the bus with the boys having the crack. His upbringing, he was clean living,
13:45his lack of interest in drink. He wasn't interested in that kind of stuff. He wouldn't let the team down.
13:53He was an excellent team player, but he didn't have the same rapport with the team and the people his age.
13:59If you scratch the surface, you realise that there were times when he cut a lonely figure.
14:08He spent hours outside the family home, practising, trying to hit the perfect spot that he picked out on the gable end.
14:17I think DJ has very few people in his inner circle.
14:26I think growing up, there was an unselfishness in me. Probably in life in general, that's the way I am.
14:35But growing up, when you play with bigger guys, you're not really able to run through them.
14:39And while in large you're not really able to run around them, you have to learn over time.
14:44Unless you're the toughest, the hardest, the most skilful, the fittest, the fastest, you won't be champions.
14:51It's as simple as that.
14:55There's always a certain madness, no matter how cool a guy is, there's always a certain madness.
15:00And the big thing was to hit the chimney. I don't think that will ever leave.
15:03The world was out about him. The speed and the alertness. There was an electricity about when he got the ball.
15:24You know, people would half stand up or sit up in the stand when a movement would start with him.
15:29And the individual scores he got and things he did on the pitch. He was courageous in his decision making, you know.
15:37John Hoyne, who's trapped it through the centre.
15:40When he took the ball, good God, he was an unstoppable force.
15:44And I suppose for a defender who was trying to defend against him,
15:48trying to anticipate where he was coming from or where he was going, was just something that was out of the extraordinary.
15:54After him there was Olly Baker. DJ steadying himself, turning it in beautiful.
16:00Incredible, incredible, incredible player. He had a turn of pace and a turn of speed and a touch that you couldn't coach.
16:08He just had it easy in space.
16:14If anyone, if they're new to the game, if they really want to see a game properly,
16:20go down and look as closely at eye level as you can to that game. And there's where you're really going to see it at its best.
16:29He was probably one of the first that actually moved around the field.
16:35Like he could be found in the middle of the field rooting out a ball and it's gone to somebody else.
16:40But he'd be on the edge of the square within seconds and when the ball was delivered in.
16:44And I would have remembered, you know, the crowd in the stand from all clubs clapping him after maybe a score.
16:49He was a superstar.
16:51Here he heels to Paul McKillen.
16:54The best one was the ball against Antrim, the super reflex reaction of the crossbar.
17:02Gathering in around the house, sweeping across the ball!
17:05The skills that we saw, the star quality, they're the kind of highs you can't capture again.
17:14That's what makes Hurling the best game in the world.
17:24He was kind of becoming known beyond Kilkenny.
17:30If you were a Hurling fan, you were hearing about DJ Carey.
17:37In 1992, Old Ireland, in the final against Cork, it was a wet day, a greasy surface.
17:44Now the force of the cross towards DJ Carey looking for the first score of the match.
17:47They got a penalty before halftime.
17:51Kilkenny were finding it hard to stay in touch.
17:54They really needed a goal.
17:56And DJ being DJ, he took his run up, connected with the ball,
18:02and of course it kicked up off the wet sod and beat all the guys on the line.
18:17DJ Carey, 20 metres out!
18:19Although they scored two more goals in the second half, DJ's goal from the penalty
18:24was the one that kept them in touch and gave them the platform for the second half to go and win it.
18:30They'll carry the champions at 1992.
18:3693, not a great all-around final, but had done enough.
18:40DJ Carey, 20 metres out!
18:43And DJ was an age hurler of the year in 93.
18:48So here was proof that the hype hadn't been misplaced.
18:52All the people who saw him back in Goran when he was young knew what they were talking about.
18:57This was it. He had arrived.
19:07The day after an All-Ireland win, it really is something very special.
19:11The flags in the street and the local radio, everyone talking about it.
19:15And something that gives people such joy here.
19:18That week after an All-Ireland win, they'd go around all the schools with the cup.
19:22And the big excitement was that DJ would be there.
19:25And that was amazing.
19:26DJ! DJ! DJ! DJ!
19:30You almost felt like you had met him, because you felt like you had witnessed someone giving their all.
19:41So you almost felt like you knew him, even if you didn't.
19:45I mean, in Kilkenny, when we had no Kardashians, these fellas, you know, they're like gods.
19:52And the young ones would absolutely be mad about them.
19:55He had an aura about him then that was just beyond comment.
20:00Like, people just flocked around.
20:03So I just happened to be looking at it.
20:04He just picked me up and said, hello, how are you?
20:07So I was blessed.
20:08I remember one time queuing for tickets for an All-Ireland and DJ turned up.
20:15But I remember he went to queue, along with everybody else.
20:19And everyone said, no, DJ, you don't have to, you go on, you know, you go on and get your tickets.
20:24No, no, and he was insisting he'd queue, you know.
20:26So everybody just basically was delighted that he was there, you know.
20:29You could go home and tell everyone that DJ was in the queue and that was a big deal, you know.
20:33Well, you've all done very well and I'm delighted to call forward the prize winners.
20:37I was involved in hurling so much that it kept me out of an awful lot of trouble.
20:42It keeps me healthy, you know, it keeps me in good shape.
20:45You're kept out of any scrapes that are going on around the town.
20:48He was fantastic with people, you know, even as a young guy, his interaction with the kids.
20:54He visited schools, you know, presented medals.
20:57A great ambassador for the sport.
20:59Still only 27 years old and already a legend, DJ Carey started the day with an activity he loves dearly.
21:06Meeting and inspiring young hurlers.
21:08Maybe something that I said or someone else said will help you on the road to your success.
21:13Thanks very much.
21:15The energy he gave to the schools and the visits he would have paid to small clubs.
21:20And how he had time to go to the weakest of clubs and deprived areas and give time to them.
21:28But I mean you'd hear stories of him ending up up the north and up around Antrim and I wasn't sure if he went down around Tipperary or that but he would have been very welcome there.
21:36So in the 90s early on as a young man he met Christine O'Keefe.
21:48They married in 1995.
21:50Christine was a lovely ordinary country girl and a lot of people thought she was very good for DJ because she'd ground him.
21:57You know, when he's travelling here, there and everywhere and dealing with the pressures of fame that he could always come home to Christine.
22:08They had two young children.
22:11A few years into the marriage the boys came along and Christine kept things going at home for him.
22:16She must have found it hard because there were such long periods of time when she wouldn't see DJ.
22:25DJ was training in the evening, he was working all day, he was travelling at night to medal presentations and he wasn't at home very much.
22:33This is probably by 90th or 100th since September.
22:38It's just night after night after night.
22:40It's just night after night.
22:42Oftentimes it's very difficult for All-Ireland champions to make a promise and then they want to carry out that promise.
22:49And it leads on then into mid-season and then an odd injury is picked up and you haven't the pre-season work done and you're that bit softer and fellas are praising you and clapping you in the back.
22:59Then when the real championship thing comes around, your focus, even though you think your focus is right, it's not really right.
23:05DJ, a very, very amenable guy, he never knew at the time when to say no.
23:20He would be going to medal presentations a few nights a week when he should have been or might have been at home, either having a domestic life or resting.
23:30You can make sure that he wasn't making money out of these wedding presentations, that's the guy DJ was at the time, he was just a good, amenable, helpful guy.
23:44There was a lot going on in his life in terms of finances.
23:49DJ Carey Enterprises was his main cleaning company, which he set up the year before he got married in 1994.
23:56Was it the right thing for him to do? Did he have the business acumen?
24:01He was employing between 15 and 20 people at that stage in the business.
24:06He was a man under pressure.
24:10He never had a very, very good, to my mind, confidant.
24:16Someone to say, look, go to that medal presentation, but that's enough.
24:21You have to say no, you have to draw the line, and at the time he never had that, and that was certainly a problem.
24:30Basically, the pressure had got to him.
24:36He retired in 1998. It was a WTF moment before WTF moments came along.
24:45The news that DJ Carey is to retire is by far the biggest sporting story in years to hit this proud county.
24:51It was shocking, Kilkenny. The favourite player, the guy that everybody had the jersey with his name on your back,
24:58and all of a sudden, dramatically, DJ Carey announced he was resigning.
25:08How he could give up the game that he loves so much overnight, I don't know.
25:13I've never been one for controversy. I've got on with the game on the field, but as far as I'm concerned, my hunger is gone.
25:22And if I haven't got that, well, then if I go out in the field, I'm letting down both myself and the person beside me,
25:28and the people who are selecting me. And I felt that by doing that, everyone was being let down, and I said, now is the time to do it.
25:35Asher, we were disappointed when he announced it then, and we felt that he had more to offer.
25:42And, you know, look, he had given so much. He had given so much, and he had to be jaded. He had to be tired.
25:48Like, he was playing from a very young 12 years of age. Not many people's careers go on and grow and grow and grow and continuously grow.
25:56He's at the top of his game. He's the top sportsman in the country, and he epitomises all that's good in the GA in terms of the image he portrays,
26:03particularly to the young people. So he's a huge asset to the GA, and that's why I believe he himself must come back,
26:10because I think he owes it to an awful lot of people to come back.
26:12I think he lapped up the attention. He loved it. He had six weeks where the postman's back was broken and gorn,
26:23because he was delivering bags of letters to the house. Schools and classes wrote to him, and letters
26:31came from all over the world saying, please, DJ, will you go back and play for Kilkenny?
26:36I think he was having some kind of a personal crisis. That he'd hear people saying things about him,
26:47that he wouldn't perform on the big days, and these kind of whispers got to him.
26:52So there was a huge media narrative about all this, and a press conference was called.
26:58Now, after careful consideration and support from his family, other players, and thousands of letters,
27:04especially from children, DJ is back. It was an astonishing change of mind, but was it a mistake?
27:10In my mind, I made no mistake. That's the way I felt at the time. The reason I felt that way,
27:17I can't tell you. Outside of the game, I have nothing. I don't drink or smoke. I have my own business.
27:24I have my own house. I have my own family. And that's all that matters to me.
27:28Lo and behold, you know, after getting so many headlines a few weeks earlier for his retirement,
27:36and dominating the airwaves everywhere, six weeks later, he's back in.
27:44DJ was absolutely aware that he was in an amateur sport,
27:48and I have no doubt that it weighed heavily on his mind. When you consider everything that he put into it,
27:55and here he was slogging and training three, four nights a week and playing matches,
28:01and he wasn't getting any cash in the bank for it.
28:05DJ seemed pretty adamant six weeks earlier that he was done. There was talk, how much did he get?
28:12Who's looking after him? The dogs on the street were asking questions about Avon Moore, which was a huge Kilkenny company,
28:20and would have been the main sponsor for the GA locally. Of course, the main sponsor wants the star player,
28:27so you can't blame people for speculating and saying, well, how much did Avon Moore give him to get him back?
28:34Now, in terms of the press conference, those questions were asked. That was knocked on the head.
28:40DJ Kerry's not one of those players looking for money. In fact, and this is a fact,
28:45he has only claimed his expenses up to July of last year. He's actually due expenses.
28:50It was absolutely outright denied by the Kilkenny County Board.
28:54No inducement of any sort was offered to DJ Kerry to get him back playing.
29:00I'm going to become very thick-skinned from now on. The criticism, I don't mind, but the rumors that start
29:06out there is not going to be listened to any more.
29:12There was jubilation when we heard he was out and he was back, and like, people flocked again to see him training.
29:21So, when he came back at the time, I think all the stars aligned. Brian Cody came in as manager,
29:30so a clean slate, a new start.
29:33Top Cat DJ back on Hurling's big stage. Kerry's comeback, a huge boost to Kilkenny's All-Ireland ambition.
29:40We pride ourselves on trying to win All-Irelands, and we hadn't been winning one for a few years.
29:44You know, it was just to get that one more.
29:47Bear in mind, DJ had played in the previous two Iron Finals, 1998 and 1999, and lost them both.
30:00Had not played well in either.
30:02Pipped at the post by Offaly a year ago, and now heartbreak against the young guns of Cork.
30:08For some of the players, the emotion was too much.
30:11I'd certainly be expecting DJ to step up a year.
30:14He didn't score.
30:16This defeat was worse than losing last year's final.
30:19The Kilkenny players, selectors and fans really wanted to bring Deline McCarthy to the banks of the Knorr.
30:24They didn't go for it, and you know, we'll go home disappointed again, but there has to be a winner.
30:29That's the cruel part about sport.
30:33That question is always there. Could I have done something different on that occasion?
30:38He was going into an All-Ireland Final with more pressure on him than possibly any player in whirling history.
30:50The tension throughout Kilkenny all week was palpable.
31:05But so too was the fans' confidence that this team would not go down in history as having lost three in a row.
31:11And the Cats fans were hoping for an inspired display from who else but DJ.
31:19It's the excitement around DJ. It's the story.
31:22When DJ does his thing so spectacularly, it's the impact on the crowd.
31:27We'd call it the DJ factor.
31:29When the All-Leinster All-Ireland got underway, Kilkenny quickly raced ahead.
31:37DJ Carey producing one of his true classics.
31:40Carey blasted his shot past Stephen Byrne.
31:44There was a huge excitement when he was in form.
31:48He'd be heading for a goal and you knew something special was going to happen.
31:51The Cats couldn't have hoped for a better start with goals aplenty.
31:57And the fans were dubious.
31:59There was always something special there and the excitement that was there.
32:03Not only on the day in the stand watching him, but in the county.
32:08You know the way Maya Angelou says you don't remember what someone did or what they said.
32:12You remember how they made you feel.
32:14And he just made us feel wonderful every single time.
32:17The young Ireland's club man pounced again for Kilkenny minutes later.
32:21Niall Claffey did enough to keep Henry Sheflin's effort out.
32:24But there was no denying DJ.
32:27To put the icing on the cake.
32:29People sitting up in the stand had picked a team of the millennium.
32:33Which did not include our superstar.
32:37And by half time I think they were gone into hiding.
32:40Because he played a star game that day you know.
32:42But by half time Kilkenny had clinched goal number three.
32:46Charlie Carter capitalising on who else.
32:49But DJ's darting run.
32:51Even the most faithful must have felt the title was heading north side.
32:55Kilkenny's seven year wait for the Liam McCarthy Cup was over.
32:59This extra special train arrived in Kilkenny city to a fanfare of noise.
33:18The players were mobbed by family, friends and supporters.
33:22The crowd's joy made up for the disappointment of the past two years.
33:26Any day you win an Ireland is a special day.
33:29And it was always Monday evening at the train station.
33:31The train would be coming in and the bangers would be going off.
33:34And then the parade down John Street.
33:36The open top bus.
33:37Again DJ would be at the centre of that.
33:39Everyone wanted to get a hurl sign by DJ or get their jersey signed.
33:44Or indeed their arm put out that they wouldn't wash for a month.
33:47Because they've got DJ's signature on it.
34:00Like he had the world at his feet really.
34:02You'll hear people saying it all the time.
34:04People called him a god and a giant and a hero and all sorts of things.
34:08But also I can't say that I know anyone who said they were a friend of his.
34:13I think that there were a lot of people who played with him.
34:15There were other lads you know that they weren't big stars like DJ.
34:18But you know they did well out of the hurling in the end.
34:20Like they got jobs on the basis of their reputation.
34:23And people looked out for them and they were able to be successful
34:26and given opportunities for that.
34:29Ideally those players should be paid and given money and rewarded
34:33for putting people in the stand and you know putting that effort in.
34:37But realistically it's not there.
34:39If you're to try and professionally pay an intercontinental senior hurling team.
34:44You know you have a real problem.
34:45Because you know you have 35 or 40 people that you're going to have to pay.
34:49And pay very well over a 10 year career.
34:54They do make incredible compromises but it's part of what they are.
34:58Hurlers up and down the country give their time.
35:01Massive amounts of their time to their parish and community to play hurling.
35:06But I sometimes think it must be a little bit galling to be at the top of your game.
35:12Giving of their all for maybe 10 months of the of the year.
35:15And amateur or professional they are professionals in everything.
35:19But picking up a paycheck.
35:23It's very hard for say Americans even to grasp this.
35:26DJ Carey is a guy who sat down and had lunch with Tiger Woods.
35:30Trying to explain the GA in terms of no actually we don't make any money from this.
35:35We get the profile.
35:37We have to hold down a full time job.
35:39And this is where the dynamic changed maybe a little bit.
35:44Because money is talked about a lot by DJ Carey in his interviews.
35:48No one can stay going for 6, 7, 8, 9 months and come off a building site or come off a tractor
35:56on a farm or wherever they are.
35:58And they are losing out on money maybe and they shouldn't be.
36:03Things have to change.
36:05Players from around the country gathered at City West this evening.
36:08The issue of endorsements and player imaging rights will be discussed for the GPA's AGM.
36:14Around the time of the inception of the Gaelic Players Association.
36:17Where players had come together including DJ Carey to negotiate a deal.
36:23So that they they'd get some money off the field for appearances.
36:29In the mid-90s hurling became cool.
36:33You had the Guinness sponsorship.
36:36It brought it to the ads.
36:38It brought hurling to the billboards.
36:40It brought hurling I think into the sitting rooms of the nation in a way it hadn't been before.
36:50They were kind of pushing the door.
36:52They were trying to open the door.
36:55Six of the country's leading GAA players were today unveiled by sportswear company Puma,
37:00who have contracted each player individually to wear their boots and carry out promotional work.
37:04This was 20 years ago.
37:07There was a lot of resistance.
37:09They had to do a lot of things or fight for things that we now take for granted.
37:16DJ was obviously one of the figureheads.
37:19I would be hoping that eventually all players in all counties will have some sort of endorsement deal.
37:25And you know there'll be no one become millionaires out of it.
37:29This is what we're looking for.
37:31We're not looking to get paid to play.
37:32There is no doubt that there are ways that players can be looked after.
37:40You can wrap your arms around them.
37:42You can make sure that maybe they have good clients for their business.
37:45That there's other ways that people can take care of people who they know and they like in Ireland.
37:51From an early age, even young DJ Kerry, I mean you can sometimes see evidence or you can see patterns emerge.
38:03You start examining things.
38:07There were times when he didn't have to go to school.
38:10He got away with murder.
38:12He got looked after.
38:13He got the best of everything in terms of his education.
38:19But there were times when he did things that if you weren't DJ Kerry, certainly you wouldn't get away with them.
38:26Doors would open because of who he was.
38:29And then as he got older then, that continued.
38:34One of the little perks that the Kilkenny hurlers got after winning in All Ireland is that they'd get to go on a holiday abroad.
38:44I'm not sure why DJ was so involved.
38:46I think DJ was interested in golf as well at this stage.
38:49Everybody in Kilkenny wanted to go on this famous hurlers trip.
38:53So this would have been, they were planning for January 2001 after winning that 2000 All-Ireland final to head to Asia.
39:03How exotic.
39:04They were off to Bangkok.
39:05Then they were going to go to the little seaside resort of Pattaya in Thailand.
39:11The wives were coming, the girlfriends were coming, the big entourage of supporters.
39:16But they clearly remember DJ Kerry organising the golf and the rounds of golf.
39:21And one fella said to me, and excuse my language, but he said he was a bossy fucker.
39:27My closest contact with DJ would have been in the golfing group in Thailand.
39:32He was kind of coordinating the horror golfers.
39:35He was certainly the leader on the golf course of the Kilkenny lads.
39:41But I don't think he had much say after seven o'clock at night.
39:45The rest of them went their own way.
39:46And he wouldn't have been in the bars or anything like that.
39:51I was heading off for golf at half six in the morning.
39:54And I would have met lads coming in the opposite direction through the door.
40:00But certainly not Kerry.
40:02I know people as well that were sitting at the breakfast one morning.
40:08And lo and behold, a young Thai woman walked in and took her seat at the breakfast table with DJ.
40:15Christine, DJ's wife, was there as well.
40:17And that this young woman had been recruited as an au pair.
40:21And then when we got back to Kilkenny and to Ireland, she was spotted at the side of the football field.
40:29And she was certainly seen out and about in the community.
40:34And she was introduced to people as DJ and Christine's au pair.
40:38A busy time for Tip's defence, DJ clearly on song.
40:42He and Kilkenny's scoring tally on the increase.
40:45So in the early noughties, in terms of Kilkenny winning that 2000 All-Ireland Final,
40:53things going really well on the field for DJ Kerry.
40:56That is the 250th point in DJ Kerry's inter-county career.
41:02It was Kerry who brought the curtain down on a classic.
41:05Brian Cody's side moving ever closer to an All-Ireland Final appearance.
41:09Things started to get really exciting for DJ.
41:12I was looking on thinking, this is incredible.
41:15And for me, the 2002 All-Ireland Final, boom.
41:19We were saying it during the semi-final, but he's the man who had the courage
41:23to come back into the Kilkenny colours.
41:26Nicely down here towards Henry Sheffield.
41:29What a battle he's going to have with Sean McMahon.
41:31It's starting already.
41:33Thundering forward, looking for the opening score.
41:36It's a goal.
41:38What a start that is.
41:40DJ Kerry with yet another championship goal, and only three...
41:44Early on in that, DJ comes on, but within a few minutes,
41:48he scores a goal into the back of the net in Croke Park.
41:52And after that, DJ Kerry is getting towards the absolute pinnacle of his fame.
41:59DJ Kerry!
42:01There's massive pressure on Kilkenny hurlers because the expectations are so high of the fans.
42:12To bring back the Liam McCarthy to Kilkenny, it's hard to explain that sense of pride that he must have had.
42:20So on the one hand, things look amazing. Things have never been better for him.
42:26But yet still, we have these issues in terms of, in his personal life, we have turmoil.
42:32It was about what was going on in his marriage.
42:35The difficulties in the marriage aren't written about in the newspapers until 2003.
42:41But it's clear in 2001 that something happened.
42:46We know the au pair arrived.
42:48There are people close to Christine that say she wasn't happy about the arrangement.
42:53DJ said he was trying to ease the pressure on Christine because he was here, there and everywhere
42:59all over the country giving out the medals.
43:01And so maybe this woman would be able to help with the two young boys.
43:06Whatever happened, a source told me she changed the locks, the clothes were thrown out the window,
43:12the au pair went back to Thailand, and that the marriage was in deep bother.
43:20Christine was really important in terms of running his day-to-day business, DJ Kerry Enterprises.
43:26But once the marriage is in jeopardy, it's then that really Christine starts to step
43:31away from the company and enter his younger sister, Katrina Carey.
43:40Katrina had a profile herself, actually.
43:43She played hockey.
43:45She didn't just play.
43:46She had an international career for Ireland as a hockey player.
43:49But she got really involved in the running of the company once the marriage started to break down.
43:57She had an international career for Ireland.
43:58Talking the talk ten days before the hurling season's showpiece.
44:02Kilkenny captain DJ Kerry and Alan Brown of Cork meeting the media.
44:06The pair will be very much sought after in the coming days.
44:09The countdown to the All-Ireland Hurling final producing very different demands.
44:14There's a lot to be said for focus and everything else.
44:17But sometimes it's good to get your mind off it as well.
44:20Because if you're thinking holy and solely about it, you wouldn't sleep, you wouldn't do anything.
44:24He may not be the God, but in hurling, he is God.
44:28Dennis Joseph Kerry.
44:30DJ, come on.
44:33He refers himself to pressures.
44:36But again, there's contradictions with everything about him.
44:39DJ is somebody that often complains about the intrusion into his private life.
44:43It must be very hard to live up to testimonials like that.
44:47But the media have to have something to go on.
44:50You have to be out and about for there to be that level of interest in you.
44:54In the days before the All-Ireland final in 2003, there was all sorts of stories flying around.
45:02There were journalists all over Kilkenny.
45:04They were asking questions about DJ's private life.
45:07There was kind of a suggestion or some talk that a story was about to break.
45:13The papers had decided they were ready to go with this story.
45:21They published the front page with the photograph of the boys and DJ's wife and an inset picture of DJ.
45:29And this was on the day of the All-Ireland final.
45:34Yes, the team's just being introduced to the crowd here at Krug Park at the moment.
45:39And significantly, Michael Dyken, the biggest cheer of the two teams, went for DJ Carey.
45:44It's been a rough week for DJ Carey.
45:46Will this impact today, do you think, on him?
45:49Obviously, it's been going on maybe for a while now.
45:51And maybe a little bit off-colour the last few matches.
45:53But knowing DJ, he's mentally very strong.
45:55He'll put that to the back of his mind during the match.
45:57And I don't think the papers or anything should have commented this week.
46:00You know, it's a big week for him.
46:01And it's his own personal life.
46:02And it's no one's business.
46:04And I don't really know why the papers had to bring it up this week.
46:12This was absolutely scandalous.
46:15The public had a real interest in the story.
46:18But they were annoyed maybe on DJ's behalf.
46:21Was it fair, all these pressures, a sports star?
46:27It's an amateur sport.
46:28So why is everyone talking about his private life?
46:34Kilkenny County Board were furious.
46:36An unnamed official went as far as to say it was blatant sabotage.
46:43So no doubt they were relieved when Kilkenny won that All-Ireland final.
46:47And Kilkenny with the title.
46:50The champions have retained the McCarthy Cup.
46:55They had a battle on their hands in the second half.
46:58But they met the challenge head on.
47:01Kilkenny the champions for the 28th time.
47:07It's a great pleasure and honor for me to accept to leave the McCarthy Cup
47:12on behalf of this great Kilkenny team for the second year in a row.
47:28What's really interesting now that mightn't have been so significant at the time,
47:33this rumor that had been sweeping the southern half of the country,
47:36the level of stuff that DJ was putting up with, the poor DJ.
47:42And that is, to be fair, that is the narrative that we all believed in,
47:45that he was up against it, that there were all these rumors,
47:48there were all these people saying these things about the great DJ Kerry.
47:52Why would they say them?
47:53But the line was that one of the vicious rumors related to him having cancer.
47:59And that is in the article in 2003.
48:02And it is mentioned as a rumor about DJ Kerry.
48:05Where does this rumor come from? Where did it start?
48:08Just very few hurlers have got into the game to be famous.
48:18And I can tell you, I am certainly not one of those.
48:23Without any shadow of doubt, there's a certain amount of pressure.
48:27You just try and block out whatever else is surrounding you.
48:31And I deal with life as much as I can in the same way.
48:36I like to think of myself as a sportsman on and off the field.
48:39I think the mind will always be sharp. The mind will always keep you thinking.
48:45The mind will always keep you questioning.
48:48And when, you know, you're in a spot, can there be a right decision made?
48:54I would hate to think that I went through a career that I pulled a dirty stroke on anyone.
49:09I will be with you.
49:12The mind will always keep you thinking.
49:16And yes, the mind will always keep you thinking.
49:19And you can be thinking.
49:22I will keep you thinking.
49:23If anything, you will keep you thinking instead of thinking.
49:28You have to think that you've done a thing.
49:31It's a good time.
49:34When I get you thinking.
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