The aul lad going around the place telling anyone whoād listen that DJās original wife was cooking the booksā¦.
I know another KK fellaā¦ Not a high profile hurler but invovled in the game who was at something similar albeit on a much much smaller scale. @Malarkey would know him probably.
I donāt know what was driving it but he seems to have got himself back in order anyway at least now. Always seemed like a nice lad anytime I met him
In fairness heās really a modern day Robin Hood. He only āborrowedā from the rich. Not like the sister.
He genuinely presented underage medals and opened handball alleys for nothing.
Although he golfed with the best of them, I suppose he hadnāt the smarts for the corporate speech circuit.
Youād make a great character witness
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I know one man who is said to have gotten caught by him. He was far from rich. Thereās clubs involved too. Outside the likes of Crokes or the Dublin superclubs, thereās not many rich clubs out there.
Its a nasty business all round.
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With Gleeson, it was allegedly gambling problems/ addiction
DJ never declared bankrupt
Sarah Newman did. But is a separate entity
He makes him sound like @Horsebox
A harmless auld simpleton
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Did clubs give him money for the pretend cancer treatment?
The player is said to have approached his own county board about contributing to the cost of undergoing stem cell cancer treatment in the US but the appeal was turned down. However, a number of clubs outside the county did make donations upon learning of his supposed trying circumstances.
The cunt will be in the multiple millions by the time it all comes out in the wash
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Drip drip drip of information. It wonāt end anytime soon. Clubs though. Fucking hell.
Individuals are as bad as clubs. Thereāll be folk for whom it was a big stretch. If itās true, and it was frittered on living a high life and avoiding work, it is frankly appalling.
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Individuals make their own choices. Executives are the trustees of a club and they chose to waste the clubs hard earned money in that manner. Worse still, he choose to accept it knowing this. Itās treacherous.
What line of work was/is this GAA star in?
You have a very strange logic
A fella like yourself thatās plugged into the club scene in the southeast would surely have an idea
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I couldnāt see any committee of a small club agreeing to hand out money and as I said he was know for presenting medals for nothing, unlike some.
New Treasurer: Tom, where did that 20k go?
Tom: Ah sure we gave that to DJ 10 year ago.
This is my impression of the life of the former GAA star. I could be wrong but this is my impression anyway.
He wasnāt very intellectual but one of the most gifted players ever to play his main chosen sport (not the handball, the other one) and was showered with adulation for his skills from all comers. This lifestyle of adulation was probably difficult for him to deal with on one level because he was not a natural media performer, but at the same time he became addicted to the adulation, and he probably looked at other major Irish sports stars of the time, such as Roy Keane, with envy, and reckoned to himself that he should be benefitting more in monetary terms from his extraordinary skills and the unquestioned enjoyment and thrills he was providing to sports followers. A lifetime of ordinary work probably seemed extremely depressing to him. He would not be alone among GAA stars of the time in this attitude. Irish society in the late 1990s was beginning to become money and status obsessed, it had entered the era of apparent financial alchemy, a democratic alchemy where ordinary people could apparently leverage their way to wealth with āsmartā investments and gambles. This GAA star was likely well acquainted with āmovers and shakersā and the places they hung out in and liked the lifestyle they had.
This GAA star may or may not have used a brief retirement as a tactic to extract undeclared money or perks for his lifestyle. This may or may not have continued for several years.
The GAA star had a well publicised marriage break up. Marriage break ups cost money. He needed money.
The GAA star had a sister who had a much less high profile sporting career and saw her much better known brother as a ticket to a lavish lifestyle. The sister was certainly ruthless.
The GAA star met a ruthless woman who perceived herself as a mover and shaker and both perceived that together they would be a formidable power couple on the movers and shakers scene during the Celtic Tiger and could invest or leverage their way to profit and a lavish lifestyle.
The GAA star was beloved of the āreal peopleā of Ireland. He was outwardly seen as a down to earth, modest man, who had endured some difficulties in his personal life but was coming through them. These difficulties made him seem more relatable and endearing as a character. He was the original of the species of whom Eamon Dunphy would glowingly refer to by comparison when he wanted to make criticisms of association football players. He was seen as a genuine paragon of virtue. The position he had built himself into in Irish society in general was one of absolute trust.
After the GAA starās retirement as a player, the power coupleās belief that they could invest their way into a lifestyle befitting of their perceived status was proved wrong. The economy collapsed. Their confidence proved misplaced. They tired of each other. But she was better set up to move on because she was smarter, snakier and more ruthless.
The star missed the adrenaline rush of being a star player. He had an ex-wife and family to support and no real career to speak of outside of his āinvestmentsā. His sister may or may not have been leading him down a bad path. Having been the centre of attention for so long, he may have become depressed at the prospect of a quieter, more obscure, financially insecure future.
He now had one failed marriage and another failed long term relationship behind him. And a sister who may or may not have been leading him astray. But everywhere he looked in his life, the demand for a monetary status he could not legitimately keep up with was there. He had been surrounded with such ruthless products of the Celtic Tiger for so long ā people for whom money, lifestyle and status was everything, that he had become one of them himself. He knew no other way. He was afraid of any other way. Terrified.
But though less high profile than before because he was by now no longer a star player, he still maintained a position of absolute trust among the āplain people of Irelandā.
Which led to the father and mother of a Walter Mitty scheme. It may not have been the first such scheme.
The position of trust. The outward modesty and down to earthness of his personality,. He wasnāt afraid to admit he had made mistakes. But he was always portraying himself as doing everything he could to rectify his mistakes. They were honest mistakes. People like people who have made honest mistakes and are doing everything they can to rectify them.
All the while, all this conflicted with an inner desire to be seen as successful, and a semi-private desire to lead a lavish lifestyle. He craved attention while pretending he didnāt. He missed stardom. He craved trust and respect.
The odd newspaper column and training a third level team donāt sustain a lavish lifestyle.
And the hole got deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, and he kept digging, and lying, always knowing that the shit would hit the fan, and yet trying to convince himself that it never would.
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