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.
