Playing the fame game: How DJ Carey became the GAA’s first superstar

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A controversial AIB debt write-down has thrust him back into the headlines but the ex-Kilkenny hurler has always had a complicated relationship with being famous

Halfway through the piece The Mirror claimed that “at least one Sunday newspaper was planning a major exposé on the hurling legend’s private life”. It seemed that the gun had been fired on a race to the bottom. The Evening Herald splashed on the story, summoning a tone of offended decency: “Marriage Torment Of Hounded DJ” ran the front page headline, over claims that the Kilkenny County Board were “seething” over “dirty tricks”, and the player’s family were “livid” about the “prying media”.

In an interview a year later, Carey said that he had hired “security guards” for the week building up to the All-Ireland final, spooked by what he had been told about the sudden shift in the media’s attention. “It is hardly surprising,” the paper said, “that our fascination with celebrity has now moved a step further to encompass the stars of Gaelic games, stars who have mobilised in recent years to demand a bigger slice of the GAA’s multimillion euro business . . . But it is unprecedented for a GAA player to get the same treatment as a multimillionaire Premiership footballer.”

What kind of money was involved? On the week when AIB agreed to appear before an Oireachtas committee to answer questions about their €7.7 million write-down on original borrowings by Carey of €9.5 million, his commercial income from his playing days are incomparable in scale. And yet, in his time, no other GAA player was as successful in that sphere as Carey.

One of his classmates, Adrian Ronan, had made a similar breakthrough, and on the morning of a league game they were featured on the sports pages of the Sunday Independent, photographed in their school uniforms, sitting behind a classroom desk. It was a cute picture, and a harmless interview, but it was extraordinary exposure for a couple of teenagers.

“There is a kind of wedge driven there, which is not his fault. I think it’s the same with other big names in other counties. It’s because of the publicity and the attention that he gets. I think he’s embarrassed by it all. He is well liked, but he’s not able to become just one of the lads.” DJ Carey stands over a free during the 2004 All-Ireland hurling semi-final win over Waterford. '“People were talking about me getting money for coming back,” he said in a Sunday Times interview in 1999. “I had family sitting in the stand [at matches] listening to opposition supporters shouting, ‘Pull across him, he’s getting paid for it, he deserves it.’ It is so stupid.

 

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Whether he's famous or has problems with it is completely irrelevant,he's done a hell of a lot worse than having aib write off a loan.if he wasn't famous for hurling,he sure as fxxk would be famous for the other disgusting behaviour.him and his con sister.should both be in jail

Why even do this storey glorifying a cheat! The media in Ireland are goons

I can sense still in this piece a campaign for the great man to be left alone. Ireland will never change when it comes to this nonsense 🙄

A great sporting career just thrown away. Him and his sister will always be remembered for other reasons now. And rightly so.

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