To Paul O’Connell for his advice and insight on that great day in Cork. To Eoin Conroy, the Jerry Maguire of the sports world and a huge figure in this book. He was always there. When I got injured in our last game, he sent me a text that evening: ‘It’s tough but it gives you a great ending for the book.’ Thanks for everything, Eoin.
To Seánie McMahon, Donal Cahill, Derek Ryan and Fran O’Connor, super friends and great confidants.
I would especially like to thank my family – my parents Tom and Joan, my brothers James and John and my sisters Sheila and Claire. I’ve always regarded myself blessed to have such a wonderful family. I would also like to thank Olivia’s family, especially her brother Niall, Róisín’s godfather and a true GAA clubman.
Mostly though, I want to say thank you to my wife Olivia. The last two years have been the most difficult of our lives, but we remain as strong as ever. To my son Thomas, I wanted him to know about the beautiful sister, Róisín, he never knew, and to see in later life, please God, what our lives were like at that period in his young life. Thomas, you light up our lives so much and I hope that you will value and appreciate this book in time.
Unfortunately, a lot of the text in this book is fuelled by tragedy. Fr Michael McNamara was a proud Doora-Barefield man, whom we will never forget. Our physical trainer in 2009, Brian O’Reilly, also recently passed away. I never got the chance to thank him for all his efforts with us, but I would like Brian’s family to know how highly I and the rest of the players in Doora-Barefield thought of him.
One of the primary reasons I wrote this book was to honour and pay tribute to Ger Hoey, one of the most remarkable people I ever knew. I was fortunate to play with some great players but I always regarded Ger as one of the greatest. I would really like to thank Siobhán Hoey for always supporting me in writing this book. I would also like to thank the Hoey family, particularly Ger’s brothers, John and David.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone in the St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield club, especially Patsy Fahey and Tommy Duggan, who gave me their blessing to go ahead with this project. To Darragh O’Driscoll as well, for his immense support in the early days. I won’t mention the rest of the players and officials specifically but I just want to thank ye all for the best years of my life.
Hopefully, we will have plenty more. Both on and off the field.
Photo Credits
Clare People: page 6 bottom
Damien Eagers, Sportsfile; page 3 top and bottom
Flann Howard: page 4 bottom, page 5 bottom, page 8 top and bottom
John Kelly Photography: page 4 top, page 5 top, page 6 top, page 7 top and bottom
Ray McManus, Sportsfile: page 1, bottom; page 2 bottom
Brendan Moran, Sportsfile: page 1 top
Aoife Rice, Sportsfile: page 2 top
The Club Page 26
