Victims of disgraced hurler DJ Carey say they’d give him ‘an Oscar for the acting’ in new doc
Mix of betrayal, bewilderment and anger among victims in new two-part RTÉ documentary series about the disgraced hurler
A mix of bewilderment, betrayal and quiet anger can be observed among some of his victims in a new two-part RTÉ documentary.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest hurlers of all time, he was jailed for five-and-a-half years in recent weeks for defrauding people by falsely claiming he had cancer and needed money for treatment.
Carey in his glory days with Kilkenny
There are 22 confirmed victims, whose losses amount to some €400,000, but it is believed the true number is far higher.
Now in Mountjoy Prison, it’s in stark contrast to his glory days as a Kilkenny hurler when fans loudly proclaimed: “In God we trust, in DJ we believe.”
Sitting in an armchair at home, retired accountant Thomas Butler, who gave Carey around €17,000, holds a signed hurl in his hands.
“This hurl was made by DJ’s brother, he’s personally signed it to myself. I will forever treasure this hurl for what it represents, for the greatest hurler of all time,” he says sadly.
He describes how Carey first approached him for money at the Mount Juliet golf course, where he was a member. “I would have often met DJ up there,” he said. “He came across as so honest and truthful, an absolute gentleman that wouldn’t know a lie if it bit him.”
He remembers Carey describing a “stomach-churning” treatment he was getting in the US. When he told Butler he was in a bad situation financially, Butler handed over €700 or €800 straight away.
Much later, when gardaí rang asking if he was a friend of DJ Carey, he asked one question before he would proceed: “Can you categorically tell me that DJ never had an operation for cancer in the States?
The infamous phone charger photo
“And they were able to tell me categorically that he never had cancer. He was never in the States.
“I’d say I’d give him an Oscar for the acting.”
He said Carey didn’t have to lie if he needed financial help. “That’s what an icon he was. He didn’t have to say he was sick even. It’s because he used the sickness, that’s brought the sour note to everybody’s door.”
He is not the only victim wrestling with conflicting emotions in the deeply poignant two-part series, DJ Carey: The Dodger, directed by Trevor Birney and Jim O’Hagan from Fine Point Films working with Kilkenny-based journalist Eimear Ní Bhraonáin.
Mag and Ger Kirwan gave him €5,000. Mag remembers her husband, who knew Carey in passing from attending GAA matches in Kilkenny, coming home one day to say he had got a “very strange request” from Carey for €5,000 to get stem-cell treatment in America.
“At the time, it never even occurred to me that anybody could be so devious or manipulative as to tell somebody they had cancer, and even worse, to tell the husband of a recently diagnosed person, they had the same cancer. I couldn’t believe that anyone could be that evil to do that.”
Her husband describes being left with a “concoction of feelings”. “Looking back, I wasn’t able to see beyond my decency, or our decency. He played on your vulnerability, which is unforgivable, really.”
With former taoiseach Bertie Ahern
Mag eventually recovered her money, one of the few victims to do so, after confronting Carey and reminding him of his public reputation as a role model.
When her husband, Ger, went to collect it, he said Carey was “embarrassed”.
“There was shame or some element of, you know, he realised here that he had f****d with the wrong person.”
When Mag got a phone call from a detective, she went down to tell her story. “I felt it was important to stop him in his tracks.”
DJ Carey
News in 90 Seconds – Sunday, November 23
Martin Brett, a former mayor of Kilkenny, remembers being asked for money but feeling things “didn’t add up” when Carey told him he’d had a full-body blood transfusion the previous week. When Brett queried this with a doctor friend, he was told it would require three months of recovery.
For Brett, who lost his own wife to cancer, the betrayal is shocking.
“I’ve seen the devastation that cancer has had in our house and the effort that it took to get to the stage we are at now. DJ would have known. For somebody, for anybody, to say that they suffer from cancer, if it’s not true, there’s no coming back.” For fervent Kilkenny hurling fan Seamus O’Connor, it’s not so clear-cut. “I’ll still see the crowd getting up in their seats, highs in life and memorable moments. There is no prosecutor, or no journalist [who can] give me that moment. I won’t get that spark that made my life a higher quality elsewhere,” he says.
DJ Carey arrives at the Criminal Courts of Justice for his sentence hearing. Photo: IrishPhotoDesk.ie
He remembers there being “electricity about when he got the ball”.
Carey’s hurling coach and retired teacher, John Knox, also reflects on the downfall of his once prodigious pupil.
“He’s very capable, very eloquent — a very clever man. I have nothing but fond memories of DJ.
“Some of the lads that hurled with DJ when the bad news broke, they stuck by him, because they said, well, he’s messed up, but we wouldn’t have got where we are without him.”
He was glad to hear that Carey had pleaded guilty. “He’s now facing up to the reality because he wasn’t living in the real world up to now. When you have an addiction problem, and obviously, DJ has a type of addiction, you have to face the truth yourself, and hopefully, he will.
“When he was a hurler, he never failed to take responsibility, standing up at Croke Park to take a penalty shot on an All-Ireland final day. That takes guts. So that if he shows the same type of resilience and determination, and guts, he can get through this.
“To me, anyway, it’s a Shakespearean tragedy, a fatal flaw in a grand person, but it’s of his own making.”
The first episode of ‘DJ Carey: The Dodger’ will be broadcast tomorrow night, November 24 at 9.35pm on RTÉ One. Stream the second episode directly after on RTÉ Player or watch on RTÉ One on Monday, December 1 at 9.35pm.
