TV Review: DJ Carey The Dodger is superb, but outstanding question remains

We don’t get the warts-and-all all confession from Carey as to why. The simple answer is that his business was struggling, but there must be more to it than that.

DJ Carey: The Dodger, a two-part documentary series looking at DJ Carey's life

DJ Carey is missing from the the superb two-part documentary DJ Carey The Dodger (RTE One and RTE Player.)

It’s not that he doesn’t appear. There is no shortage of footage of him talking to Ryan Tubridy, Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh and Pat Kenny, as you’d expect from the man who dominated Irish hurling through the 1990s and into the early 2000s. He comes across as a nice guy, grounded and decent, at ease with the fame that comes with the territory of five All Ireland senior medals.

This tallies with the genuine stories of a man who travelled to GAA clubs all over Ireland to help them raise funds, refusing the 500 quid in the envelope that is apparently on offer to someone of his stature, insisting as one person puts it, that the cup of tea is enough. So far, so humble GAA super-star.

But at some point, he started telling people he needed money urgently to pay for cancer treatment in the United States. It’s not known how much people gave him, but a journalist speculates here that it could be up to €2 million. Carey pleaded guilty to 10 charges recently and was sentenced to five and a half years in jail.

Journalist Eimear Ní Bhraonáin first started investigating the hurler

I still can’t really make out why he did it.

That’s not to fault the documentary. The story is perfectly paced here over two gripping episodes, driven along by the excellent Eimear Ní Bhraonáin, the journalist who first started to investigate why he was going around asking for so much money.

So we know what happened. We just don’t get the warts-and-all all confession from Carey as to why he put his gilded reputation on the line. The simple answer is that his business was struggling, but there must be more to it than that.

Ní Bhraonáin speculates that he craved the affirmation and admitted that he remains an enigma, describing him as a very strange man. But this doesn’t take away from the dramatic twists and turns in the story.

You’ll be glued to the interviews with his victims, including Mag Kirwan, who actually had the cancer DJ was claiming to have. She shamed him into giving the money back.

This is top notch story-telling. Give it a watch.