John Fogarty: Why did GPA give DJ Carey €30,000?
The Gaelic Players Association transferred €30,000 to DJ Carey in two tranches in 2022. Pic: Collins Courts
You won’t find the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) among the published list of parties who were conned by DJ Carey. But they were.
Whether it’s embarrassment, awkwardness, confidentiality or sympathy for one of their founding members and former president, they have maintained a silence about the matter.
Perhaps there is safety in numbers, knowing they are among several others who weren’t willing to come forth and admit they were duped by the Kilkenny hurling great, but their decision to give him a significant amount of money raises a series of questions about their judgement and why, unlike others, they didn’t appear as interested in seeing justice being served.
In April of last year, this newspaper reported that the GPA transferred €30,000 to a former player who was under Garda investigation. The money was provided in two tranches in 2022.
Approached for the story, the GPA had no comment to make. Similarly, they had nothing to say to Eimear Ní Bhraonáin for her new book, “The Dodger – DJ Carey and the Great Betrayal”. Ní Bhraonáin spoke to Tommy Butler, a former friend of Carey’s who gave him an estimated €17,000. He was also asked by Carey to vouch for his difficulties in correspondence with the GPA.
“DJ put me under a lot of pressure to sign off on a letter he wanted as verification of his illness and financial predicament to the GPA,” said Butler.
“I got persistent calls when I was out of the country in September 2022 to sign off on the letter and forward it to Ciarán Barr, CFO (chief financial officer) of the GPA.”
Ní Bhraonáin writes that Butler felt coerced into sending the email endorsing Carey’s situation which stated he needed “at least €25k” to receive “treatment which is not available in Ireland but he urgently requires”.
The email Butler sent came just a few months before he was contacted by An Garda Síochána about Carey. The GPA’s transfers to Carey came almost three years after the Leinster Council were advised to give the Kilkenny man a wide berth after he had approached them for money. Ní Bhraonáin adds that in January 2020, Carey said he was suffering from multiple myeloma and needed to travel to the US for treatment. The Leinster official contacted the Kilkenny County Board who told him “it would be unwise to hand over funds” and Carey’s request was eventually declined.
On Monday, Carey was sentenced to prison for 10 counts of deception between 2014 and ’22. At such a late stage, when so many in the GAA world were told or had learned to steer clear of Carey’s pleas, why the GPA felt his case was genuine is a question that hangs. If any organisation should be capable of doing due diligence about a player’s bona fides even a former one at that, it’s a players’ organisation.
There are several prominent former inter-county players who rejected Carey. One of them who spoke to this newspaper said he made a couple of enquiries after he was approached and was told under no circumstances was he to give Carey money. If the GPA had bothered to do the same, they’d have realised that €30,000 was not going towards its intended purpose.
It was also around the same time in September 2022 that former Clare hurler Tony Griffin was stung by Carey. Before he made a bank transfer of €1,500 to Carey, he was warned by a friend that the Kilkenny man’s plight “might not be completely true”. In December, that reality dawned on Griffin when he received a phone call from a detective in Waterford who informed him he was “investigating a GAA star”.
As the reported last year, the monies that were issued by the GPA did not come from the GAA’s past player medical and surgical Intervention benevolent fund, which they co-manage but must be signed off by Croke Park. That fund, which has an annual cap of €200,000, would have appeared a suitable source for Carey’s application.
However, the GPA has its own benevolent fund “to support to members of the company who experience setbacks, both personal and professional. The service exists to offer support in a way that helps people find their feet by providing more than financial assistance.” The fund comprises donations which are deducted as a portion of the current inter-county players’ annual membership fees, which are subtracted from the Government grants that are administered by the GPA.
Following our story last year, we asked a GPA official if they intended changing their donation protocols. There was nothing in their response that suggested they were going to review them. Surely losing €30,000 to a fraudster should have prompted a tightening-up of their eligibility criteria.
Oversight has been a major stumbling block in the GAA-GPA funding negotiations. It’s one of the reasons why no agreement has yet been reached despite the talks commencing over a year ago. The GAA are insisting on more regulation. The Carey donation suggests they have cause.
john.fogarty@examiner.ie
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