Páidí – through the eyes of those who knew him best

A new documentary about Páidí Ó Sé as seen through the local people who knew him best reveals the gaping cavity left in his life after football.

Laura Ní Cheallaigh’s Páidí Ó Sé — Rí an Pharóiste, which will be screened on TG4 on Christmas Day at 10.20pm, provides a marvellous insight into the eight-time All-Ireland SFC winner and two-time victorious manager.

The Ventry legend’s roguish character is evidenced throughout but there are also moments of pathos too concerning his sudden death 12 months ago and the difficulties he faced after moving away from the game.

“No one is without flaws and Páidí had his own,” says his childhood friend Muiris Ó Fiannachta. “The whole world knows what they were.

“Football left a huge void in his life that I don’t think was ever filled. I think it was still there ’til the day he died.

“It’s hard to see how it could happen to someone who was so immersed in football from the day he was baptised.”

In a moving segment of her contribution to the programme, Ó Sé’s wife Máire regrets he was not able to find something to replace football.

“He was with Clare for a while but I don’t think his heart was in it. That was in 2005. Then, after that, I think he thought he was getting a little too old. I don’t think he really wanted to continue as a manager.

“It’s a shame Páidí didn’t have a passion other than football. He wasn’t interested in playing golf, something a lot of people do, and it wouldn’t have taken him out of the area.

“It would’ve given him a focus when at times he felt he had none. If only he’d been able to replace football with something else. But then he’d look at Pádraig Óg and he wondered if he could play. So he turned his attention to Pádraig Óg.”

Young Ó Sé, U21 with Kerry again next year, appreciates just how much his father wanted to see him succeed.

“He’d come to my football matches. I wasn’t too happy about that because Páidí was the only one I could hear roaring from the stands and it’d really annoy me during a match. In the end I learned to block it out and continue with my own game. He was quite hard on me at times and many a night my mother said to him, ‘Stop at him about football. Let him play his own game’. He gave me his name. Pádraig is very similar to Páidí. I think he was proud of me — I hope he was.”

The hellish pre-season training regimes Ó Sé put himself through around Slea Head are chronicled and Ó Fiannachta jokes it was a means of not being found out after wintering well.

“Páidí was clever. He was always one step ahead of Mick O’Dwyer. He knew that O’Dwyer knew that they used to be drinking and drinking heavily. Páidí would start his training about a month before Mick O’Dwyer started.”

Máire recalls how Ó Sé continued to push himself hard physically later in life, long after he last kicked a ball in anger. “He endured this unnatural level of training. And as he got older, he thought that he should still be able to train like that. I’d say to him, ‘Why don’t you go for a walk on the beach? Leave the other stuff — it’s too tough’. But he always thought that this was what he should be doing.”

She also addresses her husband’s “animals” quote about Kerry supporters in 2003.

“I suppose it taught him a lesson. To reconsider what he said, and consider revising it. He got a shock. I don’t think he meant any disrespect by it, but privately it was what he really thought.”

Another childhood friend, Joe Bán Ó Sé, defended his comments: “If he’d left the f-word out of it, it was the truth! Even with the f-word, he was right! I saw nothing wrong with it.”

Máire tells of the influence Ó Sé’s mother Beatrice had on her son. “She could be very hard and then soft-natured too. Anything she wanted, she got and Páidí had that same quality. Anything he wanted, he got, it didn’t matter how, and he got that from her. She had three sons.

“I don’t think any of the women were ever good enough for her men! It didn’t matter who they married — no one was good enough for her family! She made sure to let us know that too!”

Ó Sé’s piseógs are also covered, with daughter Neasa telling a hilarious story about her father’s lucky briefs involving Charlie Haughey, while friend and employee Peter Ó Fiannachta recalls a magpie incident.

Ó Fiannachta and Joe Bán Ó Sé regal stories of their childhood, with the bold Páidí always insisting on being either the hero as they acted out scenes or the captain in games.

As well as his impressive dancing exploits, his fearsome streak is also retold. “I remember his first day at school, he was looking over at me,” laughs Ó Fiannachta.

“Giving me a fierce look. We were let out at lunchtime, and he was like a young calf, running wild around the yard. I ran around the corner and I got a smack of his fist into my face! He said he didn’t like the colour of my hair [red] and that he was going to kill me!”