Ciarán Carey seeks help for retiring GAA players
The former Limerick captain, who has battled his own problems with alcohol, is completing a degree in counselling and is not convinced enough is being done to assist footballers and hurlers like himself who have encountered tough times.
Speaking in a Laochra Gaelic programme to be screened on TG4 next Tuesday, Carey says: “During my hurling career, even though I was married with two kids, I always put hurling number one. At the moment, it isn’t and hasn’t been for the last few years.
“I worked in a homeless hostel in Limerick for four years, I’m doing a bit of work in Cuan Mhaire in Bruree, residential treatment centre. And I want to finish off my degree in counselling. Thank God, that’s filling my void.
“I believe there possibly isn’t enough in place there for that type of person when he actually finishes his career. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of any type of addictions.
“There’s a huge amount of help, I believe, needed whether it’s for the player that’s retiring or whether it’s the player that might have stuff going on in his life. I would like to think I would be there for anybody.”
Carey speaks candidly about Limerick’s 1994 and ‘96 All-Ireland final defeats. As captain in the latter game against Wexford, he was particularly critical of himself. “I was hard on myself because you knew you mightn’t get too many chances to play in Croke Park again, like. Were we good enough to do it? We were. Why didn’t we do it then? Obviously, there must have been a little shrink there mentally. There must have been because you need to be mentally very strong, mentally very tough, mentally ruthless and we obviously lacked one or two streaks there.”
Of the 1996 Munster semi-final against Clare sealed by his awe-inspiring winning point, he said: “Ger Loughnane was an all-round passionate guy. He was in every paper. You could hear him but you couldn’t see him. We relished this. We just couldn’t wait for it. We just wanted to put manners on them once and for all.”
Recalling his famous score, he admitted: “What was on my mind really was that I was going to be flattened for a free. The longer it (the solo) went on, I knew ‘uh-oh, there could be something here’.”
His memories of the ‘94 final collapse to Offaly remain vivid. “It was a horrible feeling, the worst feeling of all because we were so close of picking up that All-Ireland medal.”
However, Carey is philosophical. “It would be a fantastic feeling to win an All-Ireland medal but it’s nice to know deep down that you can mix it with the best of them without winning an All-Ireland medal. That’ll do me.”
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