Tómas Ó Sé Interview: He’s done us all some service

It may all end tomorrow in a Cork football final at Páirc Uí Rinn, an odd setting for a stellar Kerry career to finish. Tomás Ó Sé’s achievements are among the most storied in the GAA, but beyond that bristling ball of fire with No 5 on his back is an intriguing and engaging character — at least to those who truly know him.

THIS interview has been resting, uncorked, on a voice recorder for a year. There are good reasons, though not special or significant ones, it’s only being published now. One thing stands out from it for me now when I listen back to it. There’s a lot of real, unvarnished, genuine Tómas Ó Sé in there. Genuine is the opposite of counterfeit. Those who get to really know Tomás Ó Sé come to realise he is different to his siblings and his uncle, though they all share a lot of the same idiosyncrasies and tics. He is ludicrously modest in some respects though innately clever, realising he now has the earning capacity to monetise some of his magnificent football achievements. At one stage he talks about an ex-player “gigging” or “getting a touch”.

He is not immune to that. Why should he be? He has pulled on the most famous geansaí in gaelic football a record 88 times in the championship. More than anyone. And now he gets paid to offer opinions and relate his experiences. Next weekend, he will publish his first book, ‘White Heat”, less an autobiography than a necklace of insight if such a genre can exist these days. Those thumbing through its contents for salacious detail of drink and carousing can spare themselves the bother.