Wicklow's Alan Daly: 'Suicide is a permanent fix to a temporary problem. What my girlfriend did was life-saving'

Last December Wicklow footballer Alan Daly was on the verge of suicide and hospitalised. Eight months later he played a starring role in Donard/Glen's County IFC final win. He told his remarkable story to Daragh Ó Conchúir

Alan Daly gets ready for a run on a cold November night at Donard/Glen GAA pitch. Picture: Dave Barrett

It’s September 20 and he sits on the bench as the ball is thrown up, all nervous energy. Knees hopping, hands clapping, mouth yapping. Desperate to be on but knowing that it would be a risk after making shite of an Achilles tendon in the semi-final victory over Carnew.

The cruelty of it. Being joint-captain and having played so well through the campaign. He owes it to the lads, the management and the parish, the people that had backed him in the darkest times, to give them something in their own time of strife, with Covid-19 casting its suffocating shadow.