Weeshie's Week

Operation Transformation for former Kerry Goalkeeper Paudie O Mahoney

January 21st, 2014
by Weeshie Fogarty

 Paudie O Mahoney was open, honest and blunt to the point of sheer admiration when I spoke to him recently as he was about to begin his six week stint as a leader in the RTE reality program Operation Transformation.  The former great Kerry goalkeeper has done an extraordinary thing in this day and age and his total honesty is beautifully striking in a GAA culture of today where machismo can often be misinterpreted.  It's not an easy thing to stand up and admit our mistakes, very few of us would have the guts to do this, not to mind doing so on national television and radio before the whole nation. Paudie OoMahoney is the exception, and bearing his soul as he has done will no doubt instill confidence in others in how to take the proverbial leaf from his book.  His story following his retirement from inter county football after the traumatic shock defeat by Offally in 1982 made for very difficult conversation. Nonetheless Paudie as always pulled no punches as he described to me when I visited him in his Woodlawn home just how his life spiraled downwards completely and utterly out of control during the years following his retirement.

He explained how he destroyed his marriage by turning to drink and food and said he "lost the run of himself over the last few years', became depressed and isolated as the weighted piled on. Tipping the scales before he began his Operation Transformation journey at 20st-5lbs he is now on a mission to turn his life around and if he continues in the same determined fashion as what we have witnessed in the last two weeks then it will definitely be "mission accomplished" for the Spa club man. At sixty one and now a grandfather Paudie is the oldest leader to appear on the show and was emphatic that he was going to turn his life around and be in a position to play with his new grand son as he begins his climb on the ladder of life. He told me, "he has to big hands and fine feet and he will definitely be a goalkeeper and I will be there to guide him". Football and Kerry youth once again intertwined but this time in a very special and exceptional way.

When his playing days were over Paudie coached his club team Spa with great success. They won the East Kerry o Donoghue Cup in 1987, gained promotion to division one of the Kerry county league and were beaten in the county Intermediate final.  The following year he guided them to another East Kerry final but defeat was their lot. He then trained Killarney teams and was also involved with the Kerry juniors. However as he explained thinks were now going down hill very fast, "I was away from home too much and spending excessive time in the pub, I neglected my family and everything that mattered in life, I was becoming a loner. I simply forget about my family and especially my wife who was doing her very best to look after the household while I was out having fun with the lads after games"  The trauma of seeing his business fold due to major cash flow problems as the recession hit was another cruel blow to the engineer. This was a very stressful time for him because so many employees were depending on him including his daughter and sister. He was he said now, "in a deep dark place". Food and over eating became a crutch.

The year 1975 was unforgettable in the life of the Spa man. Winning that historic All Ireland medal with the bachelor boys of Mick o Dwyer's great team and going through the entire campaign without conceding a goal is one of his fondest memories.  In total he won five senior All Ireland medals, two National Leagues, eight Munster Championships medals, two Railway Cups, an All Star in 1975, colleges and under twenty one All Irelands, Kerry and Galway county championship medals, six East Kerry Championships and a Kerry Senior county medal. It's a staggering list of achievements in any mans language. It ranks up there with most Kerry greats. However an injury sustained in 1976 might have been the catalysts which laid the seeds for his later personal problems. He ruptured an Achilles tendon in the 1976 Al Ireland final, recovered, regained his place but as told me, "my leg was never as mobile again due to a metal pin having been inserted ".

Following the loss to Dublin in the All Ireland semi-final of 1977 Charlie Nelligan became Kerry's number one custodian and as Paudie recalled. "Than pushed me into number two and I became a number two for life. Being on the subs bench wasn't good for me psychologically and in my mind I'm always a number two. I would go to town and people would tap me on the back and say, Paudie you should be in goal, you should be number one. "All this played on my mind". Try as he might he failed to regain that number one jersey despite turning in some magnificent displays in trial games. I was present at one of those trials in Fitzgerald Stadium in 1979 and the exhibition of goalkeeping Paudie gave as he lined out for the Kerry B side was as great as I have ever seen. Mikey Sheehy, Bomber Liston, Pat Spillane, John Egan, Ogie Moran, and Tommy Doyle literally laid siege to his goal, they bombarded him from all angles, high and low, but he stopped everything. Selector Joe Keohane changed him to the A team in the second half, it looked as if he might regain his number one spot but when the team was announced Charlie held his place. But it was for me one of those memorable, unforgettable displays by a Kerry player.

And now Paudie o Mahoney is again in the national spotlight, this time however everything has changed and changed utterly. He is already emerging as a natural leader amongst the other Operation Transformation participants. Dieting, exercise, television and radio appearances, facebook, tex messages, e-mails, local radio and paper interviews, cards, letters phone calls. Just like that September day thirty five long years in Killarney when he opposed and defied the brilliance of the greatest Kerry forward line of all time he has now once again been bombarded, he has stood tall, stepped forward and bared his heart and soul to the nation. Irrespective what happens as the program unfolds Paudie o Mahoney should once again be number one in all our minds. This in my humble opinion is his greatest victory of all. Kerry should be proud of him. What other Kerry football legend has undertaken such a very public journey?.



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