Tommy spoke lovingly about his wife Dawn and their tragic experience
09:21, 29 May 2026Updated 09:28, 29 May 2026
Former Kerry Gaelic Footballer, Tommy Walsh, spoke about a personal tragedy on BBC’s GAA social.(Image: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
Former Kerry star Tommy Walsh has opened up on the heartbreak of losing his twin sons last year – admitting the tragedy changed him and his wife Dawn forever.
The former All-Ireland winner, who also enjoyed a spell in the AFL with St Kilda and Sydney Swans, revealed the couple lost their baby boys Alex and Sam shortly after they were born prematurely at just 23-and-a-half weeks.
Walsh, now 38 and working as a tax advisor with law firm Orbitus in Kerry and Cork, said the past year has been the toughest period of their lives. The couple are parents to two-year-old daughter Abbey, who Walsh says has helped carry them through unimaginable grief.
“We have a beautiful little girl, Abbey. She’s two,” said Walsh in an interview with the BBC’s GAA Social. “She was born in 2024 and the pregnancy and all that went as smoothly as you could have asked for – and I appreciate that’s coming from the man! We were expecting twins last year, twin boys. All was going well. When you are carrying two, it’s a bit different to carrying one.
“About the 23-week mark, there was a bit of a complication and my wife was brought into hospital and they were born prematurely. So they were just 23-and-a-half weeks when they were born, Alex and Sam. Obviously very premature. They made it clear to us, in no uncertain terms, that there was a long battle ahead of them. We were getting ourselves ready for that. They were in intensive care for a couple of days and they fought hard but they didn’t make it unfortunately. They died within about 24 hours of each other. So, a tough couple of months.”
Kerry’s David Moran celebrates with son Eli and Tommy Walsh after winning the Munster title in 2021. Moran and Walsh went on AFL trials back in 2008 with Walsh signing a deal with St. Kilda.(Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne)
Walsh admitted the pain of leaving hospital without their children is something that will never fully leave them. “Obviously hard on me and my family but it’s harder on the woman,” he said. “She carried them, delivered them and goes through all the mental and physical challenges that a woman goes through when they are giving birth and then you are leaving hospital without them. I’m as okay as you could be. You just try and get on with things. Life goes on. We have our daughter at home and we both have jobs we had to get stuck back into.”
The Kerins O’Rahillys man says the support they received from family, friends and even strangers who had experienced similar heartbreak helped them cope. “We were lucky, we have two very supportive families,” he explained. “The amount of support we got from other people – people that you never would have known went through something similar. People were great, and still are. At the time you’re saying, ‘Why did this happen to us? It’s unfair.’
“Then you hear about other people’s stories and you realise these things just happen. It’s nobody’s fault, it happens and it happened to us.”
Walsh said hearing from others who had endured similar losses gave him and Dawn hope that some form of normality would eventually return. “Obviously you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes with people but, from the outside, they appear to be able to go about their day-to-day lives,” he said. “That kind of gave us a bit of solace – there might be a bit of normality ahead.
“It will always be there. Things will never be the same compared to if they were with us. You just have to get on with it, don’t you?”
Walsh also paid tribute to Dawn, who is from near Cahirciveen, for the strength she showed throughout the ordeal.
“She is good, yeah,” he said. “When I say that, it’s in the context of what’s happened. She’s back to work and she has been amazing throughout the whole thing. She is a great mother to her daughter and a great wife to me.”
The former Kerry midfielder admitted the experience ultimately strengthened their relationship, the Irish Mirror reports.
“It did,” he said. “There’s hard times obviously. I suppose you are trying to get through something quite traumatic together. It does strengthen your relationship, yeah. That’s something we said to ourselves – if there is one thing that can come out of it.”
Walsh retired from football two years ago and no longer lines out even at club level, bringing the curtain down on a decorated career that included five All-Ireland titles with Kerry. The son of Kerry legend Seán Walsh – who turns 70 next year – says some of his happiest memories involve sharing success with his family, particularly brother Barry John, who was part of Kerry’s 2009 All-Ireland-winning panel.
“Obviously the wins were brilliant and I experienced them very early so maybe didn’t appreciate them as much as I would have had they happened at the end,” he reflected. “After 2009, my brother was with me on the panel – Barry John. Getting to lift Sam Maguire with him beside me and then meeting my parents after in the hotel, that was something that’s burned into my brain in a good way.
“The picture is up on the wall at my parents’ house.”