Mix of betrayal, bewilderment and anger among victims in new two-part RT\u00c9 documentary series about the disgraced hurler\n<\/p>\n
A mix of bewilderment, betrayal and quiet anger can be observed among some of his victims in a new two-part RT\u00c9 documentary. <\/p>\n
Widely regarded as one of the greatest hurlers of all time, he was jailed for five-and-a-half years in recent weeks for defrauding people by falsely claiming he had cancer and needed money for treatment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carey in his glory days with Kilkenny<\/p>\n
There are 22 confirmed victims, whose losses amount to some \u20ac400,000, but it is believed the true number is far higher.<\/p>\n
Now in Mountjoy Prison, it\u2019s in stark contrast to his glory days as a Kilkenny hurler when fans loudly proclaimed: \u201cIn God we trust, in DJ we believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sitting in an armchair at home, retired accountant Thomas Butler, who gave Carey around \u20ac17,000, holds a signed hurl in his hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis hurl was made by DJ\u2019s brother, he\u2019s personally signed it to myself. I will forever treasure this hurl for what it represents, for the greatest hurler of all time,\u201d he says sadly.<\/p>\n
He describes how Carey first approached him for money at the Mount Juliet golf course, where he was a member. \u201cI would have often met DJ up there,\u201d he said. \u201cHe came across as so honest and truthful, an absolute gentleman that wouldn\u2019t know a lie if it bit him.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remembers Carey describing a \u201cstomach-churning\u201d treatment he was getting in the US. When he told Butler he was in a bad situation financially, Butler handed over \u20ac700 or \u20ac800 straight away.<\/p>\n
Much later, when garda\u00ed rang asking if he was a friend of DJ Carey, he asked one question before he would proceed: \u201cCan you categorically tell me that DJ never had an operation for cancer in the States?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The infamous phone charger photo<\/p>\n
“And they were able to tell me categorically that he never had cancer. He was never in the States.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say I\u2019d give him an Oscar for the acting.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Carey didn\u2019t have to lie if he needed financial help. \u201cThat\u2019s what an icon he was. He didn\u2019t have to say he was sick even. It\u2019s because he used the sickness, that\u2019s brought the sour note to everybody\u2019s door.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is not the only victim wrestling with conflicting emotions in the deeply poignant two-part series, DJ Carey: The Dodger, directed by Trevor Birney and Jim O\u2019Hagan from Fine Point Films working with Kilkenny-based journalist Eimear N\u00ed Bhraon\u00e1in.<\/p>\n
Mag and Ger Kirwan gave him \u20ac5,000. Mag remembers her husband, who knew Carey in passing from attending GAA matches in Kilkenny, coming home one day to say he had got a \u201cvery strange request\u201d from Carey for \u20ac5,000 to get stem-cell treatment in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, it never even occurred to me that anybody could be so devious or manipulative as to tell somebody they had cancer, and even worse, to tell the husband of a recently diagnosed person, they had the same cancer. I couldn\u2019t believe that anyone could be that evil to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her husband describes being left with a \u201cconcoction of feelings\u201d. \u201cLooking back, I wasn\u2019t able to see beyond my decency, or our decency. He played on your vulnerability, which is unforgivable, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"With](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/f0424d9b-c2d4-4165-90b9-3a9723938a9d.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
With former taoiseach Bertie Ahern<\/p>\n
Mag eventually recovered her money, one of the few victims to do so, after confronting Carey and reminding him of his public reputation as a role model.<\/p>\n
When her husband, Ger, went to collect it, he said Carey was \u201cembarrassed\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was shame or some element of, you know, he realised here that he had f****d with the wrong person.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Mag got a phone call from a detective, she went down to tell her story. \u201cI felt it was important to stop him in his tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"DJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/c82a04ba-42fb-4439-9137-e59adfefcf7c.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
DJ Carey<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds – Sunday, November 23 <\/p>\n
Martin Brett, a former mayor of Kilkenny, remembers being asked for money but feeling things \u201cdidn\u2019t add up\u201d when Carey told him he\u2019d had a full-body blood transfusion the previous week. When Brett queried this with a doctor friend, he was told it would require three months of recovery.<\/p>\n
For Brett, who lost his own wife to cancer, the betrayal is shocking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen the devastation that cancer has had in our house and the effort that it took to get to the stage we are at now. DJ would have known. For somebody, for anybody, to say that they suffer from cancer, if it\u2019s not true, there\u2019s no coming back.\u201d For fervent Kilkenny hurling fan Seamus O\u2019Connor, it\u2019s not so clear-cut. \u201cI\u2019ll still see the crowd getting up in their seats, highs in life and memorable moments. There is no prosecutor, or no journalist [who can] give me that moment. I won\u2019t get that spark that made my life a higher quality elsewhere,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
![\"DJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ae5dc647-4885-4f66-83d2-e7315860daea.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
DJ Carey arrives at the Criminal Courts of Justice for his sentence hearing. Photo: IrishPhotoDesk.ie<\/p>\n
He remembers there being \u201celectricity about when he got the ball\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carey\u2019s hurling coach and retired teacher, John Knox, also reflects on the downfall of his once prodigious pupil.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very capable, very eloquent \u2014 a very clever man. I have nothing but fond memories of DJ.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the lads that hurled with DJ when the bad news broke, they stuck by him, because they said, well, he\u2019s messed up, but we wouldn\u2019t have got where we are without him.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was glad to hear that Carey had pleaded guilty. \u201cHe\u2019s now facing up to the reality because he wasn\u2019t living in the real world up to now. When you have an addiction problem, and obviously, DJ has a type of addiction, you have to face the truth yourself, and hopefully, he will.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he was a hurler, he never failed to take responsibility, standing up at Croke Park to take a penalty shot on an All-Ireland final day. That takes guts. So that if he shows the same type of resilience and determination, and guts, he can get through this.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, anyway, it\u2019s a Shakespearean tragedy, a fatal flaw in a grand person, but it\u2019s of his own making.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first episode of \u2018DJ Carey: The Dodger\u2019 will be broadcast tomorrow night, November 24 at 9.35pm on RT\u00c9 One. Stream the second episode directly after on RT\u00c9 Player or watch on RT\u00c9 One on Monday, December 1 at 9.35pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mix of betrayal, bewilderment and anger among victims in new two-part RT\u00c9 documentary series about the disgraced hurler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-156614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}