THE ’82 GOAL THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
Darby looks back on denying Kerry five-in-a-row
THE closer that Dublin get to an All-ireland final and five-in-arow, the more Seamus Darby expects his phone to ring.
But he’s not short of attention in the meantime anyway. Darby has often pointed out how not a day goes by without someone mentioning his last gasp goal for Offaly that denied Kerry history in 1982.
During Christmas, the excellent ‘Players of the Faithful’ documentary featuring Darby and other key Offaly players from that All-ireland final was aired on RTE and next Wednesday night the Rhode man will get the Laochra Gael treatment on TG4.
Life didn’t run smoothly for Darby on the back of scoring that goal. His marriage broke down and he endured business difficulties before spending some years in London.
He now runs the Greyhound Bar in Toomevara, Co Tipperary.
But he insists: “I didn’t have a bad time after it. Sure, it was a great time. I had a bad time after it business-wise. I bought a place down in Borrisokane in Tipperary and to this day I don’t know what possessed me. That was a terrible mistake and I lost everything. That was a bad business mistake.”
Loose assumptions that he’d prefer not to have scored it given the turn his life took are well wide of the mark, however. Of course, it’s a positive thing.
Darby said: “It’s an All-ireland final. The way it happened and panned out with Kerry going for a five-in-a-row, it was probably even better than a normal final.
“It’s great to win any All-ireland final but on this occasion it was really special and to do it with the last kick of the ball and being down a couple of points.”
If another Seamus Darby figure emerges to dash Dublin’s hopes later this year, what would his advice to him be?
He said: Just enjoy it. What happened in my case didn’t happen before and I didn’t do too much wrong, really.”