‘WE NEEDED THE SECOND WAGE TO KEEP A ROOF OVER OUR HEADS’ A family illness made football a necessity, I had to make ends meet
CONAN BYRNE had every reason to feel just a little bit pleased with himself around this time last year. He really should have known better. The poster boy for the forwardthinking, progressive League of Ireland footballer, the 32-year-old was held up as the one his peers should try to emulate.
He had a distinguished career behind him. It began with a scholarship and sports management degree from UCD, promotions to the top flight with Sporting Fingal and Shelbourne, a Premier Division winners’ medal with St Patrick’s Athletic, not to mention his two FAI Cup successes with Sporting and the Saints.
He became a club legend at Richmond Park, scoring 77 goals in 251 games. One of which – it just happened to be his 100th League of Ireland goal – came from just inside his own half against Bohemians at Dalymount Park.
Byrne even established ‘The Conan Byrne Zambian Mission’, a charitable project which helped the Presentations Sisters who were working with the disabled children of those in poverty in the southern African nation.
But, more than anything, Byrne’s sense of achievement came from the feeling that he had managed to secure his family’s future by qualifying as a primary school teacher in 2016 and taking up a position at a school in Rush. It followed two years of intense study through Hibernia College and a three-week spell in the Gaeltacht area of Chorca Dhuibhne in Dingle.
‘I was so far out of my comfort zone,’ Byrne laughs. ‘There were five-year-olds around the place with better Irish than me and I was trying to have conversations with them.’
The lightbulb moment that football would not sustain a happy family life came a decade earlier, when Sporting Fingal went to the wall. ‘The secretary came to me at the time, I was working in marketing for the club, and asked if I wanted to do a Master’s degree. I said no. Naively, I was thinking that Sporting Fingal were going to be around forever. Stupid stuff. Less than a year later the club was gone. That is when I got a wake-up call that I have a family and I have to provide for them.’
Partner Amanda and daughters Kayla (eight) and Ellie (five) were now priority No1. A move to St Pat’s coincided with his return to education in 2013, and it was the beginning of a mentally and physically draining two years, as he juggled title challenges and Cup runs with evening classes and weekend practical teaching sessions.
‘I couldn’t afford to go back to college full-time, I just couldn’t do it. You need a supportive club, a supportive manager behind you. It all pushed me harder to show that studying wasn’t a distraction from football, and 2014 was my best year for goals,’ Byrne reflects, on the season he netted 25 times.
‘It was in my head. I thought, “I can’t show people I’m distracted”, especially a manager who has put a lot of faith in me by allowing me do the course. And the players, my team-mates.
‘It wasn’t easy, I was studying, training, there were the children, my partner. Every Saturday, after a match on the Friday night, I had to go do practical sessions around Dublin. I was seriously struggling.
‘Being a professional footballer, just because you’re not in England or a world star doesn’t mean that you don’t treat your job seriously. My mentality towards football; how I prepare, how I try to encourage and try and help young lads – it’s all so important. Whether it’s Barcelona or Shelbourne, it doesn’t matter. That’s what helped a lot, to have that in me. If I didn’t, it would have been very hard to get through it.’
There were also some harsh realities sustaining his dedication. ‘You’re struggling to pay the bills, to pay the rent. I don’t own my house. I’m 33 now. I’ve a family, a partner and two kids.
‘All because of my football career, because I wanted to achieve that, I had to sacrifice stability for them. You can’t be selfish all the time. You have to think of the future. I could have just said, “F**k that, I’ll keep going and be a footballer as long as I can”. I had to go into the teaching. It was a job that I wanted after my Leaving Cert, but I didn’t get the points for college.
‘I had to get myself a good job, get myself permanent so that I can apply for a mortgage and get a proper home for my family. That’s my next step in life, to have a roof over our heads that we can say is ours. To have somewhere my daughters, when they’re older and go off in the world, can always come back to and call “home”. It’s yours, it’s your children’s – that’s what you’re doing it for. I say “I’m”, but it’s “us”, me and Amanda. We’re doing it.’
And then their worlds turned upside down.
‘We were playing Bray away this time last year,’ Byrne begins. ‘Amanda went to the doctor before the game and said she had to go the hospital but it wasn’t that urgent, so off I went for the game. When I came home, she told me, “Actually, it was urgent”. She knew it was serious. I think she was probably conscious of not upsetting me before a match.
‘That’s what footballers’ wives, girlfriends, do. It’s very selfish of us. They come second. Even in terms of holidays, weddings – we haven’t had a family holiday with the kids.
‘Amanda wouldn’t have wanted to worry me for the game. Then once I got back she said, “Right, we’re going to the hospital in the morning”. That’s her. She’s so brave, an unbelievable woman.’
The next morning they arrived at Beamount.
‘Within five minutes she was hooked up to a machine,’ Byrne continues. ‘We were nearly going to be sent home. The pains she was having – it was a 99 per cent chance that they were bad migraines and one per cent chance that it was something else. That’s when she was sent up for the tests and it came back that she had a stroke. There was a clot on the brain. We were stunned. How do you even deal with it?’ Byrne, co-host of the podcast
Greatest League in the World, tried to return to normal life straight away as Amanda began weeks of treatment and recuperation in hospital. ‘I went into the studio to record on the Sunday, explained the situation to Liam [Buckley, former St Pat’s manager] after that and then went into school on Monday morning saying to myself, “F**k, how do I do this?” I was in a new job and didn’t want them to think I was taking the p**s. So I went to one of the other teachers and said, “Look, this is what happened. I don’t think I’m in a position to teach to my optimum level. Is it ok if I give them a lot of work to do and help them along the way rather than teach them”.
‘He was like, “What are you doing here?” He walked me up to principal and because I had been so busy, just trying to continue as normal, I broke down in tears as soon as I sat down and said it to him. It was the first time I processed it. Amanda is such a hard worker herself, she’s so dedicated she was like, “P**s off and go to work!”’ Byrne laughs. When the big snow of last year arrived, the schools closed and getting into hospital became even harder – not that it stopped Byrne. Amanda contracted bird flu, which led to her being put in isolation, but by the middle of the year she was home and stepping up her recovery.
The Pat’s players were aware of the situation, both sets of parents have rallied to help with the children, but Byrne still only missed a couple of training sessions. It was more than fear driving him on.
‘It was necessity,’ he insists. ‘I couldn’t give up football. With rent in Dublin we needed the second income to keep a roof over our heads. No matter what I was going to be professional because, if I dropped off, would a club want me if I wasn’t performing?’ Byrne, who has returned to Shels in the First Division for the 2019 season, adds.
‘But we are blessed. Amanda has had it tough and I’m incredibly proud of her. She’s getting there. Whatever I’m going through, she’s going through things 1,000 times worse. It’s positive now and I can’t wait for the season.’