Jayo by Jason Sherlock

Author:Jason Sherlock [Sherlock, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

13

The Lost Years

It was late winter 1997, two years on from our All-Ireland success, and I was still looking for answers.

I wasn’t sure what was next. I had started just two meaningful GAA games in two years and had nothing to show for them. We were beaten in both and from a sporting point of view that was just unacceptable.

Meanwhile, on the soccer front, the spoils of victory from that 1995 title win had stalled my progress. I still felt I could play both sports at elite level and would switch from one to the other in hope of finding some bit of spark. At the same time, I lacked clarity and fitness. I often wondered where I was going.

Before Jack Charlton and Maurice Setters moved away from the international set-up, Maurice, then Ireland’s under-21 manager, had told journalists I was talented enough to go all the way to the top in England but that I had to choose one code: ‘Part of Jason’s problem in the past was that he never seemed sure which sport he wanted to play,’ said Setters. ‘But he appears to be ready to concentrate on soccer and if he does the sky’s the limit. He’s strong and he’s pacy. And he has the intuitive skills of the striker in knowing where exactly the net is in every situation.’

Almost two seasons had slipped by since Maurice uttered those words and I still had no clear view of the road ahead. The only certainty was that my potential wasn’t increasing. I wondered if there was a bigger picture out there.

During the summer of 1997, after we had been beaten by Meath in the Leinster Championship, I headed off to Boston with the intention of playing Gaelic football over there. I ended up getting a job in a bar and playing some social soccer with a team called Bohemians FC based in South Boston. I got a job in one of Joe Dunne’s bars. Joe was a Finglas man and his cousin was married to one of the McCormacks who run Hanlons bar so that was the connection. He and his wife Gaye and their son Cillian looked after me so well for my stay and we had a great summer. To this day Joe commutes between Dublin and Boston. He has three bars over there and has built a great life for himself.

I loved the city and the craic and it was a few months that I wouldn’t forget. But when I got home to Dublin and winter set in I found myself struggling. I went through some dark times. I didn’t like what my life had become and I began looking for a way out.

I was all over the shop. I didn’t have a normal day job, there was no progress with Dublin or UCD and I was nowhere near the levels I’d reached in 1995. And I had a lifestyle that wasn’t conducive to ever getting back to those levels.

One night in January 1998 I was out drinking with a friend.

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