The GAA Social: Philly McMahon - 'I was always me. I was never somebody else'

Philly McMahon (centre) has joined BBC Sport NI's Championship punditry team this year

"The crucial thing is that I can walk away from my sport and be who I was. You either like it or you lump it. I was always me. I was never somebody else."

In terms of his GAA career, Philly McMahon doesn't appear to do regrets.

He may have been portrayed as a GAA hardman during a Dublin football career that saw him win eight All-Ireland senior medals and while he would contend that there was a bit more to his game than unsettling opponents, he can see where the description comes from.

After all, he admits there was almost a sense that he had to live up to the image.

Probably the most notorious incident McMahon was involved in during his career came in the 2015 All-Ireland Final when Kerry star Kieran Donaghy claimed that he was eye-gouged by the Dublin corner-back.

Recalling the controversy on The GAA Social this week, McMahon, who made quite an impression this year in his new role as one of BBC Sport NI's Championship punditry team, recalls that "I put my hand where it shouldn't have been".

"I put my hand in to get the ball, his face was there and I grabbed his face.

"It wouldn't have been something I would have thought about doing. It's a split-second thing."

Kerry star Kieran Donaghy accused McMahon of eye-gouging in the 2015 All-Ireland Football Final

Asked whether he now regrets the incident, McMahon hesitated before replying: "I was very impressed with Donaghy. He was like me: loved by his county but hated by the rest of the country.

"The way he took it afterwards. He came out and said 'it's done, it's dealt with'. I have huge respect with him from that point of view.

"What do you regret for? I didn't hurt the fellow. We won the All-Ireland and I did my job that day.

"If I'd hurt the fellow, I definitely would have regrets but I'd have no problem saying 'hello' to that fellow in the street and shaking his hand and talking GAA war stories with him."

But the Donaghy controversy only gave more oxygen to McMahon's hatchet man image and in the aftermath, his fellow Ballymun Kickhams club-man and the former Cavan manager Val Andrews quietly advised him that a rethink was needed.

'You don't have to do those things any more'

"Val, who is a club legend of ours, said to me: 'You actually don't have to do those things any more. The perception out there is that you're a tough marker without having to do any of that'.

"It took me a while to accept that he was probably right and that I could play football."

2015 was a lively summer and early autumn for McMahon with Mayo's Aidan O'Shea having also accused him of a headbutt in the drawn All-Ireland semi-final.

Give a dog a bad name.

"There were incidents with other players which I didn't do. There was a player [O'Shea] who blamed me for loafing him in a game where he actually pulled me, only for the camera angle showing that he pulled my jersey.

"That stuff I'm not too kind of happy about.

"I was never someone who would come out after an incident and say 'he broke my finger by pulling it or he did this to me'.

"If you give it, you've got to take it. That's probably the annoying part about the incident with Aidan O'Shea. It's not the incident itself it's what happened afterwards."

Philly McMahon's 2015 season for Dublin included hitting 1-2 in the All-Ireland semi-final replay win over Mayo and some felt he should have been named footballer of the year

More than a few people told McMahon that the Donaghy controversy, in particular, cost him the footballer of the year honour in 2015 which went to team-mate Jack McCaffrey, although his performances meant that he couldn't be denied one of the two All-Star awards that he picked up during his 13-year Dublin career.

After all, the corner-back had hit 1-2 himself in the replay win over Mayo when again subduing O'Shea before going on to keep Colm Cooper scoreless in the All-Ireland decider.

Dublin's 2015 triumph began an unprecedented run of six straight Sam Maguire Cup wins and McMahon was involved in every one of them before retiring in December 2021 after the Dubs' run of success was finally halted.

All the while during the final years of his Dublin career, McMahon worked as a strength and conditioning coach at Shamrock Rovers before taking up a role as first-team performance coach with another League of Ireland club Bohemians.

His entrepreneurial acumen also saw him setting up a high-profile gym business and other ventures, while the married father-of-one also finds time to give talks all over the the country on mental health and addiction.

Heroin addict brother died in 2012

The later issue was very close to home for much of his life as his brother John battled a heroin addition for many years before dying in 2012.

"That made me not want to be around him. It made me not want to be in the family home because of that. I was embarrassed, angry at what was going on in his life and that pushed me further into sport.

"On the pitch, if you hate me, I'm doing something whether it be right or wrong. If you liked me the same thing but I think the work I've done around the county giving talks around mental health and addiction they see a different side to me and possibly understand that I've had an alter ego and that on the pitch was different to off the pitch."

McMahon grew up in a four-storey block of flats in Ballymun on the north side of Dublin, but, despite the area's well-publicised deprivations, insists that he had "a great upbringing" as the product of a Belfast father and Dublin mother.

"I loved the flats….if you had offered me a mansion with six bedrooms in a really nice area in Dublin, I wouldn't have taken it instead of my flat.

"It's very important for me never to tell the rags to riches story because our parents gave us everything in terms of my family and my siblings.

"Ballymun was a great community. There was a great connection in the community because people lived very close to each other.

"People think Ballymun is such a bad area on the basis of the stories that they hear about it but most of the people in Ballymun will tell you the opposite."

McMahon's late father hailed from Belfast and as a youngster, the Dublin great regularly attended matches at Casement Park

McMahon's late father Phil had hailed from Lenadoon in west Belfast and joined the IRA after being shot by the British Army before eventually taking up residency in Ballymun as an 'on-the-run' following his escape from Newry Courthouse in March 1975.

McMahon admits that his Belfast connections mean that Antrim is probably the only county he would consider working with outside of his beloved Dublin.

"As a kid going up to watch my cousin playing gaelic football, being around Casement Park when it was active, was something I was deeply connected with so right now, that's probably the only other county I have a gra for."

However it's surely inevitable that this go-getter's passion and work ethic will, sooner or later, see him involved with the Dublin set-up.

"If I managed the Dublin minors or under-16s team I'd be happy with that. It [the senior post] is a big job.

"It's top of the chain in terms of management and what you have to bring. I'm definitely too connected to be involved with Dublin at this stage in terms of who I played with and stuff like that.

"Who knows what the future holds but I'm definitely intrigued by management and coaching.

"From a very young age, I've been a sponge looking at what different coaches bring into a set-up and not just from the point of view of tactics but how they teach, how they mould, how they listen…..all of those traits are very important."

Dublin will surely be missing a trick if they don't get the eight-time All-Ireland winner involved at some stage.