'I thought it was the end of me': Jack O'Connor recalls close shave in Kerry waters

Kerry manager Jack O’Connor revealed his son Cian saved a swimmer from drowning near the family home in south Kerry a fortnight ago. O’Connor also recalled his own close shave in the same waters a few years back.

“It’s beautiful, but dangerous,” O’Connor told Helen Ní Shé on An Pod Gaeilge, a Tuairisc.ie podcast, about the sea at St Finian’s Bay. The interview was conducted through Irish.

“I had my own incident a few years ago. It’s really dangerous, not suitable for swimming at all, though it looks lovely. There are always people swimming there, even older people, but one day I myself got into trouble.

“I had just come home from cycling and went in for a quick dip. Before I knew it, I was swept out and spent six minutes in the water. I thought it was the end of me.

“That was two days before the Mayo game a few years ago. It could have been much worse. If I had gone, no one would have known, except the dog. In the end the current pushed me towards the rocks and I scrambled out, badly shaken.

“I could swim, but when you’re exhausted like that, it’s no good. I just let the waves carry me towards the rocks and got out. Since then, I only go into the water for a minute or two, and if I want to swim properly, I go to the pool.”

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O’Connor also addressed criticism of the Kerry team this year, saying it crossed a line from fair comment to personal attack.

“It hits harder when it’s ex-players,” said O’Connor.

“Criticism is fine, and there’s fair criticism, but there’s also criticism that isn’t fair, when it gets personal. I felt that some of the criticism this year was personal.

“Take Darragh Ó Se for example, he was involved in five or six of those All-Ireland titles, two when I was a selector and three when I was manager. I thought maybe it was a bit strange, some of the things he was saying, because he was being very dismissive of the selectors I had and other things like that.

“It’s fine to criticise tactics, or the style of football you’re playing, that’s fair. But when the criticism becomes personal, that crosses a line. At the start of this campaign, that’s what happened. So yes, it affected me, I can’t say it didn’t.

“We were putting in massive effort, even if results weren’t always going our way. It wasn’t from a lack of trying. There’s fair criticism, but there’s also personal attacks, and I think a few people crossed that line.

“I saw something on TG4 last week, one of those who had criticised us was saying afterwards that maybe it would actually help us, that it might motivate the team. Some people might take it that way, but that’s not how it felt at the time. We certainly didn’t think he was trying to help us.”

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