Twice an All-Ireland winner with Meath, Graham Geraghty has had one of the more remarkable inter-county football careers.
One of the players featured on the latest series of TG4's Laochra Gael, Geraghty was speaking on Newstalk this afternoon of experiences - positive, and negative - that he was compelled to reconsider for the purposes of the series.
Of those moments Geraghty would rather not consider aloud, the 1999 International Rules series against Australia stands alone.
Found to have directed a racist remark toward the 17-year-old Australian Damien Cupido, Geraghty concedes that as sorry and ashamed as he feels almost two decades on, he is aware "it'll always be there, it'll always follow me around."
With plenty to celebrate in the twenty-plus years he was in and around the Meath senior panel, Geraghty recalls enjoying the attention that came with being one of the country's most well-known sportspeople; "it was good while it lasted."
A bit of an all-rounder who's early performances for Meath would lead to a trial with Arsenal, Geraghty revealed that there is no chance "they would have seen me play soccer ... I hadn't played soccer for a couple of years." However, it panned out, Geraghty was always more determined to carry on his development with Meath.
It wasn't the worst decision he could make.
With his two All-Ireland medals safe and sound at home, Geraghty does concede however that he has little else to remember of his playing days.
Having collected quite a bit of memorabilia throughout his career, it ultimately met an unfortunate end:
I used to have quite a bit up to about two years ago. I was clearing out one of the rooms upstairs and put a lot of jerseys and balls and memorabilia into three or four plastic bags, black bags, and left them in the garage.
My wife was having a spring clean at the same time, so I think they all ended up in the one place I think.
Not really worth thinking about, Geraghty, to his credit, seems to have just about come to terms with it. That being said, there are some incredible items in the hands of some crafty scavengers no doubt:
The big thing for me was a ball I had signed by the seven All-Ireland winning captains for Meath, and sadly some of them are no longer with us.
I had All-Ireland winning balls, had a rugby ball out of the old Lansdowne Road. It came out from under one of the stands ... I think it went back to the 1930s.
