40 years ago today, Seamus Darby scored the most famous goal Gaelic football has ever seen; the one which ended Kerry's hopes of five All-Ireland titles in a row.
In his Laochra Gael episode which originally aired in 2019, the Offaly man remembered that late strike in the 1982 All-Ireland final.
"Tommy [Doyle] is 6' 3" - he's a big man - and I was caught behind him. I'm trying to get out, to get in front. At the last minute, I thought Tommy had gone too far.
"I actually thought Charlie Nelligan was nearer to me - I thought he'd left the line and was on the way out to fist the ball. He hadn't.
"What I was trying to do was put it under the bar but over his head.
"I would have jumped over the moon at that stage. I was fuckin' high as a kite."
Health and safety - surely an alien notion anyway in Ireland at the time - went out the window during the celebrations later that night. At their team hotel, Darby remembers being thrown so high by a crowd of supporters that his face hit the ceiling of the banquet room.
For one Kerryman, Darby cost him more than All-Ireland victory celebrations.
This fella came over to me and he says to me, ‘You fuckin’ cost me a fortune. I’d every caravan in Ballybunion stuffed with Kerry five-in-a-row jerseys.' And he said, 'You, you little cunt, you come on and score a goal and fuck me up.'
I asked, 'What did you do with them?' He said, 'I'll tell you. I put RIP at the bottom of them and headed for Tullamore and I sold most of them on the Monday night.'
"In '72, I would have been a young bloke and I wasn't the one that people wanted to see," continues Darby.
"Then in '82, I would have been one of the lads who was invited here, there and everywhere. I said to myself, 'Well I'm going to enjoy it anyway' and I did."
One newspaper headline from the time told of Darby saying his life had turned into a nightmare. A popular man, he was still out five nights a week seven months after the final.
In 1978, Darby had sold his house in Rhode and bought some property in Edenderry. He had renovated the building and turned it into retail spaces which he rented out. Amid the economic depression of the 1980s, Darby did not realise how lucky he was.
He made a bad move, buying a pub in Borrisokane.
I bought it anyway and I put up my own place as collateral. I'd no problem getting money because the premises in Edenderry was worth eight times more than what I was looking for.
I knew after two weeks that I was in serious trouble. I wasn't able to pay the bills and keep stock in. I was there for about a year and a receiver was appointed. I offered him the rents of the shops, whatever rent was being brought in, which was good. I said, 'You can take it until the pub is paid for. Sell the pub in the meantime and get rid of it.'
I went up to him in his office in Clontarf and he wouldn't have any of it. He made a laugh at me, really, which is what he did.
At that time my wife, she got a brain haemorrhage. I explained to him, 'I'm in a serious situation. I have three young kids.' He sat in front of me and said, 'Since when did you start worrying about your wife?'
In search of work, he moved to London. There, ironically, he became a bar manager.
"I had to go to England and the marriage then drifted away, drifted apart.
"I slept with my clothes on under a radiator in a pub that was closed up. I’d lost everything at that stage. I came from a big high to a very low place.
"There were frightening times and you'd just have to do it if you were running the pub.
"There were lads looking for protection money - Limerick lads - tough, hardy skins. I said, 'No,' wouldn't give it, 'Can't afford it, anyway.'
"I got a gun pulled on my in Barking. This man had fire in his eyes and he was fuckin' going to get rid of me. A mate of mine Mike McGuinness was working there, he'd come over from Edenderry, he was going through bad times as well. He talked him out of it.
"They'd usually be shitholes, really. I got this place, the Prince Regent. The carpet on it was black. I spent two weeks on my knees scrubbing it - I had no money to put down new carpet. I got the pub going fairly good and I was there for eight years."
In 2002, his life rebuilt, Darby returned home and purchased the Greyhound Bar in Toomevara.
He had a health scare three years ago when diagnosed with prostate cancer but has since recovered.
"I'm in a good place now. I had more than my fair share of knocks. Thank God, I'm alive to tell the tale. I'm in a good place with my kids. I'm in a good place with Veron, my ex-wife. I'm in a good place with all my brothers and sisters.
"I'm very happy with my life right now."
Picture credit: Colman Doyle
