Ní Bhraonáin says she came to believe Carey developed a disturbing obsession with illness and mortality.
Hurling icon DJ Carey has claimed the convicted fraudster “probably doesn’t even know how much he took” according to the author of a new book — and she believes the real total could be close to €2 million.
Eimear Ní Bhraonáin, whose book The Dodger was released this week, says there are “more victims beyond those mentioned in court” and that many are still coming forward.
“I know these people,” she said. “The total figure in court was around €400,000, but that’s only what was proven. He made small efforts to pay some of that back, but the true figure is higher.
“I would say DJ Carey probably does not even know how much he took. I would say €2 million is not wide off the mark.”
Ní Bhraonáin said that since the publication of her book, new people have contacted her admitting they also gave money to the former Kilkenny star, who falsely claimed to be terminally ill.
“Every time I spoke to someone who had their reasons for not going public about their donations, I asked them, ‘How much did you give him? Show me.’ And every figure I got, I added up,” she said.
“Even since this book has been published, even today, I’ve had people contact me to say, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you at the time but I gave Carey €5,000.’”
Ní Bhraonáin says Carey’s reputation as one of Ireland’s greatest hurlers gave him credibility that most fraudsters could only dream of.
“DJ had a lot of male acquaintances, and they adored him,” she said. “They had a blind loyalty to him.”
She added that Carey “preyed on the weak and the dying”, often asking to visit people who were seriously ill.
“He asked to visit people,” Ní Bhraonáin said. “Sometimes people refused. They felt uneasy about it. Others thought, ‘What a nice guy! He wants to visit my sick relative who has multiple myeloma.’
“I know at least one case where he sat down, the good china came out, he had the biscuits — and he told heartbreaking details about his illness. He shared, almost swapped notes, with someone who had the same illness and who subsequently died.”
She said this was not an isolated case. “People told me stories like this. There was a pattern. This one stands out, but there are so many similar stories.”
Ní Bhraonáin says she came to believe Carey developed a disturbing obsession with illness and mortality.
“I became aware that DJ had a morbid fascination with death, with visiting people who were sick or dying,” she said. “If he found out you had a relative with cancer, he took a huge interest in that. And I would ask why?”
She pauses before answering her own question.
“Was he being a nice guy? Or did he have an ulterior motive? We know now he was a cunning cancer conman.
“I can’t say why he visited the sick and the dying, but he took such an interest that, in my view, he was gathering up information to help him continue his deceit of good and innocent people.”
Ní Bhraonáin said the publication of The Dodger has divided the local community in Kilkenny, where Carey remains both a fallen idol and a source of pain.
“Locally, the reaction has been divided,” she said. “People are aware of DJ Carey’s deception now, whereas before all the facts came out in court, there was still some reluctance to believe it.
“Remember, many of his victims were close to home. Many people who didn’t complain to Gardaí but who had been deceived by DJ Carey live in his own community.”
She says that even now, for many, accepting what he did is difficult. “It’s a very bitter pill to swallow because he was our local hero — and all the things we heard about him were true. He was an exceptional hurler. He did things on the pitch we hadn’t seen before.
“He had speed on the pitch, charisma off it, and he was an accessible hero. That was why we liked him. We could see him. We could talk to him. We felt he was one of us.
“So people in the GAA community in Kilkenny were very protective of him. He is their hero.”
• The Dodger written by Eimear Ní Bhraonáin is available in bookshops and online
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