As a kid, Philly McMahon and his friends used to see who could kick the ball highest against the side of Ballymun’s tallest tower block.
“At a lot of clubs you’d have to go down to practice,” says McMahon, standing outside the last remaining tower, as a demolition crane drills away at the upper storeys.
“We’d a big advantage here. We’d try and kick it as high as we could . . . At that age I’d get it up to the 11th floor, which isn’t bad going. The odd time it would go through a window into someone’s flat. Nobody minded.”
As we speak, a small group gathers. Kids from the youth club take photos and hunt for an autograph. Cars slow down and words of encouragement are shouted from open windows. As a three-time All-Ireland winner, McMahon is a role model and inspiration for a new generation of young people in a community that has struggled with the stigma of drugs, crime and deprivation.
A major regeneration project – including 2,000 new homes, a civic centre, swimming pool and health clinic – has helped change the face of the area. But young people still face obstacles.
"A lot of young people still have a low opinion of themselves," says Dave Sheridan, a long-time youth worker who recalls working with McMahon as a youngster at the Ballymun Regional Youth Resource.
“There are self-esteem issues. But the young lads now have someone who can succeed. He’s at the very top. When we say to them, ‘He was one of you’, they go ‘Wow’. It means a lot. He’s raised their expectations.”
McMahon grew up in a four- storey block of flats on Sillogue Avenue, just around the corner.
He is fiercely proud of the area. He rejects labels for the area such as “disadvantaged” and “socially excluded”.
“To me they’re negative words. They’re used by people outside the area rather than inside . . . Like every area there are issues that need to be addressed. But I grew up here, I love it, it was a brilliant place for me. I’m happy here.”
When he goes to local schools, he tells the kids that anything is possible if they are dedicated enough.
Lives wrecked by addiction
Choices are crucial. Making the right choice can be the difference between life and death. It's why he tells them about his older brother, John Caffrey.
“Of the group that he hung around with, I’d say 90 per cent became drug addicts.”
Many ended up in prison, some overdosed and other struggled through of lives wracked by addiction. His brother was one of them. Even in the midst of his own troubles, McMahon’s brother warned him to stay away from drugs.
Caffrey battled addiction and eventually got clean. A life of addiction took its toll. He died in 2012, at the age of 31, of a heart condition.
McMahon took a different route. He joined an under-10s team in Ballymun Kickhams and thrived. He didn’t smoke or drink. He concentrated on football, obsessively so.
As he got older, the players on the team – many from Glasnevin and surrounding areas – were talking about Leaving Cert points and college. “I thought: ‘Why can’t I do that as well?’. . . I remember one of the group near the flats. said: ‘There’s no way you’re going to college’ . . . That guy is in prison for murder.”
McMahon is now a college graduate, the first of his family.
He’s a successful entrepreneur and owns three gyms, as well as “Fitfood”, which provides delivery meals for healthy eaters. He is also determined to do what he can for the community. Two years ago he helped set up a scheme which provided a course in fitness training that guided local people into jobs.
Scholarship fundraiser
When State funding ran out this year, he decided to raise money from private sources and will help host a major fundraiser for the John Caffrey scholarship next month.
“The aim is to give opportunities to people who are struggling and to make people feel comfortable in an academic situation,” McMahon says.
He is acutely aware that in his work as a footballer, he is representing not just his county, but his community.
He’s an unashamedly physical player – sometimes excessively so – and has been at the centre of controversy, most recently with allegations of eye- gouging in the All-Ireland final.
He rejects the accusations and doesn’t care what others think.
“I play the game on the line,” he says. “I get stuck in. I like the physical challenge. But that’s not me. . . It’s not my style. We were winning comfortably. I was playing a good game, there was no need to do something like that. There was no intention, it’s not my style.”
Ballymun, meanwhile, faces a new crossroads. Many gleaming facilities abound, but key parts of the regeneration plan remain unfulfilled.
The dilapidated Ballymun Town Centre is a reminder that plans for a major shopping centre – including a cinema, bowling alley, public library, creche and restaurants – have not been realised. Most retailers in the centre have shut up shop. Early last year it lost its anchor tenant, Tesco.
McMahon – who lives close by – says that with continued investment and support there’s no reason that a new generation of young people won’t have a brighter future. “The challenge is to keep people here who are successful. We need to get the truth out about Ballymun. We need to get the message out that this is a successful community. It’s buzzing.”
