Profile Jason Sherlock - evergreen Dublin footballer and sole survivor from the 1995 championship-winning side. He has overcome many obstacles over the years, including politicking within GAA circles and racial abuse. His persistence could see the Dubs icon go out on a high, writes Tom Humphries
In the autobiography of former Dublin goalkeeper John O'Leary, there is a picture taken in the Green Isle Hotel in 1983. O'Leary is eating dinner and beside him with a look of intense concentration is Jason Sherlock. Sherlock is waiting for O'Leary to sign his autograph book. He is wearing his Communion suit and rosette.
Dublin won the All-Ireland football title in 1983 and it would be 12 years before they would do so again. By then John O'Leary was the sole surviving member of the 1983 All-Ireland-winning side. And Jason Sherlock was the superstar of that championship.
It's 11 years now since that magical summer of 1995, and once again famine followed the feast. Tomorrow, when Dublin play Mayo in an attempt to reach their first final in 11 years, Jason Sherlock will be the sole survivor, the only man on the field with an All-Ireland senior medal.
The summer of Jayo. If he couldn't claim to have single-handedly won Dublin their first All-Ireland title in 12 years he could claim that his arrival was the tipping point for a dogged team that had become more celebrated for its near misses than its modest successes.
Sherlock brought a new energy to the game. He played unconventionally and with bravery. He scored spectacular scores and played with an enthusiasm that was infectious. He got fouled and when the free was awarded could be seen winking as he got to his feet again. He kissed a referee. He was a darling of Hill 16 and a fixture on the back pages of Dublin's evening papers.
That year the Dublin All-Ireland press night deteriorated into a shambles, so great was the volume of fans who turned up to touch the hem of Jason's garment. The traditional challenge game played for the benefit of Goal in the week after the All-Ireland final had to be abandoned early when fans climbed the wires in Croke Park to get to Sherlock.
The player himself used to tell a story about a priest in Campile, Co Wexford speaking to a young congregation at Mass in the week of US president Bill Clinton's historic first visit to Ireland in December 1995.
"Now then, boys and girls," said the priest, "we had a very special visitor amongst us this week. He came to us with a message and made a very great impression on all of us. He was an historic visitor. Can you tell me who that man was, girls and boys?"
"Jayo, Father. Jayo."
Sherlock had presented medals in the local community hall the previous Sunday.
He used to tell that story for a short while but he doesn't any more. He imposed a moratorium on himself telling stories about the summer of 1995 when he looked around the Dublin dressing room and realised that the survivors from that summer were virtually extinct. As he has done so often on the field, he fashioned his contributions to what was directly useful to the team. The past wasn't useful.
TO THOSE OUTSIDE the GAA, Sherlock is one of those players who is often held up as a specimen of Ireland's multiculturalism. The supposition is that the colour of Sherlock's skin was a culture shock for a supposedly hidebound outfit of rednecks such as the GAA.
Sherlock makes little of it and apart from the odd word whispered in his ear from defenders who have a licence to provoke, his background has never been an issue.
He has run into problems, certainly, but these have been mostly to do with the resentment caused by the celebrity thrust upon him in 1995 and with his interest in other sports.
In 1995, despite having illuminated the championship with his play, his fellow inter-county players (who had by then hijacked the scheme from the journalists who founded it) declined to vote him onto the GAA All Stars team of that year.
In 1997 he was the victim in an unsavoury incident when he was spat at by a county official at a Dublin under-21 game in Parnell Park. Sherlock was by then on a soccer scholarship to UCD, which limited his availability to the Dublin under-age set up. He had arrived in Parnell Park, unable to play but wishing to support his comrades. The official took exception. Sherlock wrote a letter of complaint to the Dublin county board and after much politicking the official was eventually suspended for two months.
Sherlock attended St Vincent's CBS in Glasnevin where he began a basketball career that would see him represent Ireland at many levels. He won a schools All-Ireland at the sport and attended a prestigious basketball camp in Philadelphia, a recruiting ground for US colleges. He was voted Most Valuable Player in two weeks out of the four he was there, but he returned home. The Dubs monopolised his dreams.
He played soccer too. He would play for UCD and later Shamrock Rovers, winning an Irish under-21 cap against Austria. His heart wasn't in it to the same degree, though. As a kid he would spend the summer months staying with his uncle in the north Cork village of Ballyhea, for which he starred as a footballer and a hurler through all the under-age grades. In Ballyhea they still say that Sherlock was always a better hurler than footballer.
It was in Cork, too, that he learned to deal with the issue of racial abuse. He was playing an under-14 league game and, as was his wont, he was destroying the other team. The combination of Sherlock's Dublin lineage and slightly Asian features was too much, and soon little shards of racial abuse were in the air.
There was a fight, Sherlock almost out of control with rage and frustration. When the fight had died down, Ballyhea took him off the field to cool down and his uncle Eddie chastised him severely for having become involved. They remember Jason Sherlock sitting alone on the sideline crying his heart out. They note that it was also the last time that anybody saw him respond to baiting.
Eleven years ago the GAA had an opportunity to make Jason Sherlock its poster boy, an ambassador for the game. He was an icon. Instead the GAA baulked and chafed at Sherlock's popularity. He was almost lost to soccer as resentment and mistrust ate away at his morale.
When the sniping and carping started, even his most fervent admirers wouldn't have bet on him being the one for the long road. He has put his head down, though, and become a model Gaelic footballer. Between work with Musgraves, Sherlock trains by himself in the gym every day as well as three or four sessions a week with the Dubs and a busy career with his club, Na Fianna. If you want to teach a young player about hard work on the field and selflessness with the ball, ask the child to watch Jason Sherlock for 70 minutes tomorrow.
THE GAME WITH Mayo will be Sherlock's 49th championship appearance for Dublin. An All-Ireland final with Kerry would bring him to the half-century mark and, if he has a mind for retirement, would bookend an epic career perfectly.
The terraces may not ring any longer to the anthem of 1995, "Boom, Boom, Boom, Let Me Hear You Say Jay-Oh", but his place in Dublin folklore is assured, and his persistence and excellence have won over the doubters. He is worshipped from Hill 16.
And the parish priest of Campile might smile at what happened early this year with the Schools Business Partnership, an organisation that pretty much does what it says on the label. The partnership had a ceremony celebrating the achievements of those in 13 different companies who had been mentoring students.
They needed a recognisable face to help out. Jason Sherlock's face came free of charge and so did the advice. He spoke eloquently about where he had come from and the problems he had overcome. There were a couple of kids in attendance who had dropped out of school and out of the programme. They listened and approached Sherlock afterwards and vowed to return to school.
Eleven years on. He hasn't lost it.
TheSherlockFile
Who is he? Jason Sherlock, Dublin footballer
Why is he in the news? Leads the Dublin forward line in tomorrow's All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo
Most appealing characteristic: Hard work and persistence
Least appealing characteristic: He's a Dublin footballer - it's all good
Most likely to say: "Sorry, I have no tickets left"
Least likely to say: "It's only a game"