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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Oisin Doherty

Aidan O'Mahony hailed for 'honest' appearance on TG4's Laochra Gael

GAA legend Aidan O'Mahony was praised by viewers for his open and honest appearance on Laochra Gael.

In an emotional hour of television, the Kerry icon recounted tales from his career. After bursting onto the scene in the early noughties, O'Mahony quickly cemented himself as one of the rocks upon which the Kingdom's success was built.

A multiple time All-Ireland winner - And Dancing with the Stars champion - O'Mahony has done it all.

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Man of the Match in the 2006 final, the Rathmore clubman marked Mayo's Ciarán McDonald out of the game as Kerry lifted Sam Maguire once again.

Yet, despite achieving such massive heights, O'Mahony has also experienced devastating lows.

Throughout the programme, O'Mahony openly spoke about some of the toughest moments of his life. As a youngster, he suffered terribly with asthma and on a number of occasions, the breathing condition seemingly through his career into doubt before it ever began.

Even as an established inter-county player, O'Mahony faced difficult times. An assault investigation, which was eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence, stifled O'Mahony's burgeoning career with An Garda Síochána.

There were controversies on the pitch too. There was the infamous 'diving' incident against Cork in the 2007 All Ireland final. Afterwards, Joe Brolly and Colm O'Rourke tore into the defender in their television roles.

In 2008, O'Mahony failed a drugs test and was the first player in history to be brought before the GAA's anti-doping committee.

It was revealed that O'Mahony's inhaler was the cause of the test failure and O'Mahony was subsequently cleared. All of this took a huge toll on Aidan's mental health, and the Kerry man spoke at length about this difficult period, which led to him seeking professional help.

Unsurprisingly, viewers were big fans of O'Mahony's appearance on the show.

"Aidan O'Mahony was definitely one of most underrated players on that Kerry team of that era. Tough, hard as nails and could play. Rolls Royce defender. Redefined the role of a defender," said one Twitter user.

Another sympathised with O'Mahony's asthma issues, saying "I can sympathise with Aidan O'Mahony, I was in and out of hospital a lot as a child with chest and lungs issues. However, we didn't let it define us."

"Aidan O'Mahony is fouling in the All Ireland semi final against Cork, throws the ball at Pierce O'Connor (I think!) Pierce doesn't even flinch, gets the free. If that was nowadays the player would go down like a tonne of bricks," said another.

Another user said, "Tg4 hits the target again with another great laochra Gael. Aidan O'Mahony like me suffers from asthma. can identify with that."

"The clip of Colm O'Rourke saying Aidan O'Mahony had suffered enough after being vilified in media literally seconds after they played O'Rourke himself absolutely rinsing him genuinely just made me spit out my tea laughing," said another.

While one more wrote, "The honesty of Aidan O'Mahony, doing a power of good tonight maith thú."

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