IRELAND
The 42

EDITOR’S NOTE: We caught up with former Dublin goalkeeper John Leonard in October to talk about his extraordinary story of abuse, addiction and Gaelic football. Since then his book Dub Sub Confidential has won the inaugural Setanta Sports Book of the Year and we feel his tale bears repeating.

WE’RE SITTING ON some steps, gazing out across Dublin Bay. It’s late morning and the sun glistens on the water, casting shadows.

John Leonard knows this place well. But it’s complicated. His family home is a five-minute walk away. But high up into the clouds, in the opposite direction, is the imposing spire of St Fintan’s Church. And it was there where Leonard’s childhood was destroyed, his adulthood subsequently descending into a cocktail of wild drug abuse and alcoholism.

He was nine when the prolific paedophile priest Fr. Ivan Payne first sexually abused him. It was years…