so how will you be going tomorrow night first of all

I will be please God yeah yeah I'll be there alright looking forward to it it's going to be an amazing event the whole the whole the whole evening the whole afternoon it's going to be a spectacle to be to behold I think it's unique one of a kind the last time we had boxing in Crowe Park obviously Muhammad Ali back in the 70s so this is unique as I said special and it's a fitting end to a legend that is Katie Taylor

And listen, do you remember, Kenneth, when you first met or when you saw Katie or she came on your radar and you kind of said, oh, this is one to watch?

I always remember Katie coming into the High Performance Unit back in the day.

And I remember her getting into the ring to spar Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlon.

And what I vividly remember is our father telling the two lads not to go easy on him.

I remember the words coming from Pete Tyler, don't go easy on her.

And I watched the guys sparring each other and they went hell for leather.

How did you get on the bill for this festival?

Kevin approached me and asked me a number of months ago would he be interested in coming down to share my story around the journey to the podium and obviously the aftermath and I just think I love sharing my story around the journey and the high performance mindset and what it takes to get to an Olympic podium the more important message I have is the message of falling down and trying to get back up and that's what I had after the Olympic Games that demies into madness and getting the help ask for help reaching out getting recovery and staying sober on a daily basis it's a real mixture of high performance talk recovery talk and mental health and well-being

I was going, oh, are you boxing down the gym? You were Olympic medalist.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I'm quite humble in that sense.

I don't go around shouting from the rooftops that I'm an Olympic medalist.

Like I said earlier on the talk, It's a journey I was on.

I boxed very, very well for those two weeks in August 2008.

[laughs]

Yeah, right? So we're back to Dublin anyway.

But I remember he flew back over because I was thinking, "You know what? I might actually give this a go and see, see what it looks like." And he flew over, and we met in the, in the Clarion Hotel at Liffey Valley there, and he had a big document ready for me to sign, the contract.

And I'm sitting there shaking like a leaf after being on the piss.

And my brother was there, and my coach was there, and he turns up.

And, and at the final hour or the final minute, I said, "Joey, I'm sorry, I just can't sign this.

I, I, I'm not in a position to do this." And he, he was pissed off because he'd flown over from New York.

Of course

The instant

fame, I kind of brought me up a couple of pedestals and I thought, you know, I was living the great life and I got dragged into that whole media circus, if you like, and just the drinking came ticking heavy.

I didn't think about the consequences.

I was just, because I won a silver medal I was allowed to do these things I was allowed to treat myself to go drinking you know that kind of reward and that reward went on too long and the training sessions got shorter the training camps got shorter letting people down and just causing havoc and not facing responsibility that was one thing alcohol gave me was that blanket not to deal with reality I could push things down the road I'll deal with that later Not manning up and not, you know, wearing the mask to pretend it was something else.

And I had to let go of all that when I got sober.

And say, what does Kenny Egan want? What's right for Kenny? Because I was a yes man back then, saying yes to everything.

And causing havoc.

Do you feel fortunate in some ways that it didn't get out of hand even more so in those two years?