Listen to the full speech by Davy Fitzgerald above via the GAA podcast
Clare senior hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald has revealed that some players on past Clare teams used to drink alcohol and take "harder stuff than drink".
Speaking to students aged 16 to 19 at Limerick Institute of Technology, the All Ireland-winning manager spoke about a range of issues.
"I questioned them and I said do we really need alcohol and do you need to take substances that will make you feel better. We teased it out, we spent three hours out in Bunratty teasing it out. We decided we were going to stand up and draw a line under it and say 'No'. We decided we were going to come to training and enjoy ourselves and were going to communicate with each other. We want to enjoy what we do," said Fitzgerald.
In an inspirational speech, which you can listen to above, the former goalkeeper also revealed his harrowing experience as a victim of bullying at school and how sport saved his life.
"I got bullied badly when I was in secondary school. It was probably the toughest time in my life. I used to dread getting up in the mornings and going out on the bus, absolutely dread it. I used to sit on the second seat from the front nearly all the time. There was seven or eight guys who used to be laughing at me," said Fitzgerald.
"They'd hit me on the back of the head. They would pull my hair. They put egg on my head. They would pull me back to the back seat - the bus driver wouldn't know anything about it - they'd open my shirt and start painting on my body. I got my shoes thrown out the bus window. I felt absolutely so low and I tried to figure out what this was all about.
"I went home with a black eye and bruised ribs. I never told my mam or dad anything. To this day I don't understand bullying. I cannot understand how people are so insensitive. I cannot understand how you would single someone out and do that. It just doesn't make sense."
The three-time All Star told the audience that sport was the "one thing that kept me going through the bullying".
