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Post by KerryLad on Oct 5, 2010 9:59:12 GMT
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Post by glengael on Oct 5, 2010 10:18:08 GMT
A Currow legend gone. Sad news indeed this fine morning. May he rest in peace.
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animal
Fanatical Member
Posts: 1,931
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Post by animal on Oct 5, 2010 11:23:50 GMT
I'd heard he was very ill. Sad to hear of the passing of a true giant.
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Post by Crokerman on Oct 5, 2010 12:22:24 GMT
Farewell to a Giantwww.irishexaminer.com/sport/blog/post/2010/10/05/Farewell-to-a-Giant.aspx October 5, 2010 12:38 by Michael Michael Moynihan on the passing of Moss Keane EVENTUALLY the sporting heroes you had as a child let you down. Their hair goes grey. They thicken around the middle. Worst of all, some even speak kindly of once-bitter enemies. When your correspondent was a child, for instance, rugby was largely a private affair between the clubs with the occasional international on television – a time when there were only five nations, not six, in the annual tournament – there weren’t many players with instant recognisability, and even fewer who were known by their first name. Moss Keane was one of them. There were identifiable national traits, certainly: to a kid watching the games on television in the springtime, the Scots always had someone with a tragic moustache who couldn’t help scoring tries against Ireland. The English invariably had someone with blond hair playing the back division. The Welsh won most of the times. The French medical officer usually combined a blazer, shirt and tie with natty shorts when he skipped out to reattach a finger to one of his hulking countrymen. Moss Keane embodied a certain kind of Irish mentality, tucking the ball under his arm and charging into serried ranks of Saxons/Gauls/whatever you’re having yourself. It contributed to an image of reckless bravado, as did some of his quips: when his head was opened in an international he suggested someone bring out a bucket to catch the blood for black puddings. But when the wheel eventually turned and Ireland collected a long-overdue Triple Crown in 1982, he was one of the mainstays of the team; to a kid watching on the television there was something surreal about an Irish team celebrating on the field at the final whistle rather than trudging off shaking their heads. The giant Kerryman, who passed away yesterday, had a staggering sporting CV: British and Irish Lion, All Black scalp with Munster in 1978, and a Triple Crown in 1982. Fifty-one caps when fifty-one caps were hard-earned rather than collected over 18 months or so, which seems to be the norm nowadays. Factor in the Gaelic football honours, playing with Kerry at U21 and junior level and pocketing a Cork county championship medal with UCC and you get some idea of the talent. For a notion of the man, there are better witnesses than your correspondent, but a passage from Eddie O’Sullivan’s recent autobiography has stayed with us. The evening before O’Sullivan’s debut for Munster against Connacht, Keane brought the Youghal man for a stroll along the promenade to calm his nerves, a thoughtful invitation from a legend to an unknown, and decades later it was still fresh in O’Sullivan’s mind. If that didn’t square with the view of Keane as a jolly rogue, neither did the slew of first-class honours he collected in college, or the master’s degree he picked up. A thoughtful autobiography was another surprise to those who took the image at face value; the book was also candid about the toll taken by a terrible assault suffered in the early nineties in Dublin. Not all the sporting heroes you had as a child let you down. Some of them you admire even more when you grow up.
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Post by Dermot on Oct 5, 2010 14:57:39 GMT
Very sorry to hear this ... I remember well watching the internationals of the late seventies and early eighties ... especially one year when he scored a try (or at least thats what the aul memory is telling me).
Apparently he was a great character as well. ... 62 is too young to go !
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Post by himself on Oct 5, 2010 15:11:04 GMT
""Now at the same time I used cut turf up in the Dublin mountains. Well, this year didn't I already have it cut and bagged and in 150 yards off the road because otherwise it'd be robbed. There were 300 or 400 bags and I was going to use that for a bit of exercise myself later on in the year. But sure I was on crutches now. So what happens? We organise four or five cars, bring the under-19s up the Dublin mountains, got them to bring it all onto a trailer. Mickey Quinn ran the s**t out of them. By the time they were finished we put them in the car and got them to take it all off and put it into the back of the house. And against all the odds won the cup. One of the most enjoyable things I ever did, to see those guys winning something because they were all rejects from Blackrock and UCD and we beat the two of them.""
Taken from an RTE interview
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Post by aranteorainn on Oct 5, 2010 16:14:54 GMT
A legend not only in Kerry but everywhere.
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Post by misteallaigh abú on Oct 5, 2010 16:41:05 GMT
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal. Sad to hear of the great man's passing.
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Post by dastriker on Oct 5, 2010 17:39:19 GMT
RIP....a giant of a man, gone but wont be forgotten!!
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Post by veteran on Oct 5, 2010 18:58:36 GMT
Like everybody else, I am truly saddened to hear of the death of Moss. I did not know know him well but I had the privilege of being in his company on a couple of occasions. A more amiable and a more genuinely humble man one could not meet.
Everybody knows that Moss was a physical giant but, perhaps, a lot of people may not know that he was a also a intellectual giant, sailing through with honours at UCC to a primary and masters degree.
The first major game of rugby that Moss played was for Munster against the All-Blacks in Musgrave Park in 1973. I was there. Munster were leading three points to nil but unfortunately the All-Blacks equalised towards the end of injury time. Heartbreak, but Moss got his revenge in that famous game in 1978. I was not there! As far as I can recall, Moss did did not win his first of fifty odd caps until `1974. He toured with the Lions in 1977. Subsequently, when asked what was his highlight of that tour, his laconic reply was- "when word filtered through that Kerry had beaten Cork in the Munster final". True to form, never forgot his roots.
I heard Ollie Cambell on the radio this evening speaking about Moss. I can safely say that I have never felt a more sincere tribute paid to any body, within or without sport. My eyes filled as I could feel the aching of unspeakable loss in Ollie's voice.
I have never heard anybody speak ill of Moss. Wouldn't that be a remarkable inscription on a headstone- "Nobody spoke ill of this man". Only the extraordinary can aspire to that epitaph. May God look after you Moss.
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Post by greengold35 on Oct 5, 2010 19:15:20 GMT
Had the pleasure of spending some time in his company in 2004 along with Mick Doyle, Galwey & Donal Lenihan; he was indeed a true legend, awesome in build but what a gentleman. His great love of Kerry and of all things Kerry were never hidden; before he bade his farwell to myself and some others he said that we were the lucky ones- I did not know what he meant and he smiled " Ye were born in Kerry and ye are living in Kerry still" was his instant reply - Ar dhes De go raibh a anam uasal.
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murhur
Senior Member
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Post by murhur on Oct 5, 2010 22:16:48 GMT
Wonderful article by Brendan Gallagher in the Telegraph about the great man. "Maurice Ignatius Keane. 18 and half stone of prime Irish beef on the hoof, I don't know about the opposition but he frightens the living daylights out of me.""Kerry are the All Blacks of Ireland. That's why we picked you."-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ireland and Lions forward Maurice 'Moss' Keane dies aged 62 Let's do the statistics first. Mossie Keane was 6ft 5in and 20st at his heaviest. He was a top drawer international second row who won 51 caps for Ireland and one for the British and Irish Lions. He helped inspire Munster to their famous 1978 12-0 win over the All Blacks when he took Andy Haden to the cleaners, and indeed performed wonderfully well in their 3-3 draw against New Zealand a few years earlier. He was a very fine and athletic Gaelic footballer and Kerry under-21 full-back in his youth - he used to play under the name Moss Fenton to trick the GAA, who at the time banned their members from playing the "Brit" game of rugby - and was a decent and enthusiastic golfer in retirement before cancer took a hold. But, frankly, to hell with statistics. At least on this occasion.They are virtually meaningless when it comes to assessing Mossie Keane, who has died a ridiculously premature death today from cancer, aged 62. The massive Kerry farmer was the epitome of everything we used to hold dear in the game of rugby, and secretly still do. As the late Bill McLaren used to put it: "Maurice Ignatius Keane. 18 and half stone of prime Irish beef on the hoof, I don't know about the opposition but he frightens the living daylights out of me." He was an iconic figure in Ireland and throughout much of the rugby playing world as well. There have been better international second rows - though he was top drawer by any criteria - but very few so instantly recognisable. He was "Rugby Man" writ large, his picture counting for a thousand words. The most famous image is that of a dishevelled Keane, his head swathed in a bloody bandage after some piffling skirmish with the oppostion. It's up there with Fran Cotton's famous mudman picture from the 1977 Lions tour as rugby's favourite picture. The Man Mountain giving it his all. If the Daily Telegraph cartoonist Matt ever needs a model for "Rugby Man" he should think of Mossie Keane and nobody else. Keane was a man of the soil and the farmyard, and his sense of humour reflected that. On his international debut in 1974 at the Parc des Princes the French pack went to work on Keane in trademark fashion and soon blood was pumping from a head-wound. Remarkably the cameras caught him laughing as he received treatment. Why so, he was asked afterwards: "I just suddenly thought it would be handy if somebody had a bucket so we could make a few black puddings," he told the incredulous press in his soft Kerry accent. Ever the farmer, some nights up in Dublin for an international he used to slip out of the team hotel and go rabbit shooting on the back pitch at Lansdowne Road and then melt into the night when the police cars arrived, lights flashing following reports of shooting in Dublin 4. It's a scenario that can't fail to bring a smile. In the wild west of Irish Provincial rugby he was the ultimate hard man, and Keane used to put plenty of stick about on the international field as well - although the battles were better policed in the great stadia of the rugby world. Being a proud son of Kerry, he was cunning as a bag of weasels too, a clever and cute operator in close confines. Contrary to popular opinion he was also extremely well-read, and took first-class honours in his Dairy Science degree. He later worked for the Irish Department of Agriculture. In his prime he could be a force of nature going forward and Noel Murphy, when chairman of the Munster selectors, famously addressed him thus before his first big Munster game against the 1973 All Blacks: "Moss, you are no longer an experiment, you are a Munster man picked to play against the All Blacks," said the loquacious Murphy. "Just go out there and cause mayhem. Disrupt their line-out. Stop them getting quick ball. Stand up for yourself and your team. Kerrymen have won more all-Ireland finals than anybody else, you are afraid of nobody. Kerry are the All Blacks of Ireland. That's why we picked you." Strewth, they don't do pre-match speeches like that anymore Off the field he was quietly spoken and shy, but Keane could also famously neck 20 pints of Guinness without pausing for breath, walk steadily from the bar, and ask if anybody fancied "moving on somewhere else for a proper drink." He was not a man to get in a session with unless you could book a couple of days off work to recover. Colleagues still talk in awe of the flight from Dublin to Australia for the 1978 tour when he apparently left David Boon's all-comers drinking record for the journey for dead. Survivors of that trip will not mention the exact figure for fear of being disbelieved. As Keane, employing the famous logic native to Kerrymen, once put it: "I hear that some people believe that not drinking or smoking can prolong their lives. Well in that case they have only got themselves to blame." www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/ireland/8044206/Ireland-and-Lions-forward-Maurice-Moss-Keane-dies-aged-62.html |
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Post by sullyschoice on Oct 6, 2010 7:57:46 GMT
Very sad news. I used to see him training at lunchtime in Trinity College back in the 1980s with a bunch of pals. Mountain of a man.
Rest in Peace
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Post by kerrygold on Oct 6, 2010 8:27:52 GMT
The passing of a kerry sporting icon.
Rest in Peace.
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Post by glengael on Oct 6, 2010 8:51:09 GMT
A truly iconic hero of the amateur era.
GERRY THORNLEY Rugby correspondent
DEATH OF MOSS KEANE: THE WORDS “legend” and “larger than life” are perhaps used a little too freely nowadays but in the case of Moss Keane they could hardly be more apt. News that he has passed away following a lengthy battle with cancer at the age of 62 will have saddened everyone in Irish rugby and much further beyond.
A native of Currow, Co Kerry, Keane was a truly iconic Munster, Ireland and Lions hero of the amateur era and yet much more than that too. Innately kind and good-humoured, a liver of life and raconteur with a sharp mind and wit, as Ciarán Fitzgerald observed yesterday, Keane never appeared to be in a bad mood and bore his long illness with typical good humour and remarkable equanimity.
The tributes which poured in yesterday demonstrate that there have been few more popular people in the game or Irish sport.
An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, TD, commented: “I am saddened to learn today of the untimely passing of Moss Keane who was one of the great gentlemen of Irish sport. He will be sadly missed by his many fans and admirers across the sporting world.
“Moss Keane was one of the finest rugby players Ireland has ever produced. He was among rugby’s best knows characters and a legend of the game at home and abroad, representing Munster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions with great distinction. He was also an accomplished Gaelic footballer in his younger days.
“Moss will, of course, always be associated with the heroic Munster side of 1978 that defeated the All Blacks in Thomond Park.
“Moss’s loss will be felt most deeply by those who knew him best. I want to extend my deepest sympathies to Moss’s family, his wife Anne, daughters Sarah and Anne Marie, and his friends. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a ainm dhílis.”
Maurice Ignatius Keane started out his sporting career as a Gaelic footballer, playing at college level for University College Cork, and winning a number of medals including the Sigerson Cup. He represented Kerry at under-21 level as a full back.
He was a relative latecomer to rugby, only taking up the game through friends in UCC who organised a novelty/pub match. Within two years he was playing for Ireland. First, while with UCC, he broke into the Munster team and then, having gained a masters degree in dairy science, Keane was transferred by the Department of Agriculture to Dublin (until his retirement in July this year). With that move, he also began a long career and association with Lansdowne (he’d already fallen in love with Lansdowne Road and the club while playing for UCC) in September 1973.
He made his international debut on January 19th, 1974, against France in Paris, a game Ireland lost 9-6, and would go on to win 51 caps over an 11-year period in which, it’s worth noting, he was never dropped.
In an era when caps were much harder to come by, Keane became the third Irish forward, after Willie John McBride and Fergus Slattery, to reach a half century of international appearances. He played in his final international against Scotland on March 3rd, 1984, at Lansdowne Road.
Keane was also a part of the famous Munster side that defeated the All Blacks at Thomond Park in 1978. He toured New Zealand with Phil Bennett’s British and Irish Lions in 1977, making one Test appearance. Reflecting on the highlight of that tour, Keane remarked: “Hearing that Kerry had beaten Cork in the Munster final.” He was also a key man in Ireland’s 1974 Five Nations Championship win and their historic Triple Crown victory in 1982.
As strong as an ox, ironically, the only injury he suffered was after he retired, when conducting a rucking drill while coaching Lansdowne’s McCorry Cup-winning side. His co-coach on that side, and long-time friend and ex-Lansdowne and Irish team-mate, Mick Quinn, was with him on Tuesday night, when Keane was giving out about Munster “losing to you fellas” for the fifth time in a row last Saturday.
“He was just an icon of Irish rugby really; larger than life in a physical sense and also in his personality. The great thing about him is that everybody has a Moss Keane story and the incredible thing is that most of them are true. He’d light up any room he went into and everybody loved him because he was never in bad form. He’d greet everybody, be they a king or a pauper, the same.”
Quinn also tells of how he would bring water from Lourdes on Irish match days which his father gave him and take a drink before every game so that Our Lady would look after him. “Moss would come over to me, bless himself, then pour a bit into his palm and splash it on Willie John McBride and Mike Gibson and tell them that Our Lady would protect them as well. I used to love that, and then afterwards he would tell Gibson he played like a saint.”
Keane, who lived in Portarlington, Co Laois, kept active by playing golf on a weekly basis and five years ago, in collaboration with Billy Keane, he wrote his autobiography, Rucks, Mauls and Gaelic Football, which he ended thus: “I’m not one that thinks of how I’d like to be remembered or *e like that. I’ve had many great days and I’ve been lucky in life. I played rugby 51 times for Ireland and made lasting friendships out of the game. What I achieved was certainly against the odds but sport can throw these things up – that’s the beauty of it.“I’d like to think that success never went to my head and that if someone, somewhere, was asked they might say ‘Moss Keane? As sure, he did his best’. He did his best. That would do me nicely.”
He did that and more.
Anyone who ever came in contact with Keane would have been enriched by the experience. Truly we shall never see his like again. Our deepest sympathies to his wife Anne, his daughters Sarah and Anne Marie and his legion of friends.
IRISH TIMES 6TH October
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Post by nicoshea on Oct 6, 2010 21:14:28 GMT
RIP
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Post by goalswingames on Oct 8, 2010 9:16:32 GMT
A Kerry legend, always came across as a fiercely proud Kerryman and a gentleman. Ar dhes De go raibh a anam uasal.
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Post by kerrygold on Oct 10, 2010 10:50:12 GMT
By Paidi O Se
Sunday October 10 2010
IT IS not often that something happens that shakes your sense of all that's right and good in the world, as did the death last week of my old friend, Moss Keane.
Moss came from the lovely village of 500 people in mid-Kerry, called Currow, "on the road to nowhere", as Con Houlihan said.
From this remarkable dot on the map came three great rugby players and members of the British and Irish Lions, Mick Doyle, Moss Keane and Mick Galwey.
Keane and Galwey were Currow born and bred, while Mick Doyle came from nearby Castleisland to be reared in Currow by his grandmother.
There is even a spot at the Havelock Square End of Lansdowne Road called "Currow Corner", where Doyle, Keane and Galwey all scored tries for Ireland.
Moss was a giant of a man in every sense and he adhered to the advice given him by Mick O'Dwyer, who said: "Stick to the rugby. You'll be f*** all use at Gaelic football."
Moss was asked on one occasion what the standard of rugby around Castleisland was like. "I'd say it's like a pornographic movie. Only the participants enjoy it," he replied.
Moss's sense of humour was known to all, but he also possessed one of the keenest intellects I have ever encountered. Maybe the two go hand in hand.
He was a fine Gaelic footballer and, like most Kerry men who play rugby, I believe in his true heart and soul he remained more deeply attached to the game he knew from infancy as opposed to rugby.
When the editor of this newspaper, Aengus Fanning, asked Moss in an interview in 2005: "Would you prefer four All-Ireland medals or 25 caps for Ireland?" Moss replied typically: "You are an awful bastard. I will put it to you like this, Aengus, and being a Kerry man yourself, I played in two All-Ireland finals, junior, and I played in an All-Ireland under 21 semi-final and I played club -- we were beaten by a point in two All-Ireland finals, beaten by two points in an All-Ireland semi-final. At that time, I certainly would have given anything to win a junior All-Ire-
-land, club All-Ireland, any All-Ireland, tiddliwinks. But, as time went along then, I realised that I had gone as far as I was going to go in Gaelic football. I was a big awkward bastard and I focused in on rugby. I have seen the world, I have been to the Antipodes three or four times."
The great Kerry footballer and later selector, Joe Keohane, used to tell a story of heading up to Maghera, in Co Derry, for an All-Ireland junior semi-final in which Moss was playing full-back for Kerry.
On the way, Joe, who had aspirations to become a Clann na Poblachta TD, called in to John B Keane's pub in Listowel to ask for his advice as to whether he should run or not. John B's was, of course, a staunch Fine Gael house, but still Joe trusted the great man's opinion.
John B thought for a moment and then said: "Well, Joe, if you run, I think it is essential that you swing the Jewish vote in Knocknagoshel! That will be vital and you'll have to make the call yourself."
We were all very proud of Moss, who from the Kerry hinterland, conquered the world of international rugby and overcame the prejudices of some of the most pompous societies in the world.
On the Lions tour of New Zealand in 1977, he was asked what was his highlight of the tour to date by the Daily Telegraph correspondent. "To tell you the truth, it was when I rang my mother back in Kerry one Sunday night and she told me that Kerry had beaten Cork in the Munster final."
Moss had a lifetime in the Department of Agriculture, which he joined in 1972. He subsequently moved from Dublin to Portarlington. He told me: "I got out of Dublin, I found Dublin closing in a bit on me. I said I'd go for the rural."
I asked him was it the case he was too well known in Dublin? Moss answered: "I don't know. Someone said shares in Kerry Co-op dropped by about 20 per cent when they heard I was gone 40-50 miles closer to home."
Moss Keane had the great strength through his recent illness of his wife, Anne. When she was asked to describe Moss, Anne answered: "Shy in ways, he has a lot in him, deep inside himself. He has a great sense of humour, kind." I don't think anyone could put it better than Anne.
Moss, we are bereft. We have lost a great Kerryman and a great Irishman. Thanks for the memories. Your true intent was all for our delight.
- Paidi O Se
Sunday Independent
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Post by leftoutside on Oct 11, 2010 21:00:06 GMT
Always someone who had a smile on his face and always someone who could crack a joke whereever he was. Will be sadly missed.
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