Next Sunday there will be in excess of 80,000 people in Croke Park for the All-Ireland Hurling semi-final between Limerick and Cork. Most of the crowd will probably never have heard of JJ (John James) Keane from the County of Limerick but if they read their official match programme they will find out about this amazing man.

A superb athlete and Gaelic footballer JJ Keane became one of the outstanding sports administrators this country has ever produced. Last Saturday I stood in the middle of a sloping field in the townland of Lackendarra near Anglesborough. Down in Dingle, Kerry and the country were saying a tearful farewell to everybody’s friend Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh. Massive throngs paid tribute to Ireland’s greatest ever broadcaster, and rightly so because he was truly a man of the people who loved people, loved the GAA and an Gaeilge.

My friend Pat English of the Galtee Gaels Club guided me up a narrow road and then across a field sheltered by wooded hills. This had been the 20 acre farm of James Keane and his wife Mary Forde. Here in April of 1871 John James Keane was born. As the great Mícheál himself might say “this is the football part of Limerick -just like Ballyduff and Abbeydorney are Kerry’s hurling heartlands”.

So it came to pass that when Keane gained employment with the firm of Messrs Charles Dodd in Dublin he immersed himself in the GAA just then growing stronger in the capital. He was one of the founders of the Geraldines Club in the mid 1890’s and went on to win two All-Ireland Senior Football medals in 1898 and 1899 - those finals were played in 1900 and 1901. An all-round athlete Keane won the Irish 120 yards Hurdles Championship in 1900.

He was a great businessman and rose through the ranks at Dodds, eventually becoming the owner of the firm.

An ardent nationalist........

© Evening Echo