<< Back to Legends of Dundalk FC Page     DERMOT KEELY INTERVIEWED BY COLM MURPHY     Dermot Keely was born on March 8th, 1953. The Keely’s were a footballing family with father Joe having played for Shelbourne. Dermot, along with his brother Joe, played in the 1975 Home Farm team that won the FAI Cup, beating Dundalk along the way. Dermot played for St Pats, Dundalk, Glentoran, UCD and Shamrock Rovers in his career along with managerial spells at UCD, Rovers, Sligo, Longford, Dundalk, Home Farm, Athlone, Shelbourne, Kildare County, Derry City and Dublin City. This season he returned to Tolka Park for his second spell as manager. Who were you favourite players when you were growing up? I would have grown up in the Best-Law-Charlton era. That was the team I followed. But to be honest I did not follow football like that. I would have had an affinity with Norman Hunter at Leeds and Ron “Chopper” Harris at Chelsea. So obviously even at that early age there was a monster growing! Tell me about signing for Dundalk back in 1978? I was at St Pats at the time. Barry Bridges (prolific Chelsea centre-forward of the 1960s) was the manager but he got sacked. Even at that young age I had strong opinions about how a football club should be run. I basically refused to play for the new manager and drifted out of the game for a few months. While at St Pat’s I obviously played against Dundalk a few times and had a few run-ins with Brian McConville. Brian sadly died after a game against us that year. Jim McLaughlin basically signed me as a replacement. Jim obviously saw something in me that told him I could do a job. The Blackmore-Dunning-Keely-McConville-Lawlor defence was one of the best ever seen at Oriel Park. Did it click early? We were all very strong individuals. When I arrived the plan was for me to play right-back. But Paddy Dunning was still in America at the time and I played pre-season in the centre. When Paddy returned Tommy Mc was moved out to right-back. What is your opinion of Jim McLaughlin? He is the best of all-time. He was totally unique. I don’t think we will ever see anybody like him again. With Dundalk, he had to manage a lot of egos and strong personalities. He was very shrewd. He wasn’t really a shouter. He actually got calmer as time progressed. Some people say that that side managed itself with all the strong personalities within it… Jim might say that because he is modest. Sometimes Jim would orchestrate players to meet each other to sort out our problems. In 1980 we had some bad results. We thought we were better than we were. So certainly we would meet amongst ourselves without Jim but only when he organised it and only after he assembled a team with enough personalities to do that properly. If you have Keely, Dunning, Lawlor, Flanagan and McConville in the team you know that such a meeting can only be positive in the end. Jim did a superb job in managing a team full of these big personalities. He knew how to handle players with big egos. I remember when Barry Kehoe broke into the first team. Jim pointed out myself, Paddy, Mac and Leo Flanagan to him and said “See these four? Whatever they say – you just do it. But if I ever see you in the bar after the match with them I’ll throw you out of the club!” How did you rate Tommy McConville? He was an amazing player. You couldn’t tell him anything. He wouldn’t listen to anybody. He could play right across the back four. He was technically excellent and one of the greatest players ever in this league. I would say Pat Byrne and Tommy are the best two players I have seen in this league. We were complete opposites. I am not the type of person that has many friends. I like a lot of people that I have met in football but I don’t think I have made many friends. Our friendship has endured since 1978. I speak to Tommy a few times a week and with my son living in Dundalk I also see him quite a bit. You won the league and FAI Cup double in your first season. Then you went on to enjoy an incredible European adventure. What are your memories of the Linfield match? Normally I am the last person who can remember the details from matches. But I can remember this one! It was like playing a football match in the middle of a street riot. The match should have been called off. It was crazy. Stones being thrown, cops hauling people off the pitch, all of us avoiding one side of the pitch were the trouble was at its worst. It was a unique and terrifying experience. I still remember the chap shimmying up the flag pole to try to take down the Union Jack, being stoned, falling down, and going back up again. A crazy night. And after beating Malta Hibernians you played against Glasgow Celtic… Another match I remember well. We were getting pounded over there. I remember asking Paddy Dunning how could we survive this and he told me to “stand on the edge of the box and pray!” Dundalk were one of the first sides ever to play square at the back. Yet I stepped up twice and Celtic got in twice to score. I remember somebody going down injured and Jim McLaughlin himself ran on the pitch with a water bottle. He looked at me with venom in his eyes and shouted at me – “See if you step up again? I will f***ing strangle you!!” It was a great night. We of course nearly went through in the second leg. Tommy Mc nearly scored at the end. It was a night Danny McGrain’s beard turned grey! Is it true that you nearly signed for Glasgow Celtic after this match only to turn them down after they demanded that they shave off your beard? It is true that they tried to sign me. In fact, the club had done a deal behind my back with Celtic. What you have to understand is that, even then, I was a very strong minded person. I met Billy McNeill and his assistant. They basically told me that I should be honoured to join a club of the stature of Glasgow Celtic because they are such a famous and great club – which they are of course. But as I said, I was never a football fanatic as a kid. I never really got into English or Scottish football so that approach didn’t really grab me. At the time I had a good job and was making money in the League of Ireland. I was just married and had bought a house. The money on offer from Celtic wasn’t huge either. But still I may have gone only for three demands that Celtic made. Firstly, they asked me to give up my passport. Their logic was that footballers travelling around always lose their passports. I was 25 years old and I knew how to get to an airport by myself so I refused that one. Secondly, they then asked me to prove my commitment to Celtic by selling my house in Ireland. I told them that was none of their business also. Thirdly, they said to me that since I was in so much trouble with referees all the time that they wanted me to shave off my beard as it made me look very angry and made me stand out to referees. So it wasn’t the beard per se. That was just the straw that broke the camels back. For them it was unusual for somebody like me to turn them down. It was strange because they obviously saw something in me. It obviously wasn’t technical ability because it was players like Tommy that had that. They didn’t want somebody like me with an opinion. The thing is though; the very thing that gave me strong opinions was the very thing that made me the player I was on pitch. So they wanted me to give up on the things that attracted them to me in the first place. You then left after winning the 1981 FAI Cup. What were your reasons for leaving? Basically, having being so successful, I felt that we needed to improve. I wanted to win the league again. I told Jim that he needed to sign a few more players. He told me he wasn’t signing anybody and that he didn’t have the resources to make any big signings anyway. So I didn’t think we were good enough to win the league and having received a big offer from Glentoran I decided to leave. Then Dundalk go and win the f***ing league!!! That just goes to show you!     Did you regret leaving? I don’t regret anything really. I had some great years at Glentoran and won a lot of trophies. I wouldn’t be who I am without making decisions like that. You learn from everything. Of course, when Dundalk were lining up against Spurs a few months after I left there was only one place I wanted to be. But I am not the type of person to look back. You were a strong tackling defender. Did you feel victimised by referees? No. I was a nasty so and so. I got exactly what I deserved. I might have got extra treatment from refs but you reap what you sow. I picked up an 8 match suspension but I think I had been sent off 147 times that year! I think I remember being sent off on a Sunday, then on Wednesday, then again on Sunday! At Glentoran I probably spent more time off the pitch than on it!     You had a brief spell as player-manager at UCD before re-joining Jim McLaughlin at Shamrock Rovers... I was very lucky then. I was at my prime as a player and I had my first stint of management at UCD. At the same time, Shamrock Rovers were doing very well but were shipping a lot of goals. I knew that Jim wanted to sign me but the Kilcoynes didn’t want a player like me. But Jim felt I was the missing piece. UCD then started to have money problems. They had a number of professionals and they were finding it hard. Tony O’Neill (UCD General Manager) wanted to release players. I told Tony that I would leave and that I would be able to find a club. Now, as soon as I made this decision Jim came in for me for Rovers. At the time I thought I was just incredibly lucky to have got a new club so quickly. But looking back, and I can’t believe I didn’t cop on to this at the time, the whole thing was obviously choreographed. I was never able to confirm it with Tony but it must have been all planned to get me from UCD to Rovers. Coincidences like that just don’t happen! How was your spell at Rovers and your step up to replace Jim as manager in 1986? I played as part of probably the best team ever to play in the League of Ireland. That four in a row team were unbelievable. Jim managed to keep the squad fresh each year. I felt comfortable taking over as manager. Some of them probably thought I believed I was manager already! I thought Jim was mad to go at the time. We were still the best team in the country and I didn’t think we had to do much to keep up the standards and we went on to win the league and cup double. Was it a traumatic experience to be Rovers manager at the time of their departure from Milltown? Well I remember at the time thinking that we could easily keep up the standards of the previous four years. We needed to add another few players to the ’87 team to keep going. I was then sold a dummy deal with regards to Milltown. I was told how we were going to leave Milltown and redevelop Tolka Park. I didn’t realise the terms of the deal. I had no idea about what was being planned with the developers. As I said, I was never a romantic about football. I said some things to calm people down at the time. But I was conned as much as anybody else. I know Shamrock Rovers fans have never forgiven me for that time. But everybody makes mistakes. After spells managing Sligo and Longford you returned to Oriel Park as manager during the 1993/94 season. How did you find your time as manager of Dundalk? Eamon Hiney approached me to become manager at that time. It was a very difficult situation at the time. The club’s financial situation at the time was terrible. Did you think you could win the Premier? It was a very unlikely success. We just kept plugging away that season (1994-95). I mean, looking back over my life, there have been a lot of rollercoaster rides. I have never won anything easily. That particular season was the biggest rollercoaster of all. It was a fantastic year. We were very average team if we are honest. But we stuck together. That was a very difficult squad to manage. There were problems in the camp with some players not liking one another and some of them didn’t like me. But we won it by sticking together when it mattered. And the drama on the final day… A bit like the riots against Linfield, that afternoon is permanently etched on my brain. The way we won it on the last day was incredible with everybody waiting on the pitch with the Derry match being played over the PA. We played Galway on the last day and the first half was horrible. Everybody in the ground was incredibly nervous. It was 0-0 at half time and I remember saying to them – “Look, you might not win the league, but don’t let us lose it because we can’t win this game”. Thankfully we won 2-0 and Derry dropped points. It was great to win stick it to other people after we won that league. I mean, remember that the league could have been won at the Derry or the Shels match. You had the important dignitaries and the league trophy at the other grounds. Meanwhile we had some retired Army man and had to use some U-14 cup as a trophy. It came as a bit of a shock to Dundalk fans when you resigned in 1996. Why did you leave? After Eamon Hiney died the atmosphere in the club changed and my relationship with the board was not the same. It was just one of those things and I decided to move on. I had no option and the club had no problem with me leaving either.     You then managed a few more clubs and had great success at Shelbourne. You then took over at Kildare and were assisted by a certain John Gill. How do you think our manager is progressing? I think John is doing a fantastic job. He did a great job last year and won promotion to the Premier. What happened last December was an absolute disgrace. It was one of the biggest scandals ever in the League of Ireland. It was a scandal. There are many things wrong in this league but sometimes I am still amazed. I have never seen anything like it that a team can lose out on promotion to a club that finishes below them and a team that they have beaten in a play-off. This year Dundalk started off really well before hitting a rocky patch but now might be steadying the ship.     Finally, particularly after the events at Dublin City, do you enjoy management as much as before? When Dublin City collapsed I thought to myself “I’m 53 – that’s closure”. I have an affinity with only two clubs in the League of Ireland: Shelbourne and Dundalk. Joe Casey and Ollie Byrne looked after me very well at Shelbourne when I was sick. So when Shelbourne were relegated and for a long time looked like they could go out of business I took the job to help steady the ship. It’s a great club and they are the only club I would have worked for. Maybe Dundalk…but I am enjoying it and I am as full of passion for the club as always. If you had seen me after the Harps match running down the length of the pitch after one of their players you would see that I still have as much passion as I always have done. As soon as I lose that passion I know that will be the end for me.     << Back to Legends of Dundalk FC Page

 

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