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Super Saints Brian Kerr A life through music... From the pages of Super Saints Brian Kerr Johnny Keegan A life through music...Part I It’s Saturday morning following a disappointing result to Drogheda the night before, and neither Brian or myself are in the best of form, truth be told. But as is often the case, music has the power to pick you up and brighten your day. As most Pat’s fans will know, music plays a big part in Brian’s life, whether that’s at home listening to his favourite albums, tuning in to late night radio programmes after a busy work day, or attending new music gigs across the city; and it’s not long before Brian warms up and the stories start to flow. GOOD VIBRATIONS “So, I landed in Acton. My in that apartment. And I had brother was working in a pub The year was 1966. Kerr’s called The Gunnersbury the lovely task on contacting eldest brother, Frankie, was Arms, and interestingly, he them and telling them that I living in London, and was living with three girls at wanted to meet them in knowing of his younger the time in an apartment. I London in 2011.” brother’s love of football, always had this image of the Frankie called home to invite “I went to see them and the apartment being huge… 13-year-old Brian over to apartment was quite small,” Frankie died in 2010, and experience the World Cup in Brian laughs. “I had this this is an interesting story, he person. image from when I was a kid left a few quid to two of of this lovely big apartment those girls. He married one of “We were real posh at that them, and they lived in time, we had a phone,” Brian London for most of their jokes. “We were posh in that lives, but his wife died and we had a phone, that was it, we got him back to Dublin, but we had it because my but he didn’t last long, he two brothers were away. It was only around for about a was arranged for me to go to year after that. The other two London within a day or two.” girls were still alive and living 2 @johnnykeegan Tyrrell, brought a copy of The Beatles Abbey Road to training. “Somehow or other he had a record player in the dressing room, and I remember us listening to it before training, after training, and being fascinated by it. I thought the album was beautiful. ‘Here Comes the Sun’, with three bedrooms in it. I associate that ‘Come Together’, ‘Maxwell's Silver time with Good Vibrations. The Beach Boys Hammer’, there’s a lot of great songs on it. I were the deal. Still to this day, for most was doing my Leaving Cert that year, people, Good Vibrations gives everyone a managing Crumlin United U16s as well as lift. I still play a Beach Boys CD every now playing for Shelbourne, and I associate and again in the groove of a lovely, sunny Abbey Road with that time.” summer’s day. As a kid that time was really ZEROES exciting, but the memories stick.” “Ollie Byrne, Lord rest him, he used to have ABBEY ROAD a place called Zeroes on the top of Mary Already a young season ticket holder with Street, it was a mad place altogether, real his beloved St. Patrick’s Athletic, attending nightclub stuff, it was like an upstairs a host of World Cup games across London warehouse that was cleared out on a in ‘66, including the final at Wembley, Saturday night… He’d have big blow fuelled Brian’s obsession and love for the heaters to keep the place warm, and there beautiful game even further. By the time he was carpet on the floor, old couches… But was a young adult, every spare minute was the music would’ve been different, and I spent playing, watching or managing, and loved it, there was a great atmosphere. that never really changed. While playing for Ollie knew that I was playing for Shelbourne at the time, a teammate, Dessie Shelbourne U17s or youth team on a 3 Super Saints Brian Kerr Johnny Keegan Sunday morning, but I didn’t stuff. But the gig was shirt, and he’d say ‘Thanks drink at all, and he wouldn’t sensational. I never lost that very much! It’s great to be say anything. He was a feeling, and I saw him play back in Dublin. Here’s a little promoter around that time.” loads of times. I walked song I’m going to play for behind him one day in a you.’ And away he’d go!” RORY GALLAGHER street in London and I was too starstruck to say hello to Brian is beaming at this point, “One of the players I had at impersonating Gallagher and him. But I saw enough of him Crumlin United when I was 17 describing the energy as if it in relatively small venues to or 18, he said to me that he was yesterday. get to know the personality of couldn’t come training. ‘What him. He’s one of my heroes.” do you mean you can’t come “He’d go like that for an hour training?’ ‘I’m going to see a Brian picks up a copy of and a half, then he’d slow it bloke called Rory Gallagher.’ Wheels Within Wheels, a down a bit and play the Now he’s only two years posthumous release acoustic guitar or mandolin or younger than me but I’m comprising of lost Rory banjo, and the place would manager of the team. So, I Gallagher recordings and just go silent, you could hear changed the training and got outtakes, featuring a plethora every word, every movement tickets myself. I already knew of well-known musicians, on the string of the Rory Gallagher from listening amongst them, The Dubliners. instrument. And then he’d be to the old Radio Caroline off again,” Brian laughs. “And “I remember talking to there was three hours of it. It Ronnie Drew a few times. I was just incredible. And then asked him what Rory was like. at the end of it, he was just And he just confirmed what I the most humble looking already thought about him, bloke, he looked like he was that he was a lovely shy fella. amazed that people liked it.” But the place when he played, it was just electric. He’d come running out, the hair flowing, the checked 4 Ronan O’Flaherty @johnnykeegan one with the big shamrock on he was from. ‘I’m from it, he’s sitting there in that Ireland. I’m from Dublin. I’m and a leather jacket. And I from Crumlin. I’m from have me Bob Marley album Leighlin Road’. You look at and me bag. I went over and Irish society now and where said ‘Howiya. You wouldn’t we’ve got to go to. If he was mind signing that?’ And he on the go now, what an says ‘Where were ya?’ ‘I was inspiration he’d be for all over here at a match with a these young new artists that PHIL LYNOTT & THIN LIZZY team,’ So he signs it. A Bob are coming on the scene now Marley album signed by Phil from a different Irish “I was managing the Irish Lynott! It sounds cool, doesn’t background, the likes of Technical Colleges team, this it. I still have it downstairs.” Denise Chaila and Tolü was around 1982, and we Makay. But the excitement of were playing in a tournament “I like all Thin Lizzy stuff. If I his live gigs, and then the in Germany. I was coming had to do my all-time top ten, softer side to him, it was such back a day late on me own, Old Town would be in there, a deadly mixture. I loved flying out of Hamburg. That without a doubt. It’s my kind him.” morning I’d rambled around a of summer in Dublin song. record shop and bought a Philo walking around town, Bob Marley album.” looking cool, looking smart, winking at the girls, “So, I’m walking through the walking across the airport and I see Philo, and Ha’penny Bridge, that he’s getting the same plane whole video, the image… back to Dublin as me. You It was just a perfect Irish, know that bit where you’re Dublin song.” sitting around where you board, he’s sitting there, an “Philo always said ‘I’m Irish football jersey on him, black and I’m Irish’ when the old one, the plain green people asked him where 5 Super Saints Brian Kerr Johnny Keegan A life through music...Part II We begin part two of Brian Kerr – A Life Through Music in 1990. Brian is in his fourth full season in charge of the club. We’re playing in Harold’s Cross, and on a shoestring budget, Brian has assembled a squad featuring the likes of Curtis Fleming, Johnny McDonnell, Pat Fenlon, Paul Osam, Damien Byrne and Mark Ennis. But it’s Paul ‘Nudger’ Nugent, his player/assistant manager at the time, who springs to mind when the subject turns to music. PAUL NUGENT to The Blue Nile for a couple of years. They were a bit of a cult band, Scottish, from “I was up seeing Paul yesterday, in Glasgow.” Marymount in Lucan. Paul had been unwell and was being cared for in Scotland. And THE BLUE NILE & PAUL BUCHANAN thanks to the generosity and hard work of a few good people, we got him back here. We “Big Derek McGuinness, who a lot of people had him down in Inchicore at a game not too would know from doing security at Pat’s, long ago, and we’re hoping that there’ll be a Shelbourne and Ireland games over the years, bit of a reunion at some stage in the near Derek does the door in Vicar Street, he’s a future between us all.” lovely, lovely fella. I’d be in Vicar Street a good bit. One night The Blue Nile are playing “Paul knew that I liked music, and we often and Derek comes up to me and says “You like talked about it back then. He was a bit these, don’t you? Would you like to meet younger than me, well about six or seven your man after it?” I went in, the lads are years younger, and he was always very cool, sitting around having a beer after the show, his brother was in a band, and Paul always and someone introduces me to Paul had a haircut… He’s a stylish fella. One day he Buchanan. “You’re the football bloke,” Paul says to me “Have you ever heard of The Blue says to me. You don’t know what to say to Nile?” “The Blue Nile! Yeah, of course.” I these people. He was the loveliest fella. I was couldn’t believe it, because I’d been listening made up to meet him.” 6 2021 Season • Vol. 33 • No.07 • St Patrick’s Athletic v DUNDALK Ronan O’Flaherty @johnnykeegan It’s funny to imagine Kerr like this, roles satisfaction of a personal achievement for reversed, stuck for words, not knowing me and the team, it was about being a fan what to say when faced with another of his and sharing it with everyone else.” musical heroes. “’A Walk Across the Rooftops’ is still one of my favourite songs. The Blue Nile have lasted the test of time for me, and I associate them with Pat’s and 1990, driving to away games and feeling good. I remember driving up to Dundalk, hoping for a draw between them and Derry, I think. It was a draw, and I remember driving back and playing the Blue Nile, feeling good, thinking that this is going our way.” Things did go our way that year, and Kerr delivered the club’s first major silverware since 1961. It meant the world to Brian. “I was the fan managing the team. That Easter Monday in Drogheda when we won the league, the joy was unconfined. It was extraordinary, we beat UCD 4-0 on the Sunday and then had to play in Drogheda on Monday, two days in-a-row. I’d never seen Pat’s win anything. It was an honest joy on my part, it wasn’t just the self- 2021 Season • Vol. 33 • No.07 • St Patrick’s Athletic v DUNDALK 7 Super Saints Brian Kerr Johnny Keegan ROBERT MILES & 1996 mad run down the touchline, giving it a little bit of a dance,” Brian pumps the fists and “The night we won the league in Dundalk, the laughs in a similar fashion to back then. game wasn’t on tele, but RTÉ had a camera plonked on the touchline beside us, it was on I SAID MAYBE… us most of the time, and I remember saying to Cyril Walsh at half time, “Cyril do us a favour “We eventually got back to Inchicore at about and push that bleedin camera down the line one in the morning. I remember Jason Byrne away from me, it’s doing me head in.” going, “Sure we won’t get in anywhere now.” So, we throw the gear into 125 and we walked “As you know, Paul ‘Soupy’ Campbell scored down to the Horse & Jockey. You can hear the that famous goal, stuck it right up in noise form it. And the top corner, and I went here’s us, the team mad. I didn’t always show that just won the a lot of emotion when we league, knocking on scored, I always felt that the window trying to there was enough time left get in,” Brian is in and the opposition might hysterics recalling a score. But when he scored famous night that that goal, I knew that was carried on well into it, they were down to ten the next morning. men… All the pent-up emotion of those years… “The door opens, Harold’s Cross. Are we ever and about ten going to get back? Did we make a mistake? blokes fall out, the door was keeping them in. The receivership. The liquidation. All those So, we pile in, what a night! Soupy sang times. The heartache. Fighting with the various Wonderwall, the Oasis song, an acapella chairmen and owners between 1990 and version, everyone singing along for the chorus, 1993/94, until we got back to Inchicore and it was brilliant! Ricky O’Flaherty did an Irish Tim O’Flaherty took a hold of things. That all dance too, he had two pints, one in each came out when Soupy scored. I went on a hand, and never spilled a drop.” 8 2021 Season • Vol. 33 • No.07 • St Patrick’s Athletic v DUNDALK Ronan O’Flaherty @johnnykeegan “Anyway,” Brian laughs. We’ve taken the over the fourth goal being offside. I went scenic route, but we get back to Robert mad, ran amuck at them at half time. It got Miles… worse in the second half. Johnny McDonnell scored an OG from near the halfway line over “The first thing on Saturday Sport was going on the right-hand side, put it over Gareth to be a review of the season, and they played Byrne’s head. We got a penalty and Dave Robert Miles’ ‘Children’ to a string of all our Campbell missed it…” goals, finishing with Soupy scoring and me running down the touchline like a madman. It “It’s because of things like that, that my was an iconic night in terms of the club. After attachment to Pat’s is unbreakable. And that, driving to matches with the kids in the anything that I’ve given anyone has been car, I’d always play Robert Miles and it always given back, a hundred-fold, in the respect, brought a smile to everyone’s face.” loyalty and goodness that people show me. I look at what’s happening now, the work THROUGH THICK & THIN going on in the club with Garett, the directors and volunteers, the great community work “I’ve been lucky enough to manage teams being done under the radar, that’s what we that I’ve dreamt about as a kid. When I used need to be doing, we needed to come back to go to watch Pat’s as a kid, I used to think to being that community club.” that the manager was this celestial person, someone who could do magical things. Imagine going to games in Inchicore and dreaming of being the manager of Pat’s, and ending up doing it, it really was the stuff of dreams for me.” “To get ten years as manager of Pat’s, without a day of the crowd booing,” Brian jokes, recalling a heavy defeat to Cobh in Inchicore. “5-0! And the crowd didn’t boo. I remember Paddy Eccles giving the linesman a hard time 2021 Season • Vol. 33 • No.07 • St Patrick’s Athletic v DUNDALK 9 Super Saints Brian Kerr Johnny Keegan A life through music...Part III May 1st, 1998, Buckley Park. Colin Hawkins has equalised after Michael Reddy opened the scoring in Kilkenny. Dundalk are beating Shelbourne. They’ve blown it, but we still need a goal. Brian Kerr is in Dunblane, Scotland, with the Irish U16 team, a fancy radio glued to his ear. His right-hand-man, Noel O’Reilly, is double- jobbing with Pat’s and the FAI, and has flown back to be with Pat Dolan and the team in Kilkenny. “We played Scotland, Up steps Eddie Gormley. “Noel used to sing a myriad Denmark and Portugal in the Pandemonium, in both of Bob Dylan songs, but group, and there was a little Kilkenny and the hotel room particularly at tournaments break, so Noel went back. I in Dunblane. he would always sing bought a fancy radio because ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ It would turn out to be quite I was travelling so much at with all the lads joining in. It a few weeks for Brian Kerr that time, so I could hear a was always so appropriate and Noel O’Reilly, as their bit of news while I was away. and magical because we U16 side overcame Italy in So, we’re listening to the always felt we were in a great the final to make history and match on the radio in place, and that we were in win the European Dunblane, and the room is with a shout of winning Championship. full of fellas with an interest medals.” in the league: Andy Reid, KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S “The work was busy, the work John O’Shea, Jim Goodwin, DOOR was hard,” Brian admits. Graham Barrett, Keith Foy. At If Brian and Noel were “Trying to always be positive, one stage I’m hanging out together, music was never keeping everybody in good the window, aerial stretched, too far away. And it played form, it’s not always easy to trying to listen to Gabriel an integral role in creating a do that, you’ve always got to Egan, I think it was, in positive atmosphere in all of be the one out there fixing Kilkenny, and all the lads are Kerr’s squads over the years, things and making sure that in the room,” particularly at international everyone is ok. We’d have Brian laughs. tournaments. matches and training, 10 Ronan O’Flaherty @johnnykeegan matches and training. We’d get the players to sing a song for each team in the to bed at half ten, and then we’d go and tournament from their own country.” One have a drink and relax with the staff.” night he sang a song from Belgium by The Singing Nun called ‘Dominique’ or “Pauric Carney, a great Pat’s fan, he was the something like that,” Brian laughs. “But we kitman, he’d say “Noel, get the guitar.” “Ah, all knew the tune of it ourselves, it was one no, no,” Noel would say. Pauric would get the of those mad songs that got into the charts master key and go to Noel’s room and get in the 60s or 70s. But Noel could do that, he the guitar and leave it beside Noel. This could come up with anything, and the blokes could be Tel Aviv, St. Petersburg, Chisinau, sitting around would all be loving it. I Ayia Napa, Reykjavik, and the guitar would remember him teaching Andy Reid how to be out. There’d be loads of people around play ‘Ride On’ by Christy Moore on the guitar and they’d all slowly start to mooch over. The in Dunblane with all the other players sitting teams we’d be playing against the next day, around. They were great times.” their staff would be sitting around with us. Extraordinary scenes!” On the back of numerous historic successes with the FAI underage sides, Kerr was THE SINGING NUN appointed manager of the senior interna- “I remember we were playing Germany in tional men’s team in January 2003. the European Finals in Sweden in 1999, and Horst Hrubesch and Uli Stielike, who played for West Germany in the 80s, fantastic players, and they’re mooching around behind Noel with smiles on their faces listening to Noel playing anything from Christy Moore and Christie Hennessy to Elvis and The Beatles, Lonnie Donegan, U2, you name it.” “Some nights Noel used to challenge himself. There might be eight teams in the tournament and he’d say “Right, we’re going 11 Super Saints Brian Kerr Johnny Keegan MAMMA MIA changed,” Brian laughs. “At the MADE IN DUBLIN half-time break they asked us “One of the frustrations I used would we go backstage to “Another night I got Aslan to to have from going to the meet the cast? And the actors play in the hotel for the team. I Ireland matches over the years are all bowing to the lads. Fair asked them to come in and do was the music they’d play enough, we had a good team, an acoustic set, a few songs before the match in the but The Point was full to see after we had the dinner one stadium. So, I got stuck into them, not us. The show was night. A big van arrives in the that and insisted on certain brilliant, and they’re all asking afternoon with the whole lot, all songs being played: a couple the players to sign t-shirts for the gear, lights, stage, of U2 songs, Rory Gallagher, them, and I’m thinking to everything. So, there’s 24 of us Aslan, Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are myself “No, this is wrong.” sitting there. “Entertain us!” A Back In Town’, and that’s still lot of these lads would’ve been being played these days.” “The arrangement was for us to in England since a young age, leave once the encore started, the likes of Robbie and Duffer, Previous managers used to get the bus out of the car park so they wouldn’t have known bring the Ireland squad to the nice and easy so we’d avoid the who Aslan were. It was pictures to help them relax crowd and get back to the brilliant.” before games. Brian, of course, hotel early enough. But the wanted to take a different encore started and I couldn’t “Billy McGuinness said to me approach. get the lads out, they’re all up when I met him a while later on their feet giving it loads to that he’d never seen Christy “I used to bring them to the Dignam as nervous as this ‘Waterloo’ and ‘Money, Money, Olympia to see the likes of before, he said Christy was in Money’, and there’s no shifting Brendan O’Carroll and stuff like bits at the idea of playing for them. We were supposed to go that, more cultural things. Now, the team. Christy came out and out a side door by the stage, the likes of Gary Breen, Kevin goes “Howiya lads, this is like but no. It was great.” Kilbane and Clinton Morrison playing in me Ma’s parlour.” It would’ve been like “Who was incredible.” the fuck is this fella?” They wouldn’t have known him “They were such a powerful at all at that time.” band, with brilliant, brilliant songs. It’s a pity that they “Another time I brought didn’t get the level of success them to Mamma Mia. Of that they probably deserved. I course, they were all like would’ve went up to The “What the fuck is this, Silver Granite in Palmerstown ABBA…?” But once they got to see them on a regular into the show that all basis, and I’ve seen them in 12 Ronan O’Flaherty @johnnykeegan Vicar Street of course, big “When I was manager of Derek McGuinness carrying Ireland, I sat beside Larry Christy through the crowd Mullen one day on the plane, singing and all that. Christy and I was afraid to say and the lads have a great howiya to him. And he never relationship with Derek; it’s said anything to me. And I not just football people that regretted it. But I got to meet love him, all the bands love them one time at one of their him too.” gigs later on. U2 have been heroes of mine, in terms of If you didn’t know Kerr, you’d what they’ve done for Irish probably think that he’s music and helping to put the keeping big Derek sweet for the O’Connell Hall just passed country on the map in the the odd freebie, but with Kerr the old Carlton Cinema, and 90s. I got to see them in the these relationships hold a you could apply for tickets. So, I Netherlands a few years after special place. Throughout the applied and got tickets. The that. One of my favourite course of the interview Brian Johnston’s were a folk band matches as manager of Ireland must’ve mentioned a hundred from the North of Ireland and was when we beat the names, mostly followed by “I Paul Brady was one of them. I Netherlands 1-0 away from was up with him the other day” was always a lover of Paul home, before the Euros in or “I was only talking to him Brady, he epitomised Irish 2004, this was their going-away last week on the phone”. success, and had a great match, and we beat them 1-0, People love talking to Kerr, he’s understanding of the North- Robbie got a brilliant goal on infectious, but he gets just as South divide and other big the counter attack. I enjoyed much of a buzz talking to issues like emigration. The Hard that day. I always liked to people as we do talking and Station album, I love it, and measure my teams against the listening to him. that’s why I’d put Paul Brady best opposition, I always right up there. And he’s still wanted to be able to beat the PAUL BRADY going, still doing it, and I’ve best teams and show people been lucky to meet him a few that we could do it. I got to see “I’ve always loved Paul Brady. times over the years at various U2 in the same stadium a few One of the first gigs I things. He loves football too.” years after that, and it was like remember seeing was Paul an away match again for an Brady in the Junior Common U2 Irish team. Seeing an Irish band Room in Trinity, around 1968 or in a full stadium in a different 1969. He was in a band called “I didn’t mention U2 at all,” country, absolutely blowing the The Johnston’s, who I’d seen Kerr interrupts, as we reach the crowd away… It was a great before that; RTE used to have end of the interview. experience for me.” these live radio programmes in 13 Super Saints Brian Kerr Johnny Keegan A life through music...Part IV Roughly 42 kilometres of road separates Tórshavn, the capital city of the Faroe Islands, from Klaksvík, the second city in the northern isles. According to Brian Kerr, it’s the most scenic drive you could have in your life. The road meanders through remote glacial valleys, cuts through enormous mountains, takes you across bridges and through under-sea tunnels, and joins many fishing villages and harbours to the archipelago’s two largest settlements. Depending on the weather and how many sheep you encounter along the way, the journey can take anything from 40 minutes to an hour and a half. Brian Kerr would spend many lonely hours driving across the Faroe Islands following his appointment as Head Coach of the national team there in April, 2009. “Wasn’t I one lucky fella to get it’s the biggest thing.” up there. And it was great, I those three years up there in loved going to the matches.” It might be one of the lowest one of the most magnificent ranked leagues in Europe, but EIVØR places you could ever go in on a Sunday in the Faroe your life,” Kerr reflects fondly. “There’d be loads of local Islands, the beautiful game “It’s like Iceland multiplied by artists and musicians that I takes centre stage. ten, in its remoteness and in its would’ve listened to, especially landscape; the rhythm of the “I used to work out that about while driving around the sea, the hills and mountains, 15-20% of the population used country going to matches and the people, the calmness, the to go to watch a match on a to meet players, half lonely in peace and quiet. And yet you Sunday in the Faroe Islands your head. People were always go to a match on a Sunday and Premier League. It was miles giving me CDs. The music away from the standard of the would be similar to well-known League of Ireland, it was a Icelandic acts like Bjork and The good Leinster Senior League Sugarcubes, and the likes of standard, but there was a Sigur Ros. You have to be into professionalism around it as the vibe of it, you have to be a well. Out of a population of bit laid back. So, a lot of the 47,000 people, you’re not young artists would be similar going to uncover a lot of to that kind of stuff. There Lionel Messis. But football was wouldn’t be a huge tradition of big up there, very important instrumentation in Faroese 14 2021 Season • Vol. 33 • No.09 • St Patrick’s Athletic v Derry City Ronan O’Flaherty @johnnykeegan music, but there is a rich tradition of voice and “So, we arrive at the festival. It’s not like singing.” Stradbally for Electric Picnic with fences and security around it, there’d be a bloke at a gate Eivør Pálsdóttir, known as Eivør, is one Faroese with a bag saying “Have you got a ticket?” musician whose music Kerr became familiar You’d get in easily enough whether you had a with while driving between islands. Eivør’s ticket or not,” Brian jokes. music is rooted in traditional ballads but incorporates influences from jazz, pop and folk “Everyone is there! Young kids, grannies… I music. She sings in Faroese, Danish and meet most of the team within half an hour, it’s Norwegian. But the language barrier didn’t brilliant. So, we’re floating about meeting stunt Kerr’s enjoyment of, and curiosity for, the people, having a laugh, we grabbed a burger local music and culture. and a coke, and then eventually Westlife come on stage… It’s brutal. Well in my book anyway “You might not have too much of an idea of it’s brutal. They started playing ‘The what the song is about, but the voice and the Boys Are Back in Town’ by Thin music is just sensational. There’s a lot of windy, Lizzy. I says “Come on, Johnny, wet days, snow and ice, water streaming down we’re out of here.” the hills, and then suddenly the flowers come out… It’s magical to listen to that music in the “We’re on the way back landscape.” and one of my Faroese coaches, Abraham Lokin, THE LAST TRAIN TO KLAKSVÍK a great fella, he calls me “Brian, are you still at the festival?” “I brought Johnny McDonnell to a festival up “No, Abraham, I’m on my way there once. Klaksvík was a bit like Cork, they back to Tórshavn.” thought they were the real capital. It was about “They’re talking about five islands away. When we went up there, you. The singer is saying Johnny used to call it The Last Train to Klaksvík,” that you wouldn’t pick him and that you’re not a Kerr laughs and treats me to a line of The very good coach.” I says “Abraham, he was Monkees 1966 classic. “The players had been smaller than you, and you’re only five foot six, asking me and asking me if I’d go up to the and he was a goalkeeper. Does that not give festival, so I said we’d go up. It was in June. you an idea about why I couldn’t pick him?” Nicky Byrne’s crowd, Westlife, were playing, in fucking Klaksvík!” 2021 Season • Vol. 33 • No.09 • St Patrick’s Athletic v Derry City 15 Super Saints Brian Kerr Johnny Keegan THERE’S A GREAT CHIPPER IN TÓRSHAVN NEW MUSIC “So, we went back, got fish and chips, there’s a “I like All Tvvins. I was in one of the radio stations great chipper in Tórshavn, and then went up to doing a thing a while back and I bumped into the hotel. At about 9 or 10 o’clock we went back the two lads from the group, and then I went to down to the bar, and they [Westlife] arrive in. watch them at Electric Picnic and they were And nobody bothers with them. Most people are excellent. I love to listen to any Irish artists kind up at the festival. Normally it would be hopping of breaking through like that, but it’s very hard around there, it’d be like Sodom and Gomorrah trying to keep up with everything. I really love on a Saturday night in Tórshavn. So, they come in when Other Voices is on the tele from down in and they’re having a few drinks, but nobody is Dingle, I always record that and it helps to keep going near them. They had a couple of security me in touch a bit.” fellas with them, and they came over to me and Johnny and say “Do yous want to go over and “But I’m always going back and listening to have a chat with the lads?” They were lonely, no recent stuff from the last few years, the likes of screaming crowds or people trying to get The Gloaming, Fontaines DC, their two albums photos…” are really good. Denise Chaila, she’s fantastic, I’ve listened to her EP and obviously the stuff she “And that’s the way it was in the Faroe Islands, did in the Concert Hall. I love our fella too, nobody gave a shite who you were. The FYNCH, he’s really interesting and his lyrics are goalkeeper played for Man City, Gunnar Nielsen, great. Eve Belle is another interesting one, she’s he got half an hour one day when Shay Given from Donegal. There’s a new band from Galway too called New Dad, I’ve been listening to their stuff lately. Tolü Makay, I watched her on the tele the other night doing the Tradfest on RTE, she’s got injured, and they interviewed him on the really good.” BBC. “You must be a big star in the Faroe Islands?” Gunnar’s answer was brilliant: “They “I can dip in and out of new and old stuff, and if I don’t do stars in the Faroe Islands, only in the get a chance at all I can find myself playing a bit sky.” of Talking Heads or Grace Jones, Bon Iver, back to Rory Gallagher, Billy Bragg - I love his style and his message, The Divine Comedy, The XX…” 16 2021 Season • Vol. 33 • No.09 • St Patrick’s Athletic v Derry City Ronan O’Flaherty @johnnykeegan HEROES Kerr has his musical heroes: Rory Gallagher, Paul Buchanan, Phil Lynott and Paul Noonan amongst them. In the rich history of St. Patrick’s Athletic, from Inchicore to Harold’s Cross and back, from FAI Cup heartbreak to league triumphs, and everything else in between, nobody has made as big an impact on the club and its supporters than Brian Kerr. I can say confidently that he’s a hero to many of us. “I was down in Lansdowne Road a few weeks ago getting the vaccine, all the people involved in that, working on the frontline, what a job PAUL NOONAN they’re doing! Anyone working in the health service and on the frontline, they’re the heroes. I Brian, ever the professional, rustles a piece of don’t think of any heroism involved in anything paper with some more notes and names he I’ve achieved in my career. If anything I’ve ever wants to mention. One of them is Paul Noonan, done brought a little bit of joy into people’s lives, known to many as the frontman with Bell X1. then I’m happy out with that.” “Paul Noonan would be a bit of a hero of mine, especially in his manner and his attitude to music, and certain issues that he gets into his songs very gently. Bell X1 have a song called ‘Take Your Sweet Time’, it’s about a girl getting her hearing back after never being able to hear before. And I identify with that because I have a sister who’s deaf. It’s a really beautiful song.” 2021 Season • Vol. 33 • No.09 • St Patrick’s Athletic v Derry City 17 Brought to you by... The Matchday Magazine of St Patrick’s Athletic FC