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