‘Chirping in the pub all night’: Reflections of the Kerryman implicated in the launch of Dublin’s golden era

A dozen years on, it feels almost cruel to bring up “the free” in Barry John Keane’s company.

He generously comforts us, however, by saying that we wouldn’t be the first ones to do it.

“Arra, you’d have fellas chirping in the pub all right,” the Kerryman grimaced. “My own friends, like!”

Brought on in the third quarter of the 2011 All-Ireland final for Donnchadh Walsh, Keane was adjudged to have fouled Dublin’s Kevin McManamon for the stoppage-time free that Stephen Cluxton dispatched to win the game.

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It was an innocuous enough collision but McManamon was turning at pace in Keane’s direction and anything like contact was always going to lead to a shrill blast of Joe McQuillan’s whistle.

The victory made Dublin All-Ireland winners for the first time since 1995, and they didn’t so much barge through the door after that as kick it down, adding seven more wins in less than a decade.

Three of the players that featured for Dublin that day – Cluxton, James McCarthy and Michael Fitzsimons – are still going and in a position to claim their ninth All-Ireland winners medals this weekend.

As a source point for Dublin’s golden era, it is hard to look beyond that very moment, though Keane never allowed himself to be tormented by it.

“They were coming anyway,” argued Keane at an AIB GAA promotion in advance of Sunday’s decider. “They were strong. Their minors and 21s were coming at that time as well. I think it was only a matter of time before they were going to be contesting.”

Keane jokes that if such a thing as a mulligan existed in Gaelic football, he’d grab the second chance and stay well out of defence.

“I tried to stand him up and whatever way he kind of came past me, it’s like he wanted the legs to collide,” said Keane of his coming-together with McManamon, the goalscorer that day. “I nearly took my legs out of the way. The game has changed in a way too. You would probably run with the runner now. Back then, you were probably trying to stand him up and stop whatever momentum was coming.”

Keane went on to enjoy All-Ireland redemption in 2014, sniping two important points in the final win over Donegal. Two years later again, he clipped a worldy of a point from the right wing against Dublin in an epic All-Ireland semi-final.

Still only 33, he played briefly with David Clifford for Kerry in 2018 and was a Sigerson Cup team-mate.

“Some of his shots, other people probably wouldn’t take them on, but they’re on for him because he can genuinely score them,” said Keane. “Some of his wides are actually good wides. I know you’d say there’s no such thing as good wides but he just makes it so easy off left and right.”

Back in 2011, when Keane was on the pitch and enjoying a four-point Kerry lead with 64 minutes on the clock, a first final win over Dublin since 1985 looked imminent. A dozen years on, with Clifford’s help, it may finally materialise.

Keane has been tracking him closely since his teens.

“It’s a bit like a golf swing,” he said of the arc of Clifford’s kicking. “When he was younger he didn’t have that, his stroke was a little bit different.”

Even Clifford displays imperfections though. Between the wides, the kicks off the woodwork and the balls that dropped short against Tyrone, it added up to an off day.

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“He was kept quiet but they still won by 12 points, everyone else kind of upped their game,” said Keane.

“But if you took him out of the Derry game, it would have been very close. I think he does need a little bit of help too.

“The lads around him are definitely good enough but when you get to this stage, semi-finals and finals, everyone needs to chip in.

“I think he said it himself after the Tyrone game, he had an off day but everyone else stood up.

“Collectively, we probably do need that again. But look, he has that kind of firepower to carry us in a way as well, which isn’t fair on an individual, but it is what it is I suppose.”