New Mayo GAA book to launch in Castlebar this weekend
An eagerly anticipated new Mayo football book will launch in Castlebar this Saturday night.
John P Kean’s memoir will be officially launched by former Mayo GAA star Kevin O’Neill. The launch will take place upstairs in Johnny McHale’s bar, Newline, Castlebar at 8pm, Saturday, November 22, with a large crowd anticipated. All are welcome to attend.
On the football field, John P Kean won everything in his path except the Sam Maguire.
He captained Mayo to an All-Ireland minor football title in 1971 and was a key player in their under-21 All-Ireland three years later.
With University College Dublin, he won four Sigerson Cup medals and two All-Ireland club medals as a key part of an all-conquering team.
With his own club, Claremorris, he won a Mayo SFC title in 1971 (their last senior championship) whilst still a minor and toiled with Mayo senior team during the barren decade that was the 1970s, with no Connacht senior title.
His ‘off the crossbar’ shot in the 1975 drawn Connacht final against Sligo summed up Mayo’s decade, hence the book’s title.
He cut his coaching teeth in the 1970s, managing Mayo Under 16s from 1978-80 while still playing senior for Mayo and he was heavily involved at coaching and committee level in his own club before returning to the Mayo Under 16s from 1993 to 1995. That was the precursor to his appointment as Mayo minor manager. He was in charge for seven campaigns, from 1996 to 2002, winning five Connacht titles and reaching two All-Ireland finals.
All the while, he observed the strengths and weaknesses of Mayo football from the inside and, since the conclusion of his minor management, the outside and has never been afraid to call it as he sees it.
, his tell-all memoir, brings readers on a journey through Kean’s life as a footballer, as a minor manager and also seeks to lift the lid on the endemic problems in Mayo football from a lifetime of observation.
It will be on sale in bookshops throughout Mayo from next Saturday and can also be ordered online and posted anywhere in the world via www.mayobooks.ie.
