Bo is still fighting the good fight
THE past couple of years have not been easy for Anthony ‘Bo’ McKeever. Bray Wanderers’ resident ‘Minister of Defence’ for the better part of 16 years, the 57-year-old has recently confronted his own mortality. In September 2019, he went under the knife for a carotid endarterectomy: a surgery that removes plaque build-up from within the carotid artery in one’s neck. A year later, in November 2020, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer; he promptly received a prostatectomy and is confident of being deemed in the clear ahead of a three-month check-up in March.
Ironically, it was following his cancer diagnosis that he reconnected with his fellow compatriots from the great Bray Wanderers team of 1985-1990. During that time, the Seagulls won the First Division title and their first of two FAI Cups, while they also competed in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1990/91.
‘I got great well wishes from all of the team of ‘85. I had Pat (Devlin) on, Pat Nugent, Colin Finney, Dermot Judge, it was great. Unfortunately, that was when I got back into touch with the lads, but it was great to hear from them and it was great to have that support after all these years.
‘I had two battles there. I don’t know what is going to happen to me next Christmas,’ he laughed.
His ability to stave off invasive surgery and cancer is a testament to the soldier-like temperament of a man who, for almost two decades, forged a reputation as one of the hardest, most formidable defenders in Irish football. Although, somewhat disappointingly, the urban legend surrounding the claim that he holds the record for one of the longest suspensions in European competition is entirely mythological, if McKeever is to be believed.
Bo was born in February 1963. The middle child of seven, he grew up in Blackrock, nearby to Carysfort Park, where he initially cut his studs in soccer. There was a great mix of fandom within the McKeever clan, with his brothers’ support ranging from Preston North End, to Manchester City, to
Leeds United. His father, known as ‘Freddy’, who played football himself, passed away in 1972, when Bo was nine.
The loss of the family patriarch was tough for the family, as is to be expected, with McKeever learning to grow up very quickly in the immediate years that followed. He joined the workforce as a 12-year-old doing paper and bread runs. He went on to work for Manor Farm, from 1989 to the present day.
Anthony was a lifelong Leeds United devotee. His earliest memories of football was the great Leeds team of the late-1960s/ early-1970s. Under the tutelage of the legendary Don Revie, the Yorkshire club won two league titles and an FA Cup, as well as making it to the final of the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and European Cup. Norman Hunter, who was a pivotal facet of the United team that accomplished all of the above and who passed away last April, was his childhood hero.
As far as his own footballing career is concerned, it began in earnest when he joined St. Joseph’s when he was 13. Until
then, he spent much of his formative years the old-fashioned way: drilling the football against a wall until such time that it got too late to see it. While he was prone to a game of snooker, and considered himself to be a useful player, he admitted that a grass pitch was always the priority over most anything else in life.
‘I used to hang around the snooker halls in Dun Laoghaire and Sallynoggin, but other than that, I was soccer mad. We used to play until all hours in the night. While the others would be out boozing, I would be out with a football.
‘I remember smoking a cigarette when I was around 9. I got sick. To this day, I remember running home and getting sick. That was it. I have never touched a cigarette since, and it was the best thing that could have happened.
‘The next thing was the drink, and I remember going down to the fields with the lads and tasting – I think – a bottle of Smithwicks. I remember spitting it out and that was the end of that. I said, ‘lads, why are you drinking that s**t? It tastes like piss, come on.’ That was just two incidents that turned me off. Maybe it was a godsend, I don’t know. I grew up with lads who didn’t drink. We used to go out to discos and there was fun to beat the band. You didn’t have to drink to have a good time.’
It was in Sallynoggin, with St. Joseph’s, that Bo’s journey in soccer got going. He commuted to training with a friend of his, who brought them to the ground on his Yamaha 50. He is the first to confess that he wasn’t the most of skillful players, in the traditional sense, but made up for it in dedication. He cites his inability to crack into the ‘A’ teams at Joey’s as evidence that raw talent is a luxury, rather than a necessity, to make it in football.
His time in south Dublin was followed by the first of two stints at Workman’s Club, before his first post-schoolboy run, with Rock United, who were headed up by Billy Kane, an early mentor. In 1985, then-Bray Wanderers manager, Pat Devlin, came calling for his services for a Seagulls team that was taking flight in the National League for the very first time.
‘Pat would have known everything around the Burrough. Everything; from Rock United, to TEK United, which he was heavily involved in. The way the Bray thing came around was that they were going to go into the League of Ireland as a Wicklow club. His whole team from 1985 would have been pulled from Leinster Senior League, so I was glad to be part of it. There were a few lads from Workman’s Club. Colm Phillips and that would have joined, as well. Dermot Judge would have joined, but I think he was across the water and would have come back.
‘He played me in midfield for a number of years, as well, as a spoiler, just to pick up their best player and give them a kick. It wasn’t pretty but it had to be done. I played in midfield for a good number of years and then I went back to centre-back and formed good partnerships with Colm Phillips, who was brilliant, and then Joey Lynch, Mick Doohan. Three topclass centre-halves. It was just a pleasure to play with those guys.’
That Bray Wanderers team of the late-80s/early-1990s is, to date, one of the most successful teams in the club’s history; rivalled only by the one that won two league titles and an FAI Cup. Central to that earlier success was McKeever, who was their integral enforcer, whether that have been at right-back, where he played in the cup final of 1990, central midfield, or central defence. That first FAI Cup holds a cherished place in the hearts of Bray Wanderers supporters, none more so than McKeever, who has his jersey from that match framed on the wall of his house.
Bray’s run to the final, which included wins over Shelbourne and Derry City, culminated in John Ryan’s hattrick in a 3-0 win over St. Francis’ in front of a packed Lansdowne Road. The decider was special, of course, but it is the semi-final against Derry that stands out.
‘We were a First Division team. I think we might have been the first First Division team to win the FAI Cup. At the time, jeez, I think we played Shelbourne in the quarter-final, we were flying, and then we played Derry. Derry was the game for me. 1-0 down at half-time and we came back to beat them. I think I set up the second goal. I took a free-kick in and I think [Kevin] Reynolds hit it in. They’re good memories.’
While he highlights Norman Hunter as a childhood hero, to the surprise of nobody who followed his career, he modelled his style on Vinnie Jones, who was a similarly physical presence for the likes of
Wimbledon, where he spent a total of nine years, and, conveniently, Leeds United.
McKeever’s record speaks to his reverence of the man who was a significant reason behind The Crazy Gang’s notoriety. He was not afraid to get his hands dirty. There are few better indicators of this than in November 1998. Against Cork City, on November 22, he was sent-off for a deliberate handball. Owing to the rules of suspensions working differently back in those days – they did not come into effect until a week or so later - he played again the next week, against Shamrock Rovers, on November 29.
‘I got a seven-match ban one Christmas, for f*** sake,’ he begins. ‘It just shows you how bad suspensions were back then. Seven f***ing matches. I got sent off at home against Rovers. I burst Jason Sherlock. I’ll tell you a story about that one.
‘He was diving all over the place, this is the famous GAA man, and he was diving everywhere. I was like, f*** this. I got onto [John Walsh, Bray goalkeeper] at halftime and I said to Walshie: ‘Walsh, I am going to smack him in the second half.’ Anyway, after halftime, I went up to head the ball, and swung around and caught him with my fist, flush.
‘That was fine, right, but the ball had gone down to the other corner flag but the f***ing linesman – I could hear his flag fluffing. Vinnie
I got sent off at home against Rovers. I burst Jason Sherlock. I’ll tell you a story about that one.
Byrne was referee; I remember him well. He ran up to me and said, ‘Bo, I am going to have to send you. The linesman has you. I know he is diving all around the place,’ this is what the referee was saying to me. ‘I know he is diving all over the place but I have to send you because the linesman has you.’
Those two suspensions – three vs Cork, four vs Rovers – added together to make a seven-game ban. That was probably his most severe length of absence from football as a result of ill-discipline; officially, at least. According to folklore, he was in possession of the longest prohibition in European club football history. He is quick to set the record straight.
It is said to have occurred in 1990 when, courtesy of their win of the FAI Cup, Bray qualified for the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. Standing in their way of making the competition proper was Trabzonspor in the play-offs. In the home tie of the two-legged contest, in Tolka Park, Bray came away with a credible 1-1 draw, during which Bo was shown a yellow card. The return leg, in Turkey, did not go as well, as Wanderers lost 2-1 to bow out on aggregate, 3-2.
In that second game, McKeever was shown another yellow card, earning him a one-match ban. However, that ban was only in effect in Europe, not domestically. They wouldn’t play in Europe again until 1999, hence the nature of the claim that he was suspended for nine years. As the old saying goes: a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
As it transpired, after the club consulted UEFA as to Bo’s eligibility for the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup – as it became known - qualifier against Grasshopper Club Zurich, the association divulged that the ban had expired after two years, in 1992.
So, no, Anthony ‘Bo’ McKeever was not banned from European football for nine years. It was, at most, two.
The contrivances surrounding that cup campaign could do little to dampen the occasion itself. The qualifiers against Grasshoppers, who won both legs 4-0, were of particular value to McKeever. He holds a great deal of appreciation for the career he had, especially when it came to playing in Europe.
‘The fact that you are there on the streets, and then you’re playing schoolboys, and then you’re playing LSL and League of Ireland. You have to pinch yourself, sometimes. The experience of playing Trabzonspor home and away and then, in 1999 of course, who is the manager of Grasshopper Zurich? Roy Hodgson. We weren’t to swap the shirts because we were tight on cash, to be honest, so I took one of the subs and swapped it, because I wasn’t going to get into trouble. I got a shirt and was delighted with that. I still have it.
‘I don’t think Pat ever get credit for it, taking us on that journey. It was phenomenal, like. To hold Trabzonspor at home, 1-1, then to go out there and, I think we hit the bar early on. Then, we conceded a soft goal and they beat us. There were about 20,000 over there but they were jumping around and the atmosphere was like 50,000.
‘Even the memories of staying in little dormitories. They said the hotel was full and they didn’t have anywhere else. We sent a scout up to the hotel, and sure the hotel was empty; the referees were staying in it. We were treated very badly. We went up for training the day before the match. The showers were broken, 90-degree heat, buses were late picking us up. The f***ing gamesmanship.
‘The worst part about that was, who did they go on to play in the next round? Barcelona.’
Pat Devlin was the constant conductor throughout the success of those two Bray teams. An icon of League of Ireland football, Devlin was the manager when Bray Wanderers entered into the national game, won the First Division title in 1986, lifted the FAI Cup in 1990, and then returned to repeat the trick by winning the First Division twice more in 1996 and 2000, as well as the FAI Cup in 1999. He is an awesome figure, without whom the class of 1990 may well have never come into being.
‘He was just brilliant. A motivator. Just unbelievable. I had so many games where I had given everything for him, and I would go off dripping sweat and he wouldn’t even praise you. That was the way he was. He didn’t throw around praise too much, but he just knew how to get the best out of you.
When I played right-full, every pre-season, there was a right-full signed and he would tell me, ‘he is going to take your place’. Every single season, and I played every one of them off. He always had a couple of players for every position and he was just a brilliant tactician, a brilliant motivator.
‘People talk about Bielsa-ball and everything at Leeds, the training regimes he has. Devlin had us back in pre-season and we used to train up on the Boghall [Road] and the f***ing hills and the grass was so high, up to your knees, and he would have us running up there. He had the fittest teams, in any league. I used to go back pre-season, even when I was getting on in years, I would run up Bray Head and across, three or four weeks before pre-season, because I knew the young lads would be coming in every year. I remember a couple of local lads, Tommy Gill and Anthony Mernagh, joined us one year and they came straight in from the GAA. They were doing laps in mad times. That’s why we had to keep a little bit ahead.’
Such was how well McKeever regarded Devlin that when he left the managerial hotseat in 1990, Bo quickly followed out of frustration at what he perceived to be the lowering of standards at the club in 1993. That season, they had been relegated from the Premier Division with just five wins and 23 points from 32 games. The following year, they would finish second from bottom of the First Division with four wins and 27 points. Bo could see the writing on the wall and, frustrated by the state of affairs which had lost the foundation of their spectacular predecessors, he left for pastures new.
He was far from finished in football. Instead, he became player-manager at Wicklow Rovers until 1995. The drop-off in professionalism was jarring for someone who had been a ferocious competitor for eight years, but he did not let that stop him from enjoying his time at the club.
‘I knew where it was going. Pat had gone, all of the players had gone, so I just got an opportunity from Wicklow Rovers, the local team, and it was one of the best two years of my football career.
‘It took me a while to put in a bit of professionalism into the club. I have to say that the committee were absolutely brilliant down there. There were some great people, made some great friends. Some of the players in the side were fantastic, and I am talking about some local lads who did not know how good they were. Young Anthony Mernagh, I had young Sean O’Brien playing at 17, and I had Billy (Alexander).
‘The one thing was that, the same as Bray Wanderers, if you didn’t train, you didn’t play. We built up a good little team there. The likes of Mick McDonald from Ashford and took a few more players from Ashford, and John Doyle and that. These lads were big into the GAA and the first thing I said to them was, ‘look it, lads, it is either the soccer or the GAA, so give me a commitment at the start of the year and we will do well.’ The lads gave up the GAA, which was unheard of, by the way.’
Eventually, in 1995, he returned to the Carlisle Grounds, persuaded by the similarly returning Pat Devlin. Once again, Devlin was looking to rebuild a title-winning group, and looked to Bo McKeever to be a leader, both on-and-off the pitch. Aged 32 and entering the twilight of his playing career, his role on the field was changing. Much like they did ten years earlier, Bray won the First Division title in 1995/96, following that up with the cup in 1999, and the title in 2000. It was yet another massively successful time for Wanderers but, for McKeever, it felt different. He reserves a fonder place in his heart for the 1990 cup final, due to being on the bench for the 1999 final.
He went on to play until 2000, when he retired at the age of 37 and accepted a coaching role, which wouldn’t last very long.
‘I felt that I could go another year but Pat kind of – I was probably disappointed with the way it ended because he kind of … he didn’t stop me from playing, but he wanted me to go in as his assistant manager. I felt that I could play a little bit more, but anyway, I took the position and I went as his assistant. I just went for a year and, don’t get wrong, Pat is brilliant, but I am not a yes man. Pat had a lot of yes men around him. It kind of ended then. That was it, really. I am kind of my own man and didn’t think my views were being heard, but look it, who is to tell Pat what to do?’
He returned for a brief time as assistant manager under Eddie Gormley in 2008, but his relationship with the club has otherwise dwindled in subsequent years. Disenfranchised by past ownership at the club, which bottomed out with that infamous press release which compared Wicklow to North Korea, McKeever, a previously frequent season ticket holder, has rarely been back since, even going so far as to protest against the hierarchy in 2015.
Instead, over the past few years, he has had to fight new battles in his personal life. Just 16 months ago, he went through surgery to clear a blockage in his carotid artery, and then, just two months ago, he was diagnosed and swiftly treated for prostate cancer. It has given him a chance to reflect on the life he has had and the life he is still to lead.
He is grateful for his wife, Liz, and her tolerance of his athletic exploits, both in football and, most recently, in golf, which he has played since 1993 with Wicklow Golf Club, where he has served as handicap secretary for 20 years, as well as club captain and club president. He is grateful for the fitness and attrition which he credits as having helped him through his health problems.
As for Bray Wanderers, he is excited by the progress being made by the club in recent years and looks forward to the day when he walks back through gates of the Carlisle Ground to witness the Seagulls soar beyond the First Division once again.