Dan still going strong… at 105


Dan Keating, Ballygamboon, Castlemaine, left, celebrates with 105th birthday with members of Republican Sinn Féin at Gally’s Bar& Restaurant, Tralee, on Tuesday. Included are Ruairi O Bradaigh, Roscommon, president Republican Sinn Féin, Des Dalton, Kildare, vice-president, John Mangan, chairman and organiser, Tralee, Padraig Garvey, runai, Cahersiveen, Pat Quirke, PRO, Tralee. Photo by Kevin Coleman

Thursday January 4th 2007
By Marisa Reidy

HE may have been 57 years old before he sampled his first taste of alcohol but, for Castlemaine man Dan Keating, this Tuesday was a one of those very special occasions when he enjoyed a tipple, as he celebrated his 105th birthday in Tralee at a party organised by his friends and colleagues of Republican Sinn Féin (RSF).

Tuesday’s party — the sixth major celebration since Dan turned 100 — was attended by up to 60 well-wishers from all over Ireland, including uachtarán Sinn Féin Poblachtach Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, leas-uachtarán Des Dalton, runaí Líta Ní Chathmhaoil and ard comhairle members Josephine Hayden and Tom Curran.

RSF’s Kerry chairman, John Mangan, was also in attendance to pass on good wishes to his close friend, as were fellow RSF members Maurice Dowling, Sean Murphy and Tom Lawlor, among others.

Born on January 2, 1902, and reared on the family farm in Ballygamboon, Dan was the eldest of a family of nine, and has outlived all of his siblings, as well as his wife, Mary, who died 30 years ago.

A staunch republican all his life, resulting in his internment on a number of occasions back in the early 1920s, Dan has never been afraid to voice his opinions on controversial issues — Rule 42 being just one of them.

As he reminisced on the past year with his close friends on Tuesday afternoon, the 105-year-old revealed that he refused to attend the 2006 All-Ireland final featuring his beloved Kerry, because of what he referred to as the GAA’s ‘sell out’ on the Rule 42 issue, which now clears the way soccer and rugby to be played in Croke Park while Lansdowne Road is being developed.

Despite having attended 154 All-Ireland finals in his lifetime, and having missed just three of Kerry’s 34 All-Ireland wins when he was, as he says, “in cold storage”, Dan believes that the decision to amend Rule 42 in April was a sad day for the GAA.

“It’s sad to think that after all that has gone on, and after years of division in our country, that the GAA could sell out like that. It’s very sad and that’s why I didn’t attend the final in September,” he said.

On a more positive note, however, one of the highlights of 2006 for Dan was being invited as a special guest to the premier of The Wind That Shakes the Barley in Cork this summer which, he says, was a tremendous honour and something he thoroughly enjoyed.

As he looks forward to a brand new year, a very healthy looking Dan says that he simply plans to take every day as it comes — which still includes a daily walk in his native Castlemaine!

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