The Rebels Arisen
30th Oct 2002
The Rebels Arisen
by Danny go-Deas
Well, "The Roy Keane Controversy" has apparently died down, according to the national media. The Irish Examiner reported last week that sales of Keane jerseys are soaring in Cork but plummeting all around the country. Why would a Cork kid want an Irish jersey with Roy Keane and the number 6 on the back? For anyone who is either abroad or tied to a kitchen chair with telephone cable, the fact is that Roy is being held up as a hero here in Cork. If there were any doubts about his conduct in Saipan the interview with Paddy O'Gorman on RTE Television cast them aside. It was difficult to argue against what Keane was saying. Most people already raised the sensible question: how has he got on with club managers Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson? Like a house on fire. Conclusion: The FAI is a disastrously organised, pitiful, woeful shambles. Their countless cock-ups and shameful disrespect to our players have brought shame on Irish football, our reputation as a nation and - most importantly of all - Cork. The FAI has arrogantly lowered its stained Calvin Kleins and covered our Roy in several kilograms of its "official" mess.
Can you imagine the smell of it all had Robbie Keane not got that goal against the Germans? If Roy Keane was on that field we would have topped the group and be heading for a nice second round game against South Africa or Paraguay. How many times was the ball given away stupidly? Does Roy Keane give away ball? I don't need to answer that.
Questioning his loyalty to his country is despicable; to accuse him of faking injury an embarressment. Any five- minute segment of that interview makes a mockery of such stupidity. It is spine-chilling to witness the loyalty to Keane on the streets of Cork. Shops and pub windows bear unfettering messages of support. Cummins Sports say that their Keane jerseys have been selling like hot cakes. Then there was the demonstration on Grand Parade. Organised at the last minute, confused by rumours of cancellation and sneered at by some (admittedly non-Corkonian) members of the local media, people turned out in their droves to show their support for the main man.
In my obsession with the frenzy it created in the first few days I found myself frantically switching from station to station to get the latest. A female caller with a thick Dublin accent said on Joe Duffy's Liveline show that Keane did what he did because "he's fiery, just like ALL Cork people. I should know, Joe, me mudder was from Cork and she was fiery like the rest of them Cork people". RTE's host Marianne Finucane, commenting on the support Keane was getting here, said "they've got their own little republic going on down there".
It may sound dramatic but without doubt there is an underlying rebellious mindset in Cork people that we love to show in moments like these, as the FAI stamp all over our dream of seeing a Corkman lead out a team at the biggest show on earth. Who are those Dublin pricks telling us what to do and what to like? This isn't Newbridge or Athlone or some other Godforesaken nobody town that exists only to be another of Dublin's satellites and you're never too sure of what county it's in anyway. This is Cork, we'll decide for ourselves and we won't follow you. It all started in Cork'