Keating rules out Boyzone reunion

Ronan Keating today quashed rumours of a Boyzone reunion.

The solo artist, who releases his latest album next week, ended speculation that the boy band are set to reunite.

Boyzone – made up of Keating, Stephen Gately. Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch, Ritchie Rock and Mark Walton – split in 1999 after five years of chart success.

It was rumoured that following the successful Take That reunion tour – which sold out within six hours of going on sale – their Irish counterparts would follow suit.

But Ronan ruled out any reconcilement, especially with his former manager and X Factor judge Louis Walsh.

“Louis and I were really good friends,” he said. “We socialised together, we loved the same sort of music, we got on very well together, he understood me, I understood him.

“It was very easy working with him up to the stage where he stopped managing me. These things happen, what can you do?

“It hurt me more than anything else the way he went on.

“He tried to absolutely ruin me, the things he said about me,” Ronan told RTE radio.

“If Louis Walsh came up and said sorry, I’d say great, I’d shake his hand. I never said a bad word about him so I don’t need to apologise back. If he wants me to apologise, I’ll apologise, I don’t know what for.”

Ronan’s new album Bring You Home will be released on June 5.