Pioneering spirit helps Clare get back to football’s theatre of dreams

Noel Walsh and Gabriel Keating didn’t set out to become pioneers in the early 1970s, rather both men were simply unhappy with the set-up in front of them.

Keating, first, for his focus was concentrated on the local front; Walsh, as was nearly always the case in the ensuing decades, was concerned with far bigger canvasses. Their paths, mind you, would eventually cross.

Gabriel Keating landed home to the small village of Cross in West Clare in ’73 after 10 years spent working with An Post in Roscommon. He secured work with the finance company Bowmaker and spent his days travelling around Limerick, Tipperary, and Clare. One evening on his way home from work, he came across a group of young men kicking a football at the Bridges of Ross, a synonymous landmark close to Loop Head lighthouse.