Peter Keane opens up on mountain rescue after Carrauntoohil fall

Kerry manager Peter Keane fell on Carrauntoohil two days after Cork knocked his side out of last year’s Championship. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

A simple slip on Carrauntoohil two days after Cork knocked Kerry out of last year’s Championship led to Peter Keane requiring surgery on a broken shoulder.

Keane agreed to help a farmer friend round up ewes on the mountain. 

“There was one condition — we wouldn’t talk football,” he recalled. 

“So I said we would and away we went. The forecast was to get poor later on, but it got bad earlier than anticipated. And I had a very innocuous fall, it was just a slip, and I put my hand back to save myself and unfortunately I dislocated my shoulder in doing the same thing.”

Keane was brought to Bon Secours hospital in Tralee following the efforts of the Kerry Mountain Rescue team. 

“I suppose I was very, very fortunate with Kerry Mountain Rescue that they came, and it was unbelievable – it was embarrassing, to be honest with you. People give out to me when I say it was embarrassing, because this is what’s there.

“But it was unbelievable to think that these people come out in all types of weather and you’ve somebody bringing half a stretcher, and another person bringing the other half, somebody bringing a sledge and somebody bringing stakes.

“For them to bring me down … it was amazing, that’s maybe the best way I could describe it, the way people could come out. Kerry Mountain Rescue has no funding, no Government funding, but they’ll go out in any conditions to bring any person home.”