Paddy has the definite chapter and verse on Roy Keane

PRIOR to mobile phones and in the days when people relied on letters of news from back home, Bishopstown man Paddy Calnan first heard of Cork's famous sports star Roy Keane while attending university in the States.

From then his interest in the soccer star grew and over 30 years later the 51 year-old local historian has compiled a series of web documentaries which cover the entirety of Keane's career from his early days at Rockmount to his last days at Celtic FC.

With almost 1,700 videos consisting of every game Keane played in, Calnan tells us about his reason for doing the project and remarkably how he has never met his sporting idol.

“I was on an Athletics scholarship in Murray State University when I was 19, these times were pre-mobile and calling home was very expensive, so my family used to send me letters every few weeks,” said Calnan. 

"That post box was sacred. I'd be trembling opening it, rushing to read the news at home. 

"My brother Jamesy used to send me sports paper clippings and thats where I heard the week after Cork secured the double in 1990(which I missed) that a 19 year-old from Mayfield had made his debut in Anfield on the 28th of August. 

"I was gobsmaked. I couldn't believe it. From here I was hooked on following his career.” 

While Calnan has followed Keanes career since 1990, it was in 2021 that he decided to take on the new project. 

After 1000s of hours of work and research, Calnan is thrilled with the outcome and now he is looking for the support from Cork fans in particular to help him reach the 1K subscriber mark.

“I was researching this project for eight months slowly uploading material privately, which essentially means it couldn't be viewed. I couldn't believe that nobody had done it already, I still can't.

“What I am doing is something nobody has ever done. I am covering the entire career of Roy Keane from start to finish in an easy to find manner and in chronological order. 

"Every match. Every stat. My video section starts at Rockmount back in the 1980's and I will follow Roy's career eventually up to the present day with my own personal take on these times. 

"There are 111 of my own productions. I am self taught in regards video productions. I research, plan, produce, edit and control everything to do with my channel myself.

“My Playlist section is spread over 32 Sections with close to 1700 videos of a mixture of other peoples productions on Roy with my own full descriptions with complete statistics. 

"So for example, if you went to the section on Manchester United, you will find every game Keane played in and associated interviews and full stats, 695 videos. 

"That's for die hard Keane and United fans and the trainspotting anorak stats fiends. It really is like a trip to the Roy Keane museum.

“It took up an enormous amount of time, thousands of hours at this stage but well worth it."

So what was Calnan’s reason in undertaking such a project?

“Well, quite simply because nobody has completed a full career analysis on Roy before. 

"I consider Roy to be Ireland's greatest ever player and one of the most all rounded centre mid field players the world has ever seen. 

"He deserves to have his full story documented.

“Also, I guess I did it to bring some old lads like me from a certain generation back down memory lane, and then to hopefully educate other younger generations to what was an incredibly entertaining period. 

"It really was a unique time, and made extra special for Roy, to have had Togher man Denis Irwin alongside him on his journey. 

"What were the chances of that happening or ever happening again. Two Cork lads in one of United's greatest ever teams. 

"It's not just a great football story. It's a great Irish emigrants story.” 

Quite remarkably Calnan has never met Keane but hopes one day sooner rather than later he will.

“I guess if I am narrating the Roy Keane story, and the central character doesn't make an appearance, it's not going to be much of a story really. 

"So, hopefully one day I’ll get to meet him. The first thing I would ask him, how long has it actually been since he thanked his own postman, or any postman, and why did he tog out with Brian Dillon's instead of Mayfield back in the day?

“So I am kindly asking my fellow Corkonian soccer mad Keano fans, if and when you visit my site, enjoy the experience, but please hit the SUBSCRIBE button and try and get me to the magical 1K Subscriber mark, and of course, feel free to leave a comment at https://youtube.com/@keano1971."