After Darran O'Sullivan's Glenbeigh/Glencar won the All-Ireland Junior Club Football Championship (a win O'Sullivan said "tops anything I've ever done before"), Lee Keegan's Westport club took to the Croke Park pitch on Sunday for the Intermediate decider against St Colmcilles of Meath. Westport would prevail on a scoreline of 2-12 to 3-08 after a late comeback from Colmcilles.
Keegan was interviewed after the game by Liam Horan of localstreaming.club, who provided an excellent stream along with sponsors AIB (which you can watch back here). And, like O'Sullivan - and former Kilkenny hurler Richie Power after the Intermediate hurling final the night before - it was evident how much the win meant to Keegan, who has experienced a lot of heartache at Croke Park with Mayo over the course of his inter-county career:
It's been a lot of long years of hurt, pain...I felt like that way again today, that we were going to lose it at the end...finally we got one lucky break.
I think we were fully deserving winners today, even though we tried our best to lose it at times, but just the scenes here now...I'm just over the moon and I suppose it makes up for all those years of long slog, hurt, pain, losing All-Irelands here in Croke Park. And finally, a Mayo team go to Croke Park and win. What more can you ask for?
Today just shows what it's all about. The support we have here today, the man beside me - to have my brother here in the squad - it's a fairytale, it's a dream come true. I was never the biggest clubman when I was younger, but I've grown into it and it's just been an absolutely amazing experience. It's something I'm going to treasure for the rest of my days because All-Irelands are hard won and when you win one you have to enjoy the success. Believe me, we'll enjoy it. Westport will be a busy week this week anyway, there mightn't be too many in work but the pubs will be busy!
Lee Keegan club triumph
Over the course of the weekend it was great to be able to watch some of Gaelic games' stars in action for their clubs through Local Streaming's service. It captured some special moments, including this one between Keegan and his father after the victory:
As well as that, it included a delightful conversation between commentator Liam Horan and Paul Grady from Westport GAA about the car-washing that was going on in Westport to raise funds for the club. It was a conversation uniquely Irish, uniquely GAA, and highly amusing to listen to:
