A life in GAA on and off the field - Laois GAA Hall of Fame inductee Kieran Brennan

This week Kieran Brennan of St Josephs will be the very deserving recipient of the Laois GAA hall of fame award at the annual Laois GAA awards on Friday the 18th of November. When Kieran began his adult footballing career, his club St Josephs was a junior cub. Kieran would go on to win five Laois Senior titles with the club. They also reached two Leinster finals, losing to St Vincent’s which featured Jimmy Keaveny and Brian Mullins in 1975, and to Walsh Island, which featured the great Matt Connor, in 1978. Brennan also represented Laois from 1966 until 1978 

This week ahead of receiving his Hall of Fame award at the Laois GAA awards night on Friday, Kieran sat down with the Leinster Express/ Laois Live to discuss his life in GAA on and off the field in what has been a remarkable journey for the St Josephs man. 

We first discussed growing up playing for St Joseph's and eventually winning five Laois Senior Championships.

“When I started playing Adult football it was with St Josephs in the junior grade. A few clubs then came together to form a senior team for a few years, The Rovers. That amalgamation consisted of ourselves, St Josephs, Arles, Barrowhouse, and Ballylinan. We didn't win anything but when the amalgamation broke up is when St Josephs's really came to the fore as a very good team. We won 5 Laois senior titles between 1973 and 1983.” says Brennan. 

“There were some great people involved with St Josephs when I was growing up that really encouraged us and helped us fall in love with GAA. The Dempseys, Tony Byrne, Jimmy Kelly, Edmund Barry, and loads of people around the area. You were never stuck for a lift to matches. I was in Ballyfin college and they would come over and collect you and bring you back.” More below photo

Above Kieran outside Belinter St Johns Credit: Irish Independent 

Brennan would represent his county at playing level from the mid-sixties right up to the late 70s. Kieran takes enormous pride when recalling his days in the blue and white jersey. 

“I got on the Laois team in 66, I was only after joining the guards at the time and the training with the guards helped me out a lot. It was fantastic training and really brought on my fitness levels. Fintan Walsh and Paddy Bracken were also on the Laois team at the time, the lads were household names because Laois had a wonderful team in the early 60s. So it was a good mixture when I came in. I remember my first game very well, It was a challenge match against Roscommon in Mountmellick, just the thought of putting on a Laois jersey to me was like heaven.”

“In 68 we got to a Leinster Final against Longford, We probably should have won that one but it got away from us in the end. That was about as close as we got to a Leinster championship. We were in a kind of a middle division and obviously being situated in the midlands we would have had fixtures all over the country. It ended up that throughout the years with Laois I played every county in Ireland. I remember playing Fermanagh one day in really bad snow. At half-time, my hands were so cold that I put them into tea to warm them up. Another time we were playing Antrim in Casement park, We were searched by the British army at the train station when we arrived. That was a scary moment, They were very aggressive. I didn’t like it anyways and can understand why many people in the north didn't like it either at the time.” Says the St Josephs man 

“There were some hard battles but Laois kind of relished that at the time. Laois historically has never been afraid of that tough style of playing. I remember playing Donegal one day and I was speaking to John Conway after, who sadly passed this week, He was full-back and I was wing back and I told him ‘I stood back looking at you, you played that well'. I was nearly afraid of him myself the way he was coming out with the ball. A big row started the same day as we called it back then it was a ‘great row’ and we won the row as well as the match.” 

“In 77/78 I was asked to be player/manager for a year while the manager at the time, Tom Darcy, went to Strawberry hil in London to complete a coaching course. We beat Cavan in a quarter-final of the league having come back from a losing position at half-time. I brought myself on at half-time but I wouldn't say that I was the reason we were able to turn it around. Dublin would eventually beat us in the semi-final. “

During that time Kieran also featured on Railway cup teams under the famous Kevin Heffernan whom Kieran greatly admired. 

“I look back on the railway cup teams with great pride as well. To play under Kevin Heffernan on them teams was a dream come true. Kevin would have been one of my heroes at the time. A fantastic man. So to play under him and represent Leinster was truly amazing. There were 40’000 at the railway cup games in Croke park. We played a savage Munster team one year. Including the likes of the Bomber Liston, Jack O’Shea, and Pat Spillane. Playing against them sort of lads only served to make you a better player” 

In 1984 Brennan took over as Laois manager. He first recalls a particular dispute he had with his brother Dessie not long after taking over as manager 

“In 1984 I was asked to manage Laois permanently. That first year my brother Dessie was actually on the panel. One of the lads in the coaching setup suggested that we drop him because he felt it would be too awkward for me to manage my own brother. He didn't talk to me for about six months after that. I don't blame him he was dead right. Then we were in the pub one day a good few of us, and Dessie came over and said he'd buy a drink for the whole lot of us. I said that's great now the dispute is all over. About five minutes later the Barman comes over to me and says that 45 pounds. Dessie was gone up the road laughing. After that, we were good pals again.”

Kieran went on to speak about facing the Dubs in a Leinster final and the mentality and advice he tried to install in his players as they went out to face one of the greatest sides of all time. 

“In that first year we reached a Leinster final against Kevin Heffernans Dubs. We definitely could have won that one. We had no fear of going out against what was a brilliant Dublin team at the time. I would have said to the lads to keep it simple. It's my opinion that the game gets overcomplicated these days and it's actually quite simple. You have to get possession and bring it from one end of the field to the next as quickly as you can and put it between the posts. These days it's overcomplicated and some important aspects of the game are overlooked. It's very rare you see anyone putting in a block these days. Its incredible. I can't understand why no one stands in front of a 45’ anymore either, these are basic aspects of the game that are overlooked these days. When we went out against Kevin Heffernans Dublin I told the lads that a Dublin man is the very same as yourselves only he has a Dublin jersey on him, He doesn't have three arms or three legs or anything of the like. Mohammad Ali always had the mentality that he was the greatest. I would have used that as an example with the lads many times. That sort of motivation as well as getting the simple things right was what stood out to us in them years. ” 

Kieran's Laois side won the Division 1 league in 1986 which was a huge achievement for the O’Moore county. 

“We won the League final in 1986 and that was massive. That team was absolutely brilliant. Okay, we got them together and put them together and just provided basic coaching ideas, But they were a fantastic group of lads themselves. The county board was great at the time as well. There was a great spirit in that team. Them days you could win the Division 1 league having started in Division 3 that very same year, We were the last team to do that.  I woke up in bed the next morning and felt like a huge weight that I had been carrying for years had lifted off my head. It was like we were given a mentality that we can beat anyone.  If you could bottle that feeling and sell it to Mayo men they would win an All-Ireland in the morning. It's not something that I can really describe but all of a sudden after losing all our lives, there was a feeling we can beat anyone. When I was playing with Laois we had an awful habit of dropping heads if we were losing after 15 minutes. You have to keep going even and play right to the end even if it's only to get yourself ready for the next day.” More below photo

Referee Carthage Buckley sends off Wicklow's Nick O'Neill and Laois's Willie Brennan during the 1986 Leinster SFC at Aughrim Photo Ray McManus

I was keen to speak to Kieran about one of his achievements off the field of GAA. Kieran is a recipient of the Scott medal, an award that is given to members of Garda Siochana who have completed an act of bravery. It is a very prestigious accolade. Kieran himself is very modest about this achievement. He describes how the situation which got him the award wasn't a situation he wanted but rather one he found himself in. 

“Look it the Scott medal was great to get but to be honest, I don't like to mention it too often. It's not like we went out that morning and said we are going to be very brave today. It wasn't a situation that we wanted to be in rather it was more a situation that we found ourselves in. It was myself and Martin Donnellan. The call came through that there was a bank raid in Stillorgan. Shots were after being fired. The robbers had a van and had the back open with the machine guns at the ready. We happened to be posted on a narrow road at the time and they just happened to come up that road. They came fecking flying. At the time we had no guns but we had walkie-talkies that looked like a little pistol. We got down beside the car and started pointing them as if we were pointing guns. We had blocked them off and they stopped. The hair was standing on top of my head. They decided to back down the road and they turned the car into a drain. The robbers jumped out and went running up the mountain. I took after one and Martin took after the another. When I caught up with your man I pointed the Walkie Talkie and let a roar ‘Put your F***ing hands up!!’ and he did. Martin caught his fella and a third lad was caught in England a week later trying to pull off another robbery. Again though, I don't see it as a brave act on our part at all just something that we got caught in the middle of.

Kieran is gracious for the Hall of Fame award that Laois GAA has chosen him for but feels he is accepting the award on behalf of the many people that have played parts in his achievements in GAA down through the years 

“I'm delighted to be getting the award but in my mind, I’m getting it on behalf of all the lads that I've played with and that I’ve managed with along the way. The Josephs lads that's brought me to all the games, the Laois Lads that I played with, everyone involved in that league-winning Laois team in 86. You know I feel I'm only getting this award on behalf of all the lads and many more who helped me along the way”