And no, it wasn’t Mick McCarthy or any of the other fanciful suggestions made in the aftermath of the incident earlier in the week.
The man who confronted Keane was, in fact, Frank Gillespie, a prominent Irish soccer fan originally from Westmeath who has lived in Boston for the last two decades and was back in Ireland ahead of Ireland’s Euro 2016 qualifier clash with Scotland tonight.
According to The Irish Mirror, Gillespie, from Tyrrellspass, is a close friend of former Ireland manager Jack Charlton and was a regular fixture around the Ireland camp when Big Jack was in charge.
Gillespie is believed to have a frosty relationship with Ireland assistant manager Keane yet still approached him at the Irish team hotel in Portmarnock, asking him to sign a copy of his new book, The Second Half.
The Irish Mirror report that Keane told Gillespie that he wouldn’t sign the book, leading to a verbal exchange between the pair and Gillespie tearing a number of pages out of the book and throwing them in the air before tumbling to the ground.
Although no assault took place, Gillespie was taken to Beaumont Hospital after the incident and has since been released, while Keane’s name was cleared in a statement by the FAI on Wednesday night and a video statement by Ireland manager Martin O’Neill yesterday.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, a family friend of Gillespie’s said: “Frank’s a huge soccer fan, him and Jack Charlton’s son were great buddies and he was very involved in the squad back in Charlton’s time and he knew Keane from a while back but it’s no secret he’s not his biggest fan.
Pic via Twitter/@blackthornpaddy
“He moved to America about 20 years ago and he owned a bar out in Boston where a lot of Ireland players would have been regulars when they were visiting the city in the Charlton days but he’s into property now as far as we all know.
“I met him the other day and he was in great form, he’s a grand lad and absolutely soccer mad and home for the game obviously but he’s kept a house in Tyrrellspass and visits several times a year so he’s well known and very popular in the area.”
Charlton’s wife, meanwhile, told the paper: “We know Frank well, he is an old friend and we keep in touch now and then but we didn’t know there was an incident and we didn’t even know he was in Dublin as he lives in Boston with his lovely wife now.
“I hope he’s OK.”
Now that we know pretty much everything about the incident, hopefully it’s dealt with and everyone can move on and concentrate on the more important matter of beating Scotland tonight.
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