It was eight years ago this week that Keaney’s football career ended, having been told by an orthopaedic surgeon that he had the hips of a 70-year-old
A meeting of Galway and Donegal brings together two important strands of Luke Keaney’s identity. He’s from Donegal town though his mother, Deirdre, is a Galway native and her father, Tom ‘Pook’ Dillon, won an All-Ireland in 1956. Keaney harboured an ambition of winning Sam Maguire himself and standing alongside his grandfather with the trophy and while he died in 2019, that ambition had already long been parked by then.
After two years of rehab, at 26 Keaney sought out other sporting avenues, with rowing emerging as an option. Though a late starter, he made considerable progress having joined Donegal Bay and then Commercial Rowing Club in Dublin, representing Ireland in various world and European events, largely in coastal rowing. But there was always going to be a glass ceiling and in 2023 he felt he had hit it.
After being out cycling with his mother around a year ago, he decided that it was a sport that could give him a renewed focus. Like rowing, it doesn’t put any force through the hips so there would be no compromising his health. He joined the Orwell Wheelers CC in Dublin and appointed Cormac McCann as his coach.
“But the other thing is, I’ll be 33, I’m living with my girlfriend, Grainne, you have to look at is the risk worth the reward when you’re trying to work and save for a house and all that there.” “Eoin McHugh, I’d be all pally with them, Paddy McBrearty, they’re your best friends that you’ve known since you were 15 so you miss the team environment and playing with them and going to war for your club and your parish and obviously representing Donegal.
“To be truthful I still struggle going to Donegal games and watching it because there’s still part of that even though you’re competing in cycling, there’s still part of you thinking that you could do a job and it’s equally hard from a club standpoint.”
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