Roy Keane told mourners at the funeral Mass for his mother Marie that losing her felt like the family having their “hearts ripped out of their chests”.
However, the family was taking comfort in her being reunited “with people who love her as much as we do”, he told mourners at today’s Mass at the Church of the Resurrection in Farranree in Cork city.
Marie Keane (79) died at Marymount Hospice in Cork city last Friday. She was predeceased by her husband Mossie, who died in 2019.
The former Manchester United and Ireland player told mourners at the Mass his parents got married in the church on August 10th, 1963.
The coffin being carried from the funeral of Marie Keane. Photograph: Brendan Gleeson/PA Wire
Roy Keane said he rarely went against the wishes of his mother. However, he stressed he planned to disobey her on this occasion by making a “fuss’ of her at her funeral.
He said his mother grew up in Fairhill in Cork city. As the second eldest in a family of nine she had a lot of responsibility from an early age. Romance came calling in the form of Mossie Keane.
He said his parents were smitten with each other right from the start.
“One day her brother brought back the handsome teenager Mossie Keane. Standing in her living room she was in love. They [went on to have] five children. She would say six including me dad, as he was spoiled more than any of us.”
He admitted he and his siblings Denis, Johnson, Hilary and Pat “weren’t ready for Mam to go”. Keane said they often wondered who was the favourite of their mother.
“Denis being the eldest always thought it could be him. Pat was the youngest — maybe him. Hilary being the only girl — possibly. I am not sure where that left Johnson and myself. But she was loyal to all of us.”
The former Ireland assistant manager said Marie was “pretty cool all the time but as a mother she excelled”. Keane said he had “great memories of growing up”.
“Our mam didn’t always get what we wanted but always gave us what we needed.
She was pretty strict with us and if we were up to no good she had an amazing skill of throwing a shoe and no matter where we were in the house, she would always hit the target.”
He also smiled as he remembered the time his late mother “chased some lads down the street who had robbed a tree from our bonfire”.
“She sprinted off and caught them and came back dragging the tree behind her. It was very impressive.”
Keane said summer holidays to Garrettstown in Co Cork were always special for him and his family.
“Walking around and getting a bag of chips. I thought life was great. So simple. The two of them [his parents] would be in great form.”
Another firm favourite involved trips to Dublin with his family for the “All-Ireland [Final] when Cork used to win”. Keane conceded they never had a ticket to the match itself. It was was a case of “you can’t have everything”.
His mother could, he said, relay a lot with an eye roll, and her trademark “wicked sense of humour” was intact until the end.
He thanked all those who had paid tribute to his mother on RIP.ie.
One man, he said, had writtenhe was “chuffed” when Marie Keane introduced herself to him while he was on holiday in Portugal. The man had written that although the encounter was short, he could tell she was a great woman.
Keane smiled as he said that condolence had been written by Nicky Byrne of Westlife.
“That was my mam. Never shy to approach a complete stranger, especially when that complete stranger was a celebrity!”
He said his mother was a “great help and support” to her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and to her friends and neighbours.
He also paid tribute to his aunts and uncles and the extended Lynch family for their assistance to his mother in recent years.
“I have never known a closer family. We will never be able to thank you enough.”
Keane said although it had been a “tough” couple of years for his mother, she never complained.
“I never heard her complain once in all that time. Not once. What a woman she was. Ultimately our mam and dad were at their happiest when they were together, and they are together again. God bless Mam and thanks for everything you did for us.”
There was a black and white photograph of the smiling couple on the coffin for the duration of the Mass.
Fr Sean O’Sullivan told mourners Marie Keane meant the world to her family. She loved them “not for anything they had done or achieved” but simply for who they were.
“While our hearts expand to love others as we grow there is a place in our hearts that forever belongs to our mother. That is what makes them so special. It also makes it hard to lose them.”
In addition to her husband, Marie Keane was predeceased by her brother Pat, her niece Estella and her nephew Thomas.
A note on RIP.ie said she would also be “sadly missed” by her sisters Ina, Annette and Josephine, brothers Jack, Leo, Michael and Noel, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, daughters-in-law Linda, Theresa and Mary, brothers and sisters in law, nephews and nieces, extended family, her great neighbours in Mayfield and and Rathpeacon and her friends. Burial took place at St Catherine’s Cemetery in Kilcully, Co Cork.
Marie Keane, the late mother of former Manchester United and Ireland player Roy Keane