By Bartley Ramsay

Yes, it is true Roy Keane has been to Finn Park before. As you can see from the photograph featured Keane is shown sliding in to tackle Harps Harry Walsh. Finn Harps actually appear quite a few times during Roy's brief spell in the League of Ireland at Cobh Ramblers.

Keane actually made his League debut at Finn Park on 3rd September 1989. Sadly for Roy, and his brother Denis who appeared in the same team, Harps got their season off to a flyer defeating the County Cork side by three goals to one. For the record the scorers for Harps were Harry McLoughlin, Con McLaughlin and Tony O'Kelly.

When Harps visited St Colman's Park later that season on 19th November, Keane marked the occasion by scoring his first goal in senior football and his only League goal for Ramblers. The Munster side took ample revenge for their opening day defeat winning by three goals to nil.

By the time that the game that this photograph dates from the 28th January 1990, Finn Harps had gone through a bit of upheaval. Chris Rutherford, Harps manager since 1987 had resigned from his position on the 27th December 1989. Players Eddie McGinley and Con McLaughlin had replaced Rutherford, for one game. Alex Harkin, then the club secretary, had stepped into the breach and taken on the role of caretaker Manager to guide the club to the end of the season.

I came across the picture in the archives while I was researching the history of the club for the book "The Finn Harps Story" that was published last year. When I came across it, I immediately got on the phone to Harry, who had no idea that the photograph existed and was most surprised to hear of it. I caught up again with Harry, who is of course the sports editor of the Donegal News. Harry says candidly that he has no recollection of playing against Keane, nor any recollection of the particular match, which Harps won by one goal to nil, Barry Patton being the scorer. He did recall that he had only just returned to Ireland after spending the previous eighteen months in America and Australia. The records bear this out as Harry only returned to the side in January 1990.

One other Donegal man came into close contact with Roy during that season was Anthony Gorman, who had two spells as a player at Finn Park. Anthony was Harps player-manager in the 2006 season, the same year that Roy took up his first managerial role as Sunderland manager.

Both Keane and Gorman were representatives on the inaugural Football Association of Ireland/FAS Scheme in Dublin. Each League of Ireland club nominated two representatives on the scheme and the players trained and stayed in Dublin during the week, travelling to play for their clubs at the weekends.