Happy St. Kevin's Day!

Today is the feast-day of St. Kevin of Glendalough!

One of his name-sakes is the footballer Kevin Keegan, who played in the seventies and eighties and became a manager in the nineties and millennium. And I swear a Kevin Keegan quotation came into my mind this morning, without me realizing the saints' day connection.

Keegan credits his career to the encouragement of a nun. He went to Catholic school, got married in a Catholic church (and he's been married to the same woman for fifty-one years), and I even found one reference to him giving a talk to a school on his faith.

Although he was a legendary player and manager, Keegan's greatest talent might be his commentating. He regularly came out with glorious gaffes that have come to be known as "Keeganisms". Here are my five favourites, though I won't vouch for their authenticity. (I suspect they're all kosher as they regularly appear on lists of Keeganisms.

1. "“Life wouldn’t be worth living if you could buy confidence because the rich people would have it all and everybody else would… would have to make their own arrangements." (This is my favourite.)

2. "There'll be no siestas in Madrid tonight."

3. "The 33 or 34-year-olds will be 36 or 37 by the time the next World Cup comes around, if they're not careful."

4. "England can end the millennium as it started– as the greatest football nation in the world."

5. "Despite his white boots, he has real pace."

There are lots more out there. You can find them pretty easily.

I also like (non-ironically) Keegan's hit single from 1978, "Head Over Heels In Love With You", both lyrically and musically.

(Incredibly, as I was about to publish this blog post, I discovered that Kevin Keegan announced he has stage four stomach cancer just yesterday. I thought of not publishing it out of respect, but then I thought...well, it's clearly an affectionate post, I hope, and it's highly unlikely that him or anyone in his family will see it. But if they do, I assure them of my prayers. God bless him and them! But if anyone thinks this is the wrong choice, let me know.)