NEW Kerry football manager Peter Keane has paid tribute to Killarney teenager Niall McGillicuddy who passed away, following an illness, on Friday morning.
He said his death puts everything in perspective and he was thinking of Niall and his family yesterday as he prepared for his first press conference since being installed as Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s successor.
Niall (16) was an outstanding footballer and the new Kerry boss said he would have been well in contention to become a Kerry minor this season.
“I would have been looking at this fella as potentially playing with the Kerry minors this year, in 2018, but most definitely playing with the minors in 2019 because he was under 17,” he said.
“He got sick a couple of months ago with leukaemia and it’s very sad to think that there was a young fella that you were looking at when there was no senior gig or anything like that. That’s the predominant thought that’s in my head all day,” Keane remarked.
The funeral arrangements for Niall McGillicuddy have been announced. Reposing at O’Shea’s Funeral Home on Monday from 3.30pm to 6.30pm, removal will take place afterwards to St Mary’s Cathedral.
Requiem Mass will be on Tuesday at 10.30am with burial afterwards in the New Cemetery, Killarney. Family flowers only by request, donations if desired to the Irish Cancer Society.
Niall is survived by his heartbroken parents, Sheila and Daíthí, his sisters Ellen and Jane, aunts, uncles, cousins, staff and students at St Brendan’s College, many wonderful friends and club mates.
© KillarneyToday.com: news@killarneytoday.com. Call 087-2229761
