Talented Peter McKeever Was so unlucky playing for the Royal County. McKeever and O'Callaghan insurance Brokers are coming of age this year. That's right. Founded in 1973 by Peter McKeever and Leo O'Callaghan, the firm will be 21 years in business later on in the year and they hope to be celebrating with a Meath victory in the Leinster final against the Dubs and maybe even an All-Ireland. A Navan man, Peter McKeever was first employed by Phoenix Assurance which was subsequently taken over by Sun Alliance. Having started there in 1949, he had reached the position of Area Manager when, "I decided to take the plunge. There was a reconstruction within the company. They were closing outline offices and I just took over mine. The business has been successful, continuously expanding and now has a total staff of 7, servicing the insuring public throughout Meath and neighbouring counties". Frank Dempsey of LMFM radio is the Brokerage Manager and he gives a succinct run down of what the firm covers. "We cover all insurance lines. We have a large corporate base as well as substantial personal lines. We are members of the Irish Brokers Association which is the umbrella body for independent insurance brokers and arrange mortgages with anybody. We are the main agents for the Educational Building Society. We would insure everything from a needle to an anchor, and also have a bureau de change". Peter McKeever is a very proud family man. Wife Mary is originally from Kells and the happy couple have three daughters and one son. Elizabeth (a solicitor) is married to Duncan Hodgins, also a solicitor, and have their own practice in Nenagh. Mary Patricia is a biochemist and she is married to Ciaran O'Beirne, who is also a biochemist. Suzanne is a qualified teacher in Dublin, while Peter has just finished secondary school and is awaiting the results of the Leaving Cert with bated breath. St. Finian's College provided the young McKeever with a Leinster medal in 1948, which was his first major Championship success. "I went on from there and in that year played at full back for the Westmeath Minors. I was a traitor. Seriously though, it wasn't a bad team and we lost in the Leinster final to Dublin". "Club-wise I played Minor with O'Growney's in Navan, Junior football with Rathkenny and Senior football with a divisional team called North Meath. I lined out with them from 1948 - '54. I joined Navan O'Mahonys in 1954 and stayed with them until I retired in 1962 and this is where my football career really blossomed and where I had most of my success. We won the county Championship five years in a row from 1957 - '61 inclusive which is unprecedented. We won quite a few Feis Cups and won tournaments all over Ireland including one in Tuam, when we played the Stars and I was marking Sean Purcell, which was a great experience. I feel that this was one of the greatest club teams of any era". After his sojourn in the Westmeath colours, Peter returned to the green jersey of his native county and in 1952 was right full back on the Meath Junior team that was victorious in the All-Ireland, where London provided the opposition. "It was a very big competition in those days. The standard was very high as some of the weaker Senior teams were regarded into Junior e.g. Donegal and Leitrim. We played Leitrim in the 'home' final. I remember it well. I had found it pretty easy going throughout the competition until that game when I was marked by this youngster who wouldn't stay steady. It was none other than Packie McGarty, who turned out to be a great player. We're good friends ever since". A sub on the Seniors that year was also a fabulous experience for the young McKeever. "We were beaten by Cavan in the All-Ireland that year though. Being with the Seniors was my first experience of collective training. They were the greatest bunch of guys to be with. I was only 21 and to be with players who had won Meath's first ever Senior All-Ireland in 1949 was just brilliant. They had been my idols, particularly Paddy O'Brien, Frankie Byrne and Peter McDermott, all of whom had a great influence on me. My next major occasion was Leinster final of 1955 when we were well beaten by Dublin. That defeat spelled the end of the great '49 team. The following year in a reconstructed Meath team we got to the League final against Cork but were beaten by one point for the title". "I played continuously on the Meath team from 1952 to 1958", relates Peter, "and I had great times, but it was soured a bit by two incidents. In 1954 I was dropped having played a poor match for my club. I was back in form long before the All-Ireland final though, but didn't make it back in the team that went on to win. Yet, I was recalled to centre half back for the first game in the League. I still look back on it and it still upsets me". "We were narrowly beaten by Dublin in the Championship in 1958 and that was a missed opportunity as they went on to win the All-Ireland. After the game I had a disagreement with the then Chairman of the County Board. It was fairly heated. The next time I was picked to play for Meath, I declined to do so and retired from intercounty football. It's a move I regretted later as I was only 27 and I probably played my best football after that, especially with the five-in-a-row Mahony's side". Peter has no doubt about who the major influence on his career was. "I would have to say that my father, Bertie was my greatest influence. He was a mad follower of football and always went to games. It was a time when Meath had a good team but they were always being just beaten. He took me to the 1939 All-Ireland final when I was only eight. I loved football so much that all I wanted from Santa Claus was a football". "The Meath footballers were my idols, the 1949 team in particular who had been around since the mid forties. It was a great thrill to play with them. Other great footballers who I marked in my time were Ollie Freaney (Dublin), Paddy Carolan, Jimmy McDonnell (Cavan), Kevin Behan, Dermot O'Brien (Louth), Tadhg Crowley (Cork) and Packie McGarty (Leitrim). The "Terrible Twins" (Sean Purcell and Frankie Stockwell) were coming to the end of their careers when I played. I formed a great friendship with all of them". Peter makes the observation that there are not as many individual stars in the game nowadays and this is due to the fact that it is more a team game. He rates Colm O'Rourke as the best footballer around for the past fifteen years and feels that Bernard Flynn was a brilliant corner-forward before he sustained that dreadful cruciate ligament injury. "I hope he returns to that form". Martin O'Connell also receives much praise, as does Down's Mickey Linden. "They have a lethal forward line in that team". As a man who lined out for the Royal County in the fifties, he is in a good position to analyse the changes that have taken place in the game. "Football was very different in my time. It was not as intense or as serious. It was enjoyed more. There were no professional coaching. It was more man to man stuff whereas nowadays, because of the fifteen man game, you get a lot of jumping with my opposite number for the ball, there would just be the two of us. There was great skill in the form of high catching and accurate kicking. That's not to say that players in the game today aren't skilful and if they played in our time they'd run through us, they're so fit. Winning has become all important. The game is getting dangerously professional and I'd hate to see it get any more so than it is. It's an amateur sport and should remain so". Peter is a very big fan of the present Meath outfit. "I'm very proud of them. They possess such dedication, commitment and skill. Dublin just about beat them all through the seventies, Colm O'Rourke had more or less given up when they finally made the breakthrough and that was back in 1986! Sean Boylan was undoubtedly the catalyst for the subsequent wave of victories and there has also been a great improvement in underage football". The path into G.A.A. administration was not taken by Peter because he joined Royal Tara golf club in 1958. He was secretary for 12 years, captain in 1976 and President from 1983 to 1985. "So I didn't have the time to give to O'Mahonys. I wouldn't have been able to do the job properly. During that time they nearly equalled our record but they just managed four-in-a-row. At the moment they're going through a rough patch". And what are the chances of the Meath players getting a set of Celtic crosses before the year is out? "I've seen them play this year and I was very pleased with them against Laois. It was very refreshing to see the young guys coming through at crisis points in the game. Meath have the prefect blend of youth and experience and they've got that tremendous spirit back. I think they'll go the whole way. I would definitely be very hopeful and I think the team that made the breakthrough would be deserving of another All-Ireland". When I ask Peter who he feels will be Meath's likely opposition he laughs deviously. "I'd love to have another shot at Cork. I actually think they will be there although Down will provide stern opposition. I'd love a Meath/Cork final. The atmosphere would be something else". A mouth-watering and most probably prospect/ Written by the Hogan Stand Magazine 29th July '94 Tweet

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