Mr Kieran Walsh

MR Kieran Walsh, of Downpatrick Road, Annacloy, who died in hospital on September 15 aged 61, was an outstanding local sportsman.

Kieran attended Holy Family Primary School in Teconnaught where he was in the first P7 class of a  young teacher called Denis Cahill. He was also among the last P7 pupils to finish their primary school education at the old school.

There were two other boys in his class with whom he formed lifelong friendships, Dermot Kelly and Pat Mulholland.

Gaelic football played a big role in Kieran’s early teenage and adult years. Teconnaught GAC was formed in 1966 and Kieran’s father, Pat, was one of the founder members.

Kieran played for the club’s youth teams before graduating to the first team at the tender age of 15. He was a very skilful footballer and sold a great dummy which, in layman’s terms, meant he hoodwinked the defender into moving in one direction while he headed off in the other direction. He was certainly a difficult player to mark and although he wasn’t blessed with blistering pace, he made up for this with his guile.

The one thing he wasn’t overly fussed about was training. All he wanted to do was play the game. For this reason, he probably didn’t play as much first team football as he should have. He was happy enough playing for the second team and in 1982 he and his colleagues were rewarded for their efforts when they won the Down Reserve Championship.

Kieran was also a class act with the ball at his feet. In his late teens he signed for Ballynahinch Olympic where he played in the inside right role.

He played for Olympic for a couple of seasons before moving to Ballynagross, who had made him an offer he couldn’t refuse — the package included his new bride, Olive. Kieran played for Ballynagross for quite a few seasons with his buddies, Matt Lenaghan and Collie Wells.

Table tennis was Kieran’s other sporting love. He played on a very good Teconnaught team in the 1970s and 80s with his brother Dermot, Matt Lenaghan, Pat Mulholland, Alex McMullan and Michael Marner.

They competed in the Lecale League against teams such as Strangford and Crossgar, which featured many of Kieran’s team-mates from Teconnaught GAC.

Away from sport, Kieran was a devoted family man. He is survived by his wife, Olive, children Kerry, Bronagh and Neil, sons-in-law Jason and Phil, grandchildren Erin and Darrel and the family circle.

Kieran was one of East Down’s sporting talents and is fondly remembered by all who played with and against him.