The Belfast launch of Only The Sky Above Me took place on the weekend of what would have been on its subject Jim McKeever’s 94th birthday.
An immensely distinguished presence in Ulster Gaelic games, he was also a pioneering figure in the development of a national coaching framework.
He was justly credited with being the source of innovation in the province, as he would have taught many who went on to become influential football coaches during his 35-year tenure as Head of the Physical Education Department at St Mary’s Teacher Training College.
Not only a superb Gaelic footballer, McKeever also played international basketball and was a successful athlete, winning the Ulster long jump championship, and a talented gymnast.
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As a centrefielder, he led Derry to the county’s first All-Ireland final in 1958 and, despite losing to Dublin, became the first Footballer of the Year when Caltex (later Texaco) inaugurated the annual sports awards.
They reached the final by sensationally defeating Kerry in the semi-final, 2-6 to 2-5. In this paper Pat’O described Jim McKeever’s contribution: “The northern captain inspired his side by brilliant solo runs and long-range drives.”
He went on to be a coach, taking Derry to the 1987 Ulster title and St Mary’s to the college’s first Sigerson Cup in 1989. One of his players then was current GAA president Jarlath Burns, who recalls in the book’s foreword.
“I will never forget his coaching, his wisdom and his friendship to all the lads of our 1989 Sigerson-winning team and the fact that all of us turned up to line the route of his funeral on a cold Good Friday spoke volumes of the esteem in which we all held him.”
Jim McKeever was also a prime mover in the coaching conferences in Gormanston and in the 1960s a columnist with the Sunday Independent in which he expressed liberal views on the GAA bans, having this to say on the old prohibition on playing ‘foreign’ games.
“On balance, I think it does no good. In fact, I feel that it does some harm to the Association. Its removal would not result in a drift from the national games. Irrespective of the “ban” people play the game they want to and it is unlikely that there would be any complications if it were removed.”
He went on to serve as an administrator, including as Derry’s Central Council delegate but he was never particularly enamoured of GAA politics.
Plans to write a memoir were stalled by ill health but his family discovered a nearly completed draft, which has been edited by Seamus McRory and an editorial committee, including Maeve McKeever, daughter of Jim, who himself died in 2023.
As McRory says: “The net result is that we have a 252-page book of memories and 64 photographs each with a story to tell”.
His namesake, the late Art McRory of Tyrone renown, paid the ultimate tribute in 1997: “One man above all others epitomises for me, the spirit of the GAA. That man, Jim McKeever, through his coaching expertise for so many years, has done more to promote the GAA than any other person.”
It’s quite a story.
♦ Only The Sky Above Me is available in the following retail outlets: Sheehy’s, Cookstown; O’Neill’s, Magherafelt; Siopa an Carn, Maghera; Begley’s, Dungannon; Macaris Newsagents, Armagh; McCartan Sports, Downpatrick; Owenbeg Derry GAA Centre, Dungiven; St Mary’s University College, Belfast. For those outside of Ulster, the book is available at www.orpenpress.com for £20.
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