TONY KEADY’S FAMILY appeared on the Late Late Show tonight to speak about the release of his official biography ‘One-hundred and ten percent Legend’.
"He wasn't just my Dad, he was my best friend" - the late Galway hurler Tony Keady's daughter Shannon talking about their strong bond #latelate pic.twitter.com/CuwRopQGPE
— RTE One (@RTEOne) May 4, 2018
The two-time All-Ireland winner sadly passed away last August and in the months before his death had started to work on his autobiography with journalist Liam Hayes.
The family and Hayes decided to continue the work and finish telling Keady’s story, which is now available in bookstores nationwide.
“Tony came to me a few months before he passed tragically and he wanted to write his story,” Hayes told Ryan Tubridy.
“He was such a wholesome, caring person and that’s something that comes through strongly in the book. So many people tell stories of the Tony they knew as a hero on the field and the Tony they knew off the field.”
The book includes heart-wrenching letters written by Keady’s children Shannon, Anthony, Jake and Harry to their father after his death.
“I learned so many things from Dad,” Jake wrote. “When I got hurt he kissed me better and made the pain go away. I wish he could kiss me now and make this big pain go away.
“Dad, me and you were like Donkey and Shrek. We were always together, laughing and having fun. I never thought it would ever end. There was so much more we had to do. We were only beginning.”
Harry wrote: “Dad, I still wake up in the morning thinking this is a nightmare and that you’re not really gone. And at night I look at the sky and make a wish on the brightest star I see and I believe it’s you.
“Dad, you taught me how to walk, you taught me how to talk, you taught me how to throw a ball. You taught me how to hurl, but you didn’t teach me how to live without you.”
When Tubridy asked Keady’s wife Margaret why the book was so important to them, she replied: “Well, it kept us going over the winter. Because we were facing a long, lonely winter without Tony. The boys, Shannon and myself used to sit down at night and we wrote little letters.
“Some of them went into the book. It kept Tony alive and it still does because we have his book all over the house and I’m sure a lot of people have his book in their house.”
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