There might be only one ‘Mr. Galway United’, and he plays up front, but there are several stalwart supporters who carried the torch through the darkest of times. All of them would have the utmost respect for the fandom of Kenny Keady, and indeed his sister Caroline. He is well placed to reflect on the view from the terraces as we approach the 2025 season.
“I would never have expected the League of Ireland to be mainstream. It was always, as Johnny Ward used to say, the people on the fringes of society! But it is becoming so popular. I’ve never seen more people walking around Galway wearing Galway United gear. I’ve never heard more people talking about the matches. It’s great to be involved while we are in the Premier.
“There used to be away games where we couldn’t even get 15 lads for a minibus. Now there are certain games where you can have 200 or 250 regularly at away games. It’s great to see, especially in Dublin where guys from Galway are attending games where historically they wouldn’t.
“It’s definitely more enjoyable when there are bigger crowds. You can feel the atmosphere. I think last year, the average attendance was 3,000. You think back to the days in Terryland where there were a couple of hundred people. You can’t compare it to a full Terryland, with 400 away fans in full voice and 3,000 Galway United fans roaring back at them.
The team have played their part in attracting the fans up the Dyke Road and giving the fans plenty to roar about, playing with a passion that harkens back to the best years the stadium saw.
“The team when we won the first division, there was a great base of a squad there. When we came up to the Premier Division, there weren’t wholesale changes. We kept the core of the squad and added a couple bits of quality. In the summer, we added more quality with the likes of Greg [Cunningham] and Jimmy [Keohane].
“That helps to build the rapport between the fans and the team. I think the days where you had 10-12 players leaving and coming in were disastrous because it takes six months to get everyone playing together properly and you could be cut adrift at that stage.
“I think it’s going to be a strange season. Even though it’s a ten-team league, I think it’s going to be broken up into three parts. Pats and Rovers I think will fight it out for the league, with Shels and Derry filling up the European spots. I can see us in a little group then with Bohs and Waterford. Maybe then the likes of Cork, Sligo and Drogheda fighting to stay up in the bottom.
“For me, I’d love it to be like last year with a deeper run in the cup maybe.” It hasn’t always been the easiest of fanbases to speak with one voice for, but Kenny’s sentiments for the 2025 season seem to capture the Zeitgeist.
