Member's statement: Kieran McKenna
Member's statement by Lord Elliott on .
- MLA
- Lord Elliott
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 7 May 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Kieran McKenna
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4487857
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I congratulate Kieran McKenna and his Ipswich Town football team on reaching the English Premiership. It is a great achievement for Kieran, a Fermanagh man. He came through the ranks of Enniskillen Town United youth and Ballinamallard United youth before being spotted by a Spurs scout and brought to Tottenham Hotspur to play there for a short time until he got a bad injury and had to retire from football at the age of 22. He then went on to coach at Spurs. He managed the under-18 team at Spurs before going to one of their rivals, Manchester United. He was then second in command to Mourinho at Manchester United before making the bold move to Ipswich Town, a team that was not going well at the time in League One. After his first half-season there, in the second season he got promotion to the Championship and then, this year, secured a back-to-back promotion to the Premiership. That is a huge achievement, and I congratulate Kieran and his family. The McKennas own the Manor House Country Hotel in Ballinamallard, and they are a hard-working and dedicated family, just as Kieran himself is dedicated to football and now to Ipswich Town. I look forward, in the time ahead, to maybe seeing him go back and manage Tottenham Hotspur, which is my favourite team, or maybe even coming back here to manage Northern Ireland in the years to come.
237 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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