BERWICK, SCOTLAND - JULY 07: Rory McIlroy (L) is pictured playing with Celtic owner Dermot Desmond during the abrdn Scottish Open practice day at the Renaissance Club on July 07, 2021, in Berwick, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Celtic’s Robbie Keane issue has been taken to Dermot Desmond’s home patch thanks to RTE.
For the best part of 20 years Desmond has enjoyed mainly glowing coverage on the back of Celtic’s successes.
With Martin O’Neill, Neil Lennon and Brendan Rodgers as manager the message has been reinforced to an Irish audience.
Typically Desmond attends around six matches a season, usually when trophies are being handed out or glamorous opponents are in Glasgow for European ties.
Today Celtic are being viewed very differently.
Ireland’s Nations League ties with Israel are a big news item in Ireland. Richie Sadler’s brilliant comments on the issues last week went viral.
Ireland is more aware of what is going on in Palestine than any European nation.
There is an honesty and fearlessness in the media coverage towards the genocide by Israel.
And meddling right into that are two of Ireland’s highest profile individuals. Desmond and Keane.
DERMOT DESMOND LOSES HIS MIDAS TOUCH
It doesn’t create a favourable impression.
Desmond no longer relies or cares about favourable media opinion but his little boy Ross cares. As he showed with his trebling performance last November at the Celtic AGM.
In the Dublin circles that he moves in Ross will be well aware of how despised Robbie Keane is.
He isn’t a trophy manager to brag about such as Rodgers, O’Neill and Lennon.
Israel is a terrorist state, anyone who supports the Zionist regime through whatever form, particularly during a genocide should be shunned. Fair play to those Celtic supporters, Maith sibh
— Mairtin MacOscair (@Mairtin88) June 5, 2026
RTE reports:
Dozens of Celtic supporters clubs have put their name to a statement opposing the potential appointment of Robbie Keane as manager over his previous role with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Keane is among the favourites to take charge amid reports he is involved in ongoing talks with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond.
The Republic of Ireland record goal-scorer enjoyed a prolific loan spell at Celtic Park in 2010 and has won league titles in Israel and Hungary as a manager.
However, his decision to stay in Israel after the conflict in Gaza began sparked criticism in Ireland and has turned a section of the Celtic support against him.
Keane didn’t manager just any club in Israel.
He managed Macabbi Tel Aviv, the most extreme club in the country, one heavily linked to the IDF. Under Keane the squad was shown a motivational video with messages from soldiers involved in the Palestine genocide.
Reaction from supporters has snowballed this week.
It is widely reported that Desmond is leading the negotiations, Keane is central to it.
To such an extent that it seems that some secondary support role is being created for Martin O’Neill.
Having been fairly low key for decades Desmond changed that with his personal attack on Brendan Rodgers.
Since then he has been central to the criticism of Celtic fans.
Now with RTE giving the incident coverage the Midas touch for Desmond has well and truly gone.
Maybe it worked – multiple news sites are now suggesting O’Neill has got the job for a year with the option of an extra year…..