Reuniting 30 years after Keano gave her free tickets to a Man United match

It was a very special moment for this Cork woman - meeting her hero Roy Keane to show off her late father's most prized possession, two years after his passing.

The special item was a jigsaw, made from a photo of the moment Claire Griffin and her father first met the football legend 30 years ago. The snap was taken after Keano surprised her and her dad William with free tickets to a Man United match. Ever since that day, the pair were eager for a chance to meet him again - and Claire was looking for every chance to make it happen.

She finally reunited with Roy at an Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind fundraiser earlier this month. The Cork woman told him all about her father's passing and just how much the jigsaw had meant to him - and she said he "couldn't have been nicer."

Her journey to meet him again started back in April 1995, right after she travelled to Old Trafford with her father for a Leeds United versus Man United game.

Claire said: "So back in 1994, actually, 96FM had a competition, "Meet Your Hero." And my granddad was very sick at the time. He passed away of motor neurone, God love him, which back in '94, no one really knew what it was... So he wrote a letter to 96FM just saying I looked after him and saying, you know, I was mad about Roy Keane and it would be great to meet him and all that.

"Nothing became of it, and then my granddad passed away in September. And then about November that year, my dad wrote a letter to Roy Keane, a very professional letter, you know, sent it off to Roy Keane c/o Manchester United.

"And about six weeks later, I was sitting at home and the phone rang, and my sister answered. And this man said, "Is William Murphy there?" Dad was working at the time. So I was sitting in the sitting room doing my French homework - I was in Transition Year -and my sister came in and goes, 'Claire, Roy Keane is on the phone,'" she told Cork's 96FM Opinion Line.

Claire said she was certain someone was pranking them - but not long after she picked up the phone, she knew she was talking to the real Keano. He told her he was sending them over tickets for one of his games, and he would love to meet them afterwards. When they finally travelled over for the match - Claire said Roy "treated them like royalty."

"It was Leeds United versus Man United at home. It ended nil-all. And myself and my dad then went into the players' lounge and met players, and we waited for Roy. And he was just amazing. We had about an hour and a half with him and just spoke about Cork and Midleton and, you know," she said.

"Dad and myself were just sitting there in awe of him. He was so kind to us. And then we went out on the pitch, and a photographer came out and took a picture of Dad and myself and Roy on the pitch. And I got a picture with Roy on my own, and he was just absolutely amazing, you know?"

The meeting meant the world to William, so Claire gifted him a 1,000 piece jigsaw made from the photo they got with the football legend. It soon became William's most prized possession, and a great pastime for him when his health started to decline over COVID and he wasn't able to go outside much.

He sadly passed away in 2024, but still spoke regularly about Keano up until his final days.

Claire said: "You know, we still reminisced about the day. And my phone rang about five o'clock one morning, and it was Dad. He was after big surgery now, and he was on a lot of medication. So when I saw the phone ringing, I said, "Dad, are you all right?" And he said - no, he was after dreaming like, but he said, 'Claire, there's a new bar after opening in the Mercy Hospital, and I went down for a pint, and guess who was in there? Only Roy Keane.'

"And I was like 'Really, Dad? How did you get on with him?' 'Oh, we had a great chat,' he said. 'But I knew the nurse was looking at me to get back to the ward.' He said, 'Roy was throwing back pints anyway, and I had a great chat with him.' And it was just lovely, in all his sickness and all his pain, that he still thought of Roy so fondly right up to the end, you know."

After losing her father, Claire made it her mission to show Roy the jigsaw that had meant so much to him. When she heard the sports pundit would be at a charity fundraiser this month, she knew it was the perfect chance.

"I always said that if I met him on the street or I was on a flight with him, I'd do my very best to stay away from him, because he's human at the end of the day and he has a private life, and he doesn't want to be getting contacted or asked to stand for a picture. I wanted it to be kind of under his terms.

"I didn't want to annoy him, you know. So when the Irish Guide Dogs advertised that this corporate event was coming up and my company was 10 years old, I thought, what better way?"

At the event, she saw Roy had a moment of downtime so rushed to grab the jigsaw and show it to him. At first, a lady with security tried to say that he couldn't talk - but Roy interrupted them, telling Claire: "Are you going to let her stop you?"

She recalled: "So I brought the jigsaw up, and it was like it came back to him, whether it did or not. Maybe that was wishful thinking, I don't know.

"But anyway, showed him the jigsaw; he thought it was fabulous. We reminisced about the day, told him about Dad's dream in the Mercy, and he said, 'Oh, typical me, knocking back the pints,' you know. He couldn't have been better, stood for the picture, and it was just absolutely amazing...

"He was just brilliant. He spoke to everyone that came up. I went up to him again with the rest of the group that I had with me. We all got our picture taken. He was asking about the business. He couldn't have been nicer. I mean, I would have stayed there all night, but, like, I had to leave and go."

It was a very special moment for the Cork woman, who said Roy is an "absolute gent." Despite his 'hard-man' reputation, Keano is known to have a softer side and has done a lot of work for charity and special visits over the years.

Last year, he went out of his way to surprise one sick fan of his named Pat O'Sullivan at the Mercy Hospital. It came after his son, Rob, reached out to RedFM Breakfast in the hopes of getting in touch with Roy and asking him to record a personal message for their dad.

The request eventually reached Keane, who decided to go above and beyond for the O'Sullivan family, flying into Cork for a surprise visit and a chat with Pat.

The pair spent time chatting about everything from football to life growing up in Mayfield, and Rob said that Keano treated his father like an old friend.