Biography
Born in Templenoe, County Kerry, Spillane arrived into a family steeped in Gaelic football history. His father, Tom (1923–1964), played Gaelic football with Kerry and won a Munster title in 1948. A number of maternal uncles (his mother was bred by the Lyne Family of Killarney's Legion) also had the distinction of representing their county in football.
When Spillane was an eight-year-old, his father died, leaving his mother to take over the running of the family pub while simultaneously raising a family of four children. Spillane was educated at the local national school and later attended St. Brendan's College in Killarney, where one of his best friends was future Kerry teammate Páidí Ó Sé. At St. Brendan's his football skills were developed. He played senior football with 'Brendan’s' but lost both an All-Ireland Colleges' semi-final and a final.
Spillane subsequently attended Thomond College in Limerick where he studied to be a P.E. teacher. He was later joined by his brother Mick at Thomond and they both played on the college football team. In the late 1980s Spillane took over the running of the family pub in Templenoe. He worked as a P.E. and geography teacher at St. Gobán's College in Bantry, County Cork, where he became vice-principal and, subsequently, principal of the school in 2011. He also led the schools under-16 boys team to two 'Munsters' in a row in 05-06 and 06-07; both finals were played on Kerry soil against Limerick opposition.
Spillane lives in Templenoe with his wife Rosarii, and three children Cara (1990), Shóna (1992), and Pat Jr. (1997). He still helps to train his local teams.
Read more about this topic: Pat Spillane
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“There never was a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people, if he’s any good.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)