Ronan

Ronan Patrick John Keating was born 3rd March 1977 at home in Bayside, Dublin to parents Marie and Gerry. The baby of all the Keating siblings, Ronan had three brothers; Ciaran, Gerard and Gary and a sister; Linda. Described as a sensitive child, Ronan was a good boy growing up but was easily cajoled into mischief by his older brother, Gary; who he was closest to and wanted to be like. Ronan enjoyed school, with English being his best subject. He also liked History and P.E. As a youngster, Ronan was a promising athlete, running distances of 200m, 400m and 800m. He was in Dunshaughlin Athletics’ club, winning a lot of competitions along the way. Ronan won the All-Ireland Championships and came second in the Triple A Championships involving Ireland, England and Wales. He was offered a scholarship at Iona College in upstate, New York but didn’t take it as he didn’t have the determination to become a professional athlete. Music was always his passion and he started writing songs in his secondary school years; thinking up a melody in his head. He played a bit of guitar, teaching himself to play on his brother’s. Ronan joined his first band when he was 15; they didn’t have a name and all they really did was a bit of jamming. However, another band he was in; Nameste, won £1,000 in a talent competition. While in his final years at school, Ronan worked for Korky’s shoe shop part-time and for a while before Boyzone took off. In 1993, Ronan was told of auditions for a boyband and as an admirer of Take That, he thought he'd go for it, believing this new band could do as well as them. At the auditions, he sang George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’ and danced to Right Said Fred’s ‘I’m Too Sexy.’ He also sang a song that was to play a big part in Boyzone’s future; ‘Father and Son.’ Along with Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham and Stephen Gately, he made up Ireland's original boyband; achieving major success in UK and Europe, as well as their home country. Although, not initially thought of as the front man, (Mikey and Stephen took led on ‘Working my way back to you’) he came to the fore and sang lead vocals on the majority of Boyzone songs, along with Stephen. Ronan also won an ‘Ivor Novello’ songwriting award for ‘Picture of you.’