The man at the centre of a bizarre hotel bust-up with Roy Keane is a big Westmeath GAA fan.

Boston-based publican and businessman Frank Gillespie was taken to hospital after a run-in with the Republic of Ireland assistant manager at the Irish team hotel in Portmarnock, north Co. Dublin on Wednesday afternoon. The altercation apparently happened after Gillespie, who has followed the Irish team all over the world, approached Keane asking him to sign a copy of his book, 'The Second Half'.

"He cannot walk up to one of the best Ireland fans in the last 25 years and treat them like that. It is not about Roy Keane or Frank Gillespie - I will still have my flag out for the boys tonight (against Scotland)," Gillespie said.

According to Gillespie, the row was over a book that he wrote 10 years ago called 'Confessions from the Blackthorn' in which he spoke of his relationship with Keane, who was one of a number of Irish soccer starts who visited his Boston pub, 'The Blacktorn' .

Hailing from Tyrrellspass and a son-in-law of comedian Brendan Grace (who will appear on The Late, Late Show tonight), Gillespie has been a lifelong supporter of his club and county.

"I have been to games and followed my county since the day Mick Carley, my good neighbour and county footballer, took me to see them play many years ago," he wrote in a letter to the Westmeath Examiner in 2009.

In the same letter, Gillespie called for resignations in the county board after Westmeath were hammered by Dublin in the Leinster SFC semi-final.

"I am writing to say how embarrassed I am as a long-time supporter of Westmeath to witness a display in Croke Park like we had to endure last Sunday week," he wrote at the time.

"Where is our pride in the jersey gone? What is wrong at county board level when the fish starts to rot from the head down? It's time to get up off our asses and do something now!"

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