‘Little Ro’

Ronan, Patrick, John, Keating was born in Dublin on the 3^rd March 1977; a Piscean.  Marie and Gerry, his proud parents now had a fifth child to add to the Keating brood.  With three older brothers, Ciaran, Gerard, Gary and big sister Linda, Ronan was the baby of the family, and soon to be the most spoilt growing up.

Music was in his blood from a young age, growing up with his elder siblings various tastes in music.  From Squeeze to Aha, the Police to Cat Stevens, he soon realised his love for music and his voice.  As a teenager at school he joined five friends to form a band who were called Nameste, taken from a Beastie Boys album track.  They performed at school band competitions, singing covers by Nirvana to Bryan Adams.  At one particular competition they won £1,000, giving Ronan a real confidence and a feeling that he could come accustomed to that.

One of Ronan’s earliest jobs whilst still at school was working part time at Korkys; a shoe shop in the city centre of Dublin.  But his love of music and singing was still in his heart.  Then one day his boss at the shop happened to show him a newspaper advert auditioning for the Irish equivalent of Take That, and it really appealed to Ronan.  He went along to the auditions and faced a queue of over 300 other hopeful young lads.  Feeling unsure and awkward, Ronan still stayed and waited patiently with the others.   Louis Walsh was on the panel of judges and Ronan chose to sing Cat Steven’s classic Father and Son.  Ronan felt it went well, until that is he was asked to dance - not one of Ronan’s strongest points!  But nonetheless Louis was impressed and asked him back for a second audition.  So this time he sang a track by one of his biggest idols; George Michael and the song was Careless Whisper.  Ronan was through after waiting for three agonising weeks and he was elated. Could his dream be coming true?