All Ireland Football Final, Kerry 0-16 Cork 1-9

The All Ireland football final is the penultimate sporting event of the year. Think big...like The World Series, India vs Pakistan Cricket, The Superbowl, The Canadian Hockey League, Cal vs, Stanford, The Rugby Triple Crown (we won't talk about New Zealand and South African OK). It is an inter-county championship which means wherever you were born is the team you support. Border hopping is heavily frowned upon. The great rivals are Kerry vs. Dublin and Kerry vs. Cork and Kerry vs. anyone else. This is because Kerry has won the Sam Maguire cup more times than any other county by a long shot. This year it was Cork's turn to meet Kerry in the Football final. The whole county goes mad. There were green and gold banners and flags everywhere - the Kerry colours - only fitting for the county known as the Kingdom.

This is a picture of the primary school that I attended. My nieces (making Jam in the next post) now go there.The kids have decorated the school in support of the Kerry team. It turns out that this year the captain is from Glenbeigh, my local village, so the excitement was huge.

Of course mother's bed had to be decorated in the Kerry colours too.

The local policeman had the misfortune of being the only Corkman in the place. He decorated the police station in Cork colours (red and white checkers). I guess he had the law on his side so nobody was going to vandalize his handiwork.

I will spare all my Cork friends the agony of letting everyone know how Cork threw away the match (14 misses at scoring). This little fellow, who was watching the match in Jack's Pub in Cromane, is a pretty good reflection of how most Kerry people felt on Sunday afternoon.. we start them early in Kerry.

With the captain from Glenbeigh, the celebrations were something else. I don't think the village has sobered up yet and the policeman has had the good sense to stay well hidden inside his Garda Station.

Tradition has it that the team buses are met with bonfires along the road. Here is the one on the way into our village. No fire permits required here, just a pile of pallets and used car tyres and a few gallons of petrol.

Part of the tradition appears to be that the cup has to come to ever pub in Kerry. That should take it about the whole year. Here is Martha at The Red Fox pub with the Sam Maguire cup - and some very drunk minders of the cup.

Later on last night we came across the captain from Glenbeigh, Darren O'Sullivan and his father Con walking along the street in Glenbeigh with the cup. Martha and I couldn't resist the photo opportunity. I believe the team and cup were last seen in Sheahans pub in Killorglin.