Keys to the Kingdom: Michael O’Regan on the Kerry Association in Dublin

The All-Ireland GAA trophy Sam Maguire sat in all its splendour, a special guest at the Kerry Association in Dublin dinner in a Dublin hotel, postponed for more than two years because of Covid.

It was a long wait for the gathering, where the association’s award winners are honoured. It was an even longer wait for Sam Maguire, a frequent visitor to Kerry when All-Irelands were more plentiful in that bastion of Gaelic football.

In Kerry, winning All-Irelands is not a matter of life and death; it is much more important than that. It is best illustrated in a story told by Brendan Kennelly, very much against himself. Some of his fellow county people blamed him for conceding a goal and losing Kerry an All-Ireland minor victory against Dublin in the 1950s.

Some years later, back in Kerry for a visit, he was introduced to an elderly neighbour as a distinguished Trinity College academic and poet, a star guest with Gay Byrne on The Late Late Show. The old man was unimpressed. “Are you the boyeen who lost us the All-Ireland?”

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There was a roll of drums as Tom Keane, of the Kerry County Board, arrived at the dinner with Sam Maguire. Association chairperson Keelin Kissane, bedecked in her chain of office, introduced the guests of honour, Kerry Person of the Year Dr Patricia Sheahan, and local councillor Jimmy Moloney, on behalf of the Listowel Tidy Towns, winners of the community award.

Dr Sheahan is head of the palliative care at University Hospital Kerry, and a key figure in developing the service over the years. Listowel Tidy Towns won their award for their enormous success and community efforts. It was quite a night for the north Kerry town, given that Dr Sheahan is a native of Listowel.

Visiting Listowel these days, one sees a town of well-maintained streets, floral displays, and the mainstay of the John B Keane memorial. John B was also Kerry Person of the Year. Others who also received the coveted award, over the years, included Brendan Kennelly, Dick Spring, Jimmy Deenihan, Colm Cooper, Mick O’Connell and Sr Stanislaus Kennedy.

When the legendary journalist Con Houlihan, a native of Castleisland, or if you prefer Con’s spelling Castle Island, was presented with the award, he announced to the startled audience he was a Corkman. Con could not resist the moment of mischief.

The Kerry Association in Dublin was formed in 1951, with the primary aim of organising a social event for Kerry football teams on All-Ireland night. The first reception for a Kerry team was held in the International in Bray, Co Wicklow, in September 1953. The hotel management offered dinner and a dance for 15 shillings per person. A piano player and a drummer were available for an extra 30 shillings.

It was a time when the journey from Kerry to Dublin was long and tortuous. For decades, the choice was to make that journey or listen to Michael O’Hehir’s commentary on the radio back home.

Kerry writer Sigerson Clifford recalled the era of the ghost train, ferrying passengers through the night to Dublin for big games. “O, the gold balls of old days/Twinkle wistful in my mind/And I see the fireman dark/ Against the light/Hear the whistle whimper lonely/O’er the dead leaves of the years/As the ghost train races/Swiftly through the night.”

Today, a flight from Kerry Airport, in Farranfore, is a speedier option.

In the 1950s, young Kerry people coming to work in Dubln usually went home a few times a year. The Kerry Association in Dublin provided an invaluable social outlet. There were dances, in the then landmark dancehalls, the National and the Metropole, social gatherings, debates, trips to other parts of the country, and, for a time, a football team. Kerryman Denis Guiney, owner of Clerys, in O’Connell Street, made his dancehall and meeting room available to the association.

Intriguingly, minutes of meetings from the 1950s refer to a “smoking concert” during Lent.

In the early days, it was known as The Kerrymen’s Association, until political correctness dictated a necessary change of name.

The Kerry Person of the Year award was initiated in 1979 and the community award in recent years. There is also an arts award, with the most recent recipient Fr Pat Ahern, a founder of Siamsa, the national folk theatre.

There is a familial link with the early days. Current vice-president Mark Kennelly is son of famed Kerry footballer Colm Kennelly, a member of the committee while a student in Trinity College in the 1950s.

A long-serving member is author Fr Anthony Gaughan, who had a significant birthday honoured at the dinner with a surprise cake.

Societal changes should have meant the demise of the county associations in the capital. But some, like Kerry, retain their place. They are a link with the past and very much part of the present.