DUBLIN V KERRY
It’s a rivalry that borders on being a religious experience, so just what is it about...
WHO knows if Humphrey Bogart was a Gaelic football fan?
‘We’ll always have Tralee,’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but this was a weekend that reminded lovers of the game of the final emotional scene in Casablanca when Bogart’s character Rick — a cynical American expat who discovers an untapped vein of nobility during World War II — tells old flame Elsa (Ingrid Bergman), to get on the plane and away to safety, evoking that famous parting line about Paris.
That no matter the higher causes or historical forces at play, they will always be able to take refuge in the memory of a romanticised moment in time. Just like Saturday night. On the eve of the 2013 All-Ireland semi-final, RTÉ ran a promo: ‘What is it… about Dublin versus Kerry.’
A poem fleshed out the game’s most glamorous rivalry in contrasting terms. It was as much a philosophical statement as a series of open-ended questions.
‘Is it Gay Byrne or the Rose of Tralee?
Is it the Bomber Liston or the IFSC?
Is it Brendan Behan or John B Keane?
Is it Daniel O’Connor or Stephen’s Green?
Is it Mikey Sheehy or Ciarán Whelan?
Or Grafton Street with buskers’ squeal in’?
What is it about Dublin versus Kerry…’
No doubt there was a significance too of the titled backing track by Moby — God Moving Over the Face of the Waters. Because events at Austin Stack Park on Saturday were Gaelic football as a religious experience.
For a sold-out, all-ticket affair, the first of the 11,982 supporters started turning up at the gates of the ground just before four o’clock — for a 7pm start!
By 5.30, still a full hour and a half before referee Maurice Deegan threw the ball up — the word went out over the PA system that the main stand was full.
Already, there was an electricity in the air, a crackling of expectation and anticipation in this potential year of years when Jim Gavin’s Dublin could achieve immortality and become the first county in the history of the game to secure a five-in-a-row of All-Ireland senior football titles. Such an outcome would be almost an affront to the established standard-bearers and long-time leaders in the roll of honour.
We witnessed Ardfert’s Joe Wallace taking stewarding to a new level by grabbing Kerry PRO Leona Twiss and dancing a quick jig in time to the accordion playing of Liam O’Connor, whose showband had the ground rocking.
The seating plan threw together a row of Kerry captains, like a local version of Mount Rushmore. Darran O’Sullivan was next to Ogie Moran who sat beside Mickey Ned O’Sullivan.
Word filtered through via a technicolor clip on eir Sport that Jason Sherlock — presumed lost in terms of a coaching role with Dublin — had turned up like a modern day Dr Livingstone. What the vocal band of Dublin fans, who had travelled down south, would have given for Jayo to come running out from the tunnel under the main stand to plant a Dublin flag in the middle of the pitch a la Graeme Souness and Galatasaray. Kieran Donaghy (left), analyst on the same live broadcast, got up to all sorts of mischief in picking a Kerry Ultimate 15, leaving his old pal and rival RTÉ analyst Tomás Ó Sé out in favour of the man who could entertain Dolly Parton just as easily as Charlie Haughey — uncle Páidí. He also skipped over the eight All-Ireland medals of Pat Spillane — no follower of fashion — for Paul Galvin.
It was all followed by a stomping, man-on-man, thriller of a game which was more suited to high summer in terms of quality. Dublin rolled with the punches and then delivered a couple of swift left hooks of their own, the stunning combination coming from Con O’Callaghan and then Paul Mannion.
Meanwhile, it was as if the Kerry players were under instruction that only a classy, outside-of-the-boot effort would count in terms of points, full-back Jack Sherwood setting a ridiculous standard with the very first score.
Dara Moynihan’s curled right-boot effort on the breeze in front of the main stand just before halftime was another statement of intent from a player, like the
There was an electricity in the air
number 11 Seán O’Shea beside him, who looks born for this sort of stage.
The endgame involved Dublin finding themselves four points and a man down, with four minutes of normal time remaining, before they showed all the character and nerve of champions to reel off four points and draw level.
And still there was one last twist in the tale as corner-back Peter Crowley popped up to fist over the winner — leaving the League and All-Ireland holders beaten but unbowed. The footage of Jim Gavin, serenely picking his way around the scuffle that broke out at the final whistle, illustrated a zen-like level of detachment.
In a post-match interview, freshfaced Moynihan cut to the heart of events, saying how important it was for this Kerry team to give ‘meaning’ to the jersey.
The only thing missing was the voice of the late Weeshie Fogarty to add another layer of context.
Gavin knows all about higher causes or historical forces at play, given everything at stake this season, though he preferred to smile through the post-match press briefing and the consequences of Dublin’s second defeat from three outings in Division 1.
It was tempting to imagine him bumping into Peter Keane in the narrow corridor of the pavilion and throwing out another Bogart line from that classic scene. ‘I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of.’
What is it… about Dublin versus Kerry?