Hear about the Kerry legend who was helped by a Cork foe?
KERRY footballers don’t usually get much help from their Cork equivalents, but when the birth of a baby is at stake, sporting rivalries take a back seat.
Triple All-Ireland winner Séamus Scanlon, 38, found himself in the spot of bother when he needed a Garda escort to hospital for his wife for the birth of their second child.
And who should pitch up but one of his old rivals from the Rebel County.
Scanlon, who won All-Irelands with Kerry in 2006, 2007 and 2009, was rushing to Cork University Hospital last week with heavily pregnant wife Oonagh, when he realised he wasn’t going to make it before the baby arrived.
‘It was six o’clock in the morning when Oonagh told me it was time to go,’ he revealed. ‘We live about a 90-minute drive from the hospital and at first, I thought we’d have loads of time, but a short while into the trip, she told me to get a move on. At that stage, I had visions of pulling into the side of the road and delivering the child myself but I decided that wasn’t such a great idea.
‘I reckoned if I called the guards and explained the situation, they’d either give us an escort or if the worst happened, one of them might have a better idea of how to deliver a baby than I would!’
Scanlon called emergency services, and a squad car was sent out from Blarney – and the driver turned out to be an old foe. He said: ‘We followed it all the way in, but when we arrived, I got a fair old shock because when the driver got out, I saw it was James Chambers, the former Cork player who I had played against on numerous occasions.
‘I’m surprised I knew what he looked like, as usually all I saw on the pitch was his back and him going away from me.’
However, Scanlon realised this was not the occasion to catch up on old times. He said: ‘I hadn’t a chance to even say hello to him because we were straight into the delivery suite and baby Evie, all 6lb 9oz of her, arrived within minutes.’
He added: ‘Fair play to the boys, they got us there in double-quick time and it’s the best turn a Cork footballer ever done for me!’