All-Ireland Final Preview

Sam is headed back to Kerry.

It all comes down to this. Dublin. Kerry. 70 minutes for a lifetime of glory. The buzz from Dunquin to Dublin is second to none. The banter and the predictions are everywhere - who's going to stop The Gooch, Cluxton's kickouts will be the difference, Kerry's experience will see them through and on and on. Today is my favourite day of the year.

In All-Ireland Finals, poise and polish win the day and Kerry have both in droves. Kerry have been to the Final in 9 of the past 12 years. They know what it takes.

A Mother's Love...for Tickets

by guest author Maria Shanahan

3 days before the match, Dublin is enjoying its own mini Indian Summer while the rain is threatening ruin on the Listowel Races. My mother is walking around Dun Laoghaire with a Kerry scarf around her neck, a stash of All Ireland tickets in her handbag, and casting furtively suspicious looks at anyone who walks too close to her. You could leave them in your safe at home, I point out helpfully. “They’re safer on me than in the house! What if we got burgled?!”, she scoffs, completely rational.

My formidable mother has hunted and gathered no less than 7 tickets this year, 2011, the Kerry Dublin final for which we anticipated all manner of beg, borrow, stealing and little reward. Now that (mum‘s) hard work is done we can abandon the usual annual anxiety and look forward to the match. A rare luxury for this family, and one that doesn’t sit too well.