When paying tribute to the late Kevin Heffernan, Colm O’Rourke recounted an anecdote which gave a telling insight into the Dublin manager’s brilliance.

GAA rivalry has long pitted parish against parish and turned county against county, but it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe at the funeral of Dublin football hero Kevin Heffernan.

As Kevin Heffernan’s coffin left the Church of St Vincent de Paul on Dublin’s Griffith Avenue yesterday, a spontaneous applause enveloped the air.